Totara Perform Open Discussions

Objectives

 
Rebecca Hunter
Objectives
by Rebecca Hunter - Monday, 14 February 2022, 6:19 AM
 

Good afternoon


I am currently working through how to move from legacy appraisals to perform and one of the things I am hoping to find a solution to is to be able to set objectives during a performance activity. Is there any plan to include this as a feature?


Many thanks


Becki.

Phil Williscroft
Re: Objectives
by Phil Williscroft - Thursday, 10 March 2022, 7:05 PM
 

Hi Becki.

To introduce myself I'm the Talent Experience (Perform) Product Manager.

Firstly to clarify.

I assume when you say 'Objectives' you mean Objectives in Learning Plans?

Assuming that.  The intent to Objectives vs Goals in Learning Plans was to separate Learning Objectives from achievement Goals.  Functionally they (broadly) act as analogs.

Learning objectives are not (thus far) replicated in Perform.

Using Goals to manage Learning Objectives

See https://help.totaralearning.com/display/TH15/Goals

I see no reason why a Goal Type of 'Learning'.  If you continue using Learning Plans You can link Goals in the same way that you would an Objective.

This will make your 'Learning Goals' available to the Goals review question type in performance activities.

Performance Activity Goal Review question type

Goals are able to be reviewed and the Goal's status can be set as part of the Goal review question element.  https://help.totaralearning.com/display/TH15/Adding+review+item+question+type.

This doesn't support modifying the Goal's description in the review.  nor does it support the creation of new Goals from within the performance activity.  These 2 actions require that you edit the Goals itself.

One other advantage of using Goals is that unlike objectives a single common goal can be assigned to many learners.

Roadmap for v17/18 in this regard.

All the underlying features in this area are due for replacement.  I stress at the moment these are my views, these ideas require validation with our user community to determine priority for what we should deliver first.  Regardless, in my order of priority

  1. The ability to manage Goals within a performance activity
    Clearly its desirable to be able to both review and re-set Goals within a review process that is managed in a performance activity.
    We demoed design to deliver this late last year.
  2. Goals re-design
    The current Goals solution in Totara is missing some of the features expected in a modern Goals solution and the current user experience could be modernised.
  3. Learning Plans reimagined as 'My learning Development Plan'
    Learning Plans in pre v13 versions were the mechanism by which Learning, Competency, Goals and (Learning) Objectives could be linked to a learner.  In Post v13 TXP version this has largely been replaced by the assignment system.  What remains (in my view) in the notion of a learning development plan. 
    I think we can turn the current concept on its head and instead of saying "you can link your (learning) work into a plan" we can say "you have been assigned learning work, lets set learning Goals for how you will achieve your learning and Competency into a Learning Development Plan"

Well that's my thoughts.  I hope that was helpful to set some context of where I think we are/need to be

Have a look at the review question in performance activities.   If you have questions don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks

Phil

Rebecca Hunter
Re: Objectives
by Rebecca Hunter - Thursday, 17 March 2022, 10:53 AM
 

Hi Phil


Thanks for your notes above, all very useful. 


The thing I struggle with t the moment is the ability to create activities for users to complete that are specific to them and often repeating. I have looked at using performance activities and goals and I think this does actually work, my big ask here would be a question type within the performance activity that was a configurable table so users could log actions over a period of say a month and then submit once done (currently thins is done outside of the system on a spreadsheet).

I like all of your points on future developments and bringing in more review options would be brilliant.

Thanks again

Becki.


Phil Williscroft
Re: Objectives
by Phil Williscroft - Thursday, 17 March 2022, 2:12 PM
 

HI Becki.

I'd like to explore these ideas some more.  

The thing I struggle with at the moment is the ability to create activities for users to complete that are specific to them and often repeating

Activity Assignment
Perform uses the user group hierarchies (positions and organisations) and the audience system to assign activities.  Audiences has the advantage that you can define your own rules to define dynamic audiences, so users can come and go from the audience (and thus are assigned an activity) without admin intervention. 

Repeating activities

you can configure a wide variety of ways to repeat an activity based on variety of triggers.  user is created, user enters audience, previous activity is complete etc.  We're also adding previous activity closes as a trigger for v16.  See https://help.totaralearning.com/display/TH15/Creating+performance+activities

my big ask here would be a question type within the performance activity that was a configurable table so users could log actions over a period of say a month and then submit once done (currently thins is done outside of the system on a spreadsheet).

Are you talking about retaining an asynchronous conversation?  Assuming this we think what would be ideal is the ability to record the subject and the say manager having a conversation (about e.g. 'my Goals') that then culminates in some outcome (the Goal is updated or completed etc) at the end of the review period? 

This is typically handled with an conversation thread.  Something we have developed for another product that I'm considering for performance activites.

Another good option for your conversation is Engage.  Setting up a workspace to hold the conversation.

Create a Private Workspace

A great example of an activity thread can be seen on Trello.

The question here is what information you want to retain as data to be used formally.  If you want to simply record the conversation, then document the outcome (say within the Goal) then this will work (if we add this feature).  If you want to retain more of the conversation as structured data, that'll require someone to transport/translate the 'outcome of the conversation' into formal content.  

I'd suggest that 'conversations that matter' are at the heart of performance management, so this in many ways is the point of all of this.