Actions: only include them if the learning matters or the wisdom is worth recording

What a person in an experience actually does at the most tactical, or basic level, be it "pat person on the back" in one scale or "buy small company" in another.

See all entries in actions.

Contextual Actions

Many actions only are available based on context, such as where on a Map (or other
System) one is. And many contexts have to be earned. One can't promote an employee unless one is at the right organization level. One can't open a door unless one is next to it. One can't buy a date dinner unless one is out for dinner.

Cyclical Actions: Like notes of music or words in a sentence

Some actions are cyclical; as with tennis or negotiating or writing. The same finite set of actions is available throughout an experience, and the actions typically have two analogue components, timing and magnitude.

For example, in driving a car, it is not enough to "turn right," but to turn the steering wheel the right amount, and at the right time. Further, drivers will have to "turn right" not once a trip, or ten times, but an almost indefinite amount of times. Likewise, in managing a project, it is not enough to increase the budget, but to increase the budget the right amount, and at the right time. In eating well, it is not enough to eat protein. One has to eat the right amount, and at the right time.

Cyclical actions are effective in contexts of each other and combinations. The collection of actions is ultimately as logical and fluid as collections of words in a sentence, or notes of music in a concerto, and needs as much practice to master. Certain "hard wired" succesful combinations of actions are called combo moves.

Cylical actions themselves tend to be recursive. Further:

• Actions have to, in combination, enable Middle Skills, which then enable Big Skills.
• Actions can be done in the context of activities (the action is the what, the activity is the why), which themselves may be part of a process.
• Actions may get one close to a long range goal via conceptual dead reckoning.

Actions in Learning

A focus on actions is necessary for a formal learning program to change behavior. In a simulation, Actions are accomplished by Basic Inputs. These can include pressing buttons, moving sliders, entering numbers, clicking on a text window or icon, or moving a joystick.

Actions. Some actions impact activities and process, and some actions impact big and middle skills. Some actions impact both simultaneously.

Actions can be abstracted into simple multiple choice choices, such as in this hospital example. But real-world actions are better represented by ten or fifteen options, such as represented in this leadership example.

The granularity and scope of the simulation also determines the granularity of the actions. For a country president, an action might be [to send an assertive letter to another country's leader]. But if the simulation is about the staff writer, an action might be [to start off the letter recalling a shared positive experience].

The presentation and availability of actions through basic inputs can greatly influences the look and functionality of the simulation display. And the right mapping of actions to basic inputs to interface greatly facilitates the transfer of knowledge from the program to the real-world.

The educational challenge of actions is building a new awareness of students’ real-world options. Conquering the actions challenge sometimes means seeing things at a higher level (when I think I am doing x, I really am doing y.). Sometimes it means not allowing students to do things the way they have in the past to break bad habits.

Meanwhile, giving students so many options, dozens at any given time, is unnerving at first, but is necessary to personalize the experience and own the outcome.

The challenge of actions is also the challenge of applying what one learned in the world. Most traditional courses leave the task of applying the material learned for the students to figure out after the class, which means that most do not do it, and the learning is wasted. By forcing the practice of the application of the material to the front of the program, it paves the way for the materials’ productive use after the program.

Research Questions

Question to ask when researching actions are:

• What does an expert actually do all day? What are the discrete activities?
• What are the same collection of options an expert is constantly evaluating? Why do they do one over another?
• How does an expert know if they have done an activity too soft or too hard?

Questions to ponder:

• What does a company's top sales person do when talking to a perspective client?
• What did you CEO or President do at 10:15 today? Why?
• Before and during the battles of America’s Revolutionary War, what were the ten or fifteen options that General George Washington repeatedly considered? What sequence did he do each time, and with what relative intensity?
• Every week, what group of discretionary actions did Joseph Stalin consider while in
  power? Of those choices, which did he take? How did those actions (both considered and taken) shift over his years in power?
• What options did the Ottoman Empire have to deal with its neighbors?

This type of action-content lends itself to a simulation, and drives improvements in active behavior. But it can take many forms, and should be part of any knowledge capture and transfer.

In some ways, actions are the yin to the yang of attribute.