Killing the Onboarding Marathon: A Lean Pivot to Workflow Performance Support

We were faced with a classic high-stakes mandate: drastically reduce the "screen time" and course load of our existing onboarding program without sacrificing time-to-proficiency. The business wanted new hires in the workflow faster, but my own team was anchored in traditional, content-heavy onboarding models. The real challenge wasn't just the design—it was the internal "identity crisis" of shifting an L&D team from being "content creators" to "performance architects" who trust microlearning and nudges over 60-minute modules.

This session shares the "behind-the-scenes" journey of how we dismantled a bloated onboarding curriculum and replaced it with a layered ecosystem of microlearning and just-in-time performance support. I’ll break down the specific "Lean" framework we used to audit existing content, identify what actually belonged in the workflow, and how we mapped performance support to the moments of need that matter most for a new hire.

As a Practice in Action session, I will lead an open-book "Post-Mortem" of our project:

• The Conflict Map: I’ll share the specific points of resistance we hit within the team and how we coached our designers through the fear of "not teaching enough."
• Artifact Gallery: I will show "Before and After" snapshots of our onboarding journey, including the performance support tools that replaced traditional courses.
• Collective Reflection: We will engage in a facilitated discussion where attendees share their own "bloated" programs and we brainstorm how to apply a "Workflow-First" filter to them in real-time.

Learning Objectives & Takeaways

1. The "Subtraction" Framework: Learn how to audit a curriculum to determine what stays in a classroom and what moves into the workflow.
2. Leading a Mindset Shift: Gain strategies for coaching L&D teams through the transition from instructional design to performance engineering.
3. Designing for the "Moment of Need": Identify the three types of performance support that effectively replace traditional seat time in an onboarding context.