Define performance
Agree what people, teams or the organisation need to do better, and why it matters.
Key questionWhat should be different in the real work?
← Back to learning strategy and design
Systems Approach to Training
A disciplined route from performance need to measurable improvement.
SAT helps organisations avoid jumping straight to a course. It starts with the required performance, examines the whole working system, designs the right response and keeps evaluation and improvement active throughout.
Performance-ledIterativeEvidence-based
SAT is not a grand name for producing more training paperwork. It is a way to make sure the solution is needed, usable, supported and capable of improving performance.
The approach is grounded in the same disciplined logic associated with ADDIE, while making the wider system, assurance, feedback and continuous improvement more visible. It recognises that learning succeeds or fails in the workplace, not in the course catalogue.
This page is a practical web adaptation of the approach discussed in my book. It is not an official Ministry of Defence or JSP 822 diagram.
The practical cycle
Six connected decisions, not six isolated boxes.
Each stage informs the others. New evidence can send the work backwards, forwards or around the cycle again.
Analyse
Examine tasks, audience, standards, current capability, working conditions and the barriers to performance.
Key questionIs the gap really caused by knowledge or skill?
Design
Set clear outcomes, practice, assessment, accessibility and the route from learning to application.
Key questionWhat must learners be able to demonstrate?
Develop and prepare
Build and test resources, prepare facilitators and managers, and make the learning environment ready.
Key questionWhat has to be in place before delivery?
Deliver and reinforce
Create practice, feedback and support during delivery, then reinforce application through the workplace.
Key questionWhat will help the new behaviour survive?
Evaluate and improve
Use learner, manager and operational evidence to assure quality, improve the response and challenge weak assumptions.
Key questionWhat evidence shows that performance improved?
Why use a systems approach?
Because a well-delivered course can still solve the wrong problem.
It challenges the request
“We need training” becomes a starting hypothesis, not a pre-agreed answer.
It includes the workplace
Process, tools, workload, manager behaviour and reinforcement are considered alongside learning.
It designs for transfer
Practice, job aids, feedback and first application are planned rather than left to chance.
It makes evidence useful
Evaluation is used to improve decisions, not simply to decorate a report with attendance figures.
Practical example
A mandatory course has high completion, but errors continue.
The course-first response is to send everyone through the module again. A systems approach pauses and examines the evidence.
1
Performance: Which errors continue, where and with what consequence?
2
Analysis: Is the cause recall, a confusing form, workflow design, poor access or lack of manager reinforcement?
3
Response: Combine targeted learning with prompts, a job aid, manager briefing and workflow improvement.
4
Evidence: Track fewer repeat errors, correct application and confidence at the point of work.
Course-first thinking
Repeat the module
- High completion is treated as success
- The same content is sent again
- Workplace barriers stay untouched
- Errors are likely to continue
→
Systems thinking
Fix the performance system
- Use evidence to find the real barrier
- Target only the learning that is needed
- Improve support and workflow
- Measure changed performance
A method from my book
Use SAT as a conversation, not a bureaucracy.
Making Sense of Organisational Development and Learning connects learning decisions with systems, capability and impact.
The value of SAT is the discipline of asking the right questions in the right order. The level of documentation should be proportionate to the risk, scale and complexity of the work.
Start with the performance requirement. Keep testing the system. Improve what the evidence tells you to improve.
Sample tool
The SAT request check
- RequirementWhat performance or organisational result is required?
- EvidenceWhat tells us there is a gap, and how reliable is that evidence?
- CauseWhich barriers are learning issues and which belong elsewhere?
- ApplicationWhat must happen in the workplace before, during and after learning?
- AssuranceHow will quality, safety, consistency and accessibility be checked?
- ImprovementWhat evidence will trigger revision, reinforcement or a different solution?
Practical challenge
Could you explain the performance problem without using the word “training”?
Experience behind the method
Structured training practice, adapted for modern organisations.
My foundations in systems-based training were developed through British Army leadership and training roles, including work aligned with Defence Systems Approach to Training principles.
I have since applied the same disciplined habits across global financial services, operational environments and local government: diagnose before designing, connect learning to performance, assure quality and keep improving.
Where I can help
- Review an existing programme or learning pathway
- Diagnose a performance or capability gap
- Create a proportionate SAT-based design standard
- Build evaluation and assurance into delivery
- Coach L&D teams and subject experts through the method
Start a conversation
Do you have a training request that needs a better diagnosis?
Tell me what has been requested, what needs to improve and what evidence you already have. I can help you work through the problem before time and budget are committed to the wrong answer.
Send an enquiry through the websitemartin.furminger@hotmail.com