Most learning teams still reach for a course when performance dips. The better question is what is happening in the work, and what support would help at that moment.
Five Performance Moments is our model for answering it. It separates five conditions: preparing, practising, performing live, recovering from problems and evolving as work changes.
The model fits where corporate learning is heading. The Josh Bersin Company's 2026 guide describes a shift "from static training to dynamic enablement".
The evidence behind it
Baldwin and Ford showed learning adds value only when it transfers to work and lasts. Salas and colleagues found that what happens before and after training matters as much as the session.
Kauffeld and colleagues' 2025 review also stresses how organisations can support transfer at work.
The rule is simple. Some gaps call for teaching. Others need rehearsal, prompts, troubleshooting tools or manager support.
The five moments
1. Prepare
People are about to start something new or important. They need purpose, standards, sequence and a clear picture of good.
Best fit: worked examples, demonstrations, quick-start guides and expectation conversations with their manager.
Poor fit: long reference manuals and generic inspiration sessions.
2. Practise
People know the basics but are not yet fluent. Ericsson's research shows improvement comes from focused practice on specific parts of a task, with feedback and repetition.
Best fit: role play, simulation, peer rehearsal, coached practice and feedback rubrics.
Poor fit: more content with no rehearsal, or assessment with no feedback.
3. Perform
People are doing the work live. Time pressure, interruptions and memory load make mistakes likely.
Best fit: checklists, templates, decision aids, prompt cards and guidance built into tools, including AI assistants grounded in trusted sources.
Poor fit: sending people back to a course, or handbooks that are hard to search.
4. Recover
Something has gone wrong. People need fast diagnosis and correction.
Best fit: troubleshooting guides, diagnostic trees, clear escalation routes and communities of practice.
Poor fit: broad refresher training or static manuals with no diagnostic logic.
5. Evolve
The work has changed through new technology, restructuring or regulation. People need to know what is different and what stays the same.
Best fit: what-changed briefs, before-and-after comparisons, short refreshers and manager cascade packs.
Poor fit: rerunning the whole programme, or messages that explain why without explaining what to do.
Build this capability in your organisation
Growth Performance designs bespoke programmes that turn insight into measurable behaviour change.
Choosing the moment
- Lack of understanding: start with Prepare.
- Weak fluency or confidence: move to Practise.
- Knows what to do but struggles live: design for Perform.
- Errors and exceptions: design for Recover.
- The task or system has changed: design for Evolve.
Many challenges span several moments. A new performance process might need a briefing, rehearsal conversations, check-in templates, a questions tool and a monthly update.
Where AI changes the picture
AI now sits inside the Perform and Recover moments. Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index found 86% of AI users treat its output as a starting point.
That makes checking a performance skill. Design prompts and checklists that show people when to verify AI output, as well as how to use it.
Evolve is busier too. As tools change month by month, short what-changed support matters more than annual courses. Staying ready as tools keep changing is Acceleration.
Common mistakes
Treating every gap as a content gap. This produces heavy courses and thin workflow support.
Investing in Prepare and neglecting Perform. Many programmes explain well but support execution badly.
Confusing information with practice. Fluency needs rehearsal and feedback.
Neglecting Recover. Weak troubleshooting means paying twice: once for the error, again for the slow fix.
Treating change as communication only. People adapt when expectations, tools, prompts and manager follow-up all point the same way.
Try this
Map your current learning provision to the five moments. Check whether it leans towards Prepare and leaves Perform and Recover thin.
In your next scoping conversation, ask one question: what is getting in the way of performance at this moment? To review your wider approach, try the learning design diagnostic.