As someone who has been in the training and professional development field for quite a long time I think this article is gold.
Cathy Moore has a knack for clearly and succinctly explaining the common sense aspects of training that text books often gloss over.
3 ways to save gobs of time when designing training
My favorite is – Don’t design training
“Does the client just want everyone to be “aware” of the hamster sharing policy? If so, your best bet might be to send everyone a link to the policy with the message, “Read this policy, and share hamsters according to its rules.”
In my experience, a short ‘pictures and arrows’ guide, or screen capture video will do the job for most people. The rest (the strugglers and more advanced) I work with one on one. It’s a much better use of my time and much more effective.
The other two ways to save time are, one, drilling down to the actual problem and just targeting that, and two, look for the simplest effective way to do the job, don’t get sucked into the media and technology.
I remember one of my Instructional Design lecturers telling me (in the 90’s) if a pencil can do the job, why wouldn’t you use a pencil.
Anyway go and read it for yourself.
http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2014/09/3-ways-to-save-gobs-of-time-when-designing-training/