Choose the right support for the right moment at work. Use this reference to diagnose performance challenges and select the most effective intervention.
| Moment | What is happening | Best-fit support | Poor-fit support |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Prepare | People need clarity, orientation, and confidence to begin well. | Briefings, demonstrations, worked examples, quick-start guides, role clarity sheets | Large reference manuals, generic inspiration sessions, long e-learning with weak examples |
| 2. Practise | People know the basics but are not yet fluent or consistent. | Role play, simulation, peer rehearsal, coached practice, feedback rubrics | More content without practice, one-off workshops with no rehearsal, assessment without feedback |
| 3. Perform | People are doing the work live and need support in the flow of work. | Checklists, conversation guides, decision aids, templates, prompt cards, embedded guidance | Sending people back to a course, dense knowledge repositories with weak findability |
| 4. Recover | A problem or exception has appeared and fast correction is needed. | Troubleshooting guides, diagnostic trees, FAQs, escalation routes, error recovery playbooks | Broad conceptual refresher training, large static manuals with no diagnostic logic |
| 5. Evolve | The work has changed and people must adapt to new expectations. | What-changed briefs, before-and-after comparisons, microlearning, manager cascade packs | Re-running the whole programme, communications that explain rationale but not behaviour |
Based on: Baldwin & Ford (1988); Billett (2001); Rossett & Schafer (2006); Salas et al. (2012); Kauffeld, Decius & Grassmann (2025).