Corporate Workshop for Pandemic Resilience
Business continuity following natural or man-made disasters is a common concern for organizations of all sizes and sectors. Businesses with the resources and foresight to plan for such events typically create Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans prior to the occurrence. The COOP plan outlines a response and mitigation strategy that maintains the company’s financial and quality standards despite a diminished workforce and/or compromised worksite. Most COOP plans are designed as "all-hazards" plans, meaning they are scalable to different sized emergencies and can be applied to a variety of contexts.
Typically, even an all-hazards plan fails to address the unique concerns of a widespread infectious disease outbreak such as pandemic influenza, which could deplete an organization's workforce to less than 60%. I designed this workshop to walk learners from small to mid-size corporations through the development of a Pandemic Influenza Annex to include in their existing COOP plans.
Comprehensive instructional analysis
I used the Dick and Carey (2015) model to create the Pandemic Influenza Workshop in a purposeful and systematic way. My initial analysis was multifaceted, involving a deep dive into the goals, objectives, and target audience. I used that information to inform my instructional and assessment strategies, careful to connect every single assessment item--every bullet on a slide!--back to the goals of the course.
This was the first time I used a formalized version of goal diagramming in my analysis phase. Obviously I have written countless goals and objectives over the years (and I can write some damn good objectives if I do say so myself!), but never before had I paid quite so much attention to the precision of my language and the relationships between the concepts.
Interested to see all of the planning that goes into a "simple" workshop? Check out my design notes.
For more on goal analysis I can't recommend Mager's book highly enough.
Template with built-in guidance
The workshop was designed to be fast and focused. Running just under three hours, it maximizes the productivity of the participants' time by completing almost the entire Annex before the workshop adjourns.
To accommodate this pace I developed an instructional template. The template itself is so detailed it could be filled in without attending the workshop (though you'd miss out on the collaboration and instructor's expertise, of course). Take a look at the template or use it for your own organization.
It is crucial to be deliberate in the planning stages of every project. Spending ample time finding clarity on your goals and objectives will undoubtedly improve the quality of your content. Especially when designing corporate training, it is crucial to remember that time is money for your audience. The more details you flesh out upfront, the more contingencies you plan for, the more you get in your learner's head, the tighter your instructional strategy will be. Your audience will thank you.