“Demonstrates professionalism” is not an indicator — The Skill Lab #8
A line like “demonstrates professionalism” asks the assessor for a verdict, not an observation – and verdicts change with the assessor. Here is what an indicator is actually for, why our skill sheets fill up with conclusions, and how to convert them into facts two assessors can agree on.
Read articleValidity and reliability: two words every skill assessor must know — The Skill Lab #7
An unreliable assessment cannot be valid — yet reliability is the more neglected of the two. Here is what both terms mean, why reliability hides on paper, and why it is the more fixable of the pair.
Read articleWe asked assessors whether they trust their own results. Here is what they said. — The Skill Lab #6
We put a direct question to experienced assessors at a professional naval training organization: do you trust your own assessment results? Fewer than half did. Here is what they told us, why paper is to blame, and what to do about it.
Read articleWould you even know? The question most training programs can't answer — and how to fix it — The Skill Lab #5
If your training weren't working as well as it could, would you even know? For most organizations the honest answer is no — because the data that holds the answers is thrown away the moment it's created. Here is how to keep it, and why it compounds.
Read articleWhy two assessors watching the same performance give different scores — and what to do about it — The Skill Lab #4
Inter-rater reliability is the unglamorous problem at the heart of skill assessment, and almost no one talks about it openly. Here is what it is, why an assessment that changes with the assessor isn't really an assessment at all, and the four levers that actually move it.
Read articleFlying blind: the hidden cost of not measuring skills — The Skill Lab #3
Somewhere in your organization right now, a skill gap exists that you do not know about. Aviation, surgery, and baseball all solved this problem the same way — by measuring what was actually happening. Here is what that means for your organization.
Read articleWhy training records often fail under a tracer audit: three common documentation gaps — The Skill Lab #2
When a surveyor asks how you know a specific staff member was competent on a specific task, training-completion records often cannot answer. Three documentation gaps explain why — and what closes them.
Read articleThe most valuable minutes in skill training are the ones most organizations waste — The Skill Lab #1
Feedback works best while the experience is still fresh. Yet in many organizations, the debrief immediately after a performance assessment is delayed, abbreviated, or skipped entirely — usually because of process friction. Here is why those few minutes matter so much, and what changes when the friction is removed.
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