L&D has long been focused on behavior change. We invest significant time in understanding learning theories with the aim of altering how employees act. But what if that’s the wrong goal?
Carl Binder challenges this traditional view, advocating for a shift towards prioritizing work outputs over behavior. In a recent podcast conversation, we delved into Binder's perspective, exploring why focusing on accomplishments over behaviors can lead to better L&D strategies, and more tangible business results.
Carl explains why this approach is more effective, how L&D teams can correctly identify and measure accomplishments, and what it takes to implement this thinking at scale. He shares practical strategies for redesigning onboarding, leveraging non-training interventions, and aligning managers to focus on performance outcomes rather than just competency models.
This brief recap shares five important takeaways from our discussion, or you can listen to the full conversation below.
1. Focus on outputs first, behavior second
Many of us in learning and development believe we’re in the business of behavior change. We talk about broadly changing behaviors, and spend so much time on understanding how people learn.
This feels natural and worthwhile, but it often lacks the on-the-job context that matters most. As Carl explains, “we should be focusing on the accomplishments, the valuable products, and the behavior. When we know what the behavior is supposed to produce, whether it is a concrete thing, like a widget or a document of some kind or a less concrete thing, like a decision or a relationship, that will guide us to the behavior.”
This approach provides you with a clearer understanding of what employees should be producing, and directly links your L&D efforts to business results.
“Focus on the accomplishments of work outputs,” says Carl. “Things that people actually have to produce in their job environments. And then we use that to extract the behavior either through task analysis, or by observing superstars, who often have little bits of behavior that nobody else uses. It gives a much more concrete, specific, and clearer view that we have got the right behavior, under those conditions, for the situation.”
“Behavior might change, but accomplishments are typically more stable. Focusing on accomplishments liberates behavior.”
2. Use process and performance maps to help
Orienting around specific outputs can make life harder in the short term. It’s challenging work, and a real departure from what so many are focused on today.
Carl suggests using two tools to identify the actions we want to see and influence:
- Process maps: “If you look at anybody functioning in an organization, usually we are performing in the context of some process. So if that’s the case, we can define the steps in the process and then define the outputs of each step.”
- Individual performance maps: “Put the performer in the middle and talk about who their customers are, or who they deliver value to. Then you have a conversation about what you deliver to your manager, your peers, the VP of sales, whomever. Do that with a few people and extract what is common across that role, and you identify those outputs.”
These tools provide you with a structured way to analyze roles and processes, making it easier for you to pinpoint what success looks like and design interventions accordingly. And you’ll be able to highlight certain behaviors that high performers employ, but still with an emphasis on outputs and accomplishments.
“One of the beauties of accomplishments is that behavior might change, but accomplishments are typically more stable. Focusing on accomplishments liberates behavior.”
3. Connect accomplishments to business results
The next progression is to identify outputs or accomplishments that actually matter to the business. These are the results that help you reach your most pressing organizational goals.
These are obviously more important, more relevant to employees’ work. You’re therefore more likely to get buy-in for your programs from the executive level, but it’s also easier to engage employees and keep them committed to improving.
“If somebody comes to us with a request or an opportunity to help, first of all, we want to know what’s at stake for the organization—what the business results are. Then what is the performance we’re talking about? It might be the performance in a process. It might be a customer service representative’s performance, or sales performance. Then we can actually derive the real behavior needed to produce that.”
Not only is this more specific and relevant to the organization, it can have a positive impact on employee motivation. Individuals tend to thrive on autonomy. Rather than being told how to behave, they’re guided by what the accomplishments or outcomes should be.
Related: Accomplishment-based L&D: An Expert Interview with Carl Binder
“It’s challenging to give people feedback around their behavior. But if you or the performer knows what the behavior is supposed to produce, it becomes easier to set expectations and to provide feedback.”
4. Consider more than training to improve performance
Many L&D leaders don't want to engage in performance conversations, because often what’s required for improvement isn't a learning need. But when you actually find out all the factors impacting employee performance, you’ll know how to make an impact.
This is why Carl recommends the “Six Boxes” model, a framework I love and recommend frequently. The model identifies six requirements for performance improvement: expectations and feedback, tools and resources, consequences and incentives, skills and knowledge, selection and assignment, and motives and preferences.
“We use that framework when we're bringing people on board to some new skill. We want to be sure that the other stuff—expectations, feedback, tools and resources and consequences—are in place. That makes it much more likely that new behavior will be applied on the job.”
Quite often, the best route to performance is by improving other factors, rather than delivering training. “Sometimes you can build skills and knowledge by giving people a job aid, and just setting expectations and providing feedback. They don't have to get off the job and go to a training program.”
Carl also gives the example of the tools and software used in a given role. If the tools are cumbersome or ineffective, it’s far more impactful to fix this issue than to try to build skills around it.
5. Build better partnerships
A key challenge of having impact beyond training is that many of those other factors seem out of scope for L&D. But a core part of the Six Boxes methodology is the discussion with other leaders, and working together to improve employee performance.
Every L&D leader knows that great stakeholder partnerships are essential. “How are you going to partner with the managers, the supervisors, the people who control those other variables? One way is to say, ‘we just do skills and knowledge, we'll just do training.’ But a much better way is to sit down and figure this out.
“I've done a lot of work with sales. When we were doing fluent product knowledge, we would ask managers to incorporate some questions in their weekly check-ins with their sales reps. We would give them a cheat sheet with three or four starter questions with a little bit of background. They could begin a conversation with their reps, and then it would take on a life of its own.
“Sometimes you need to empower managers and leaders to do their part. But once they're enabled to do it, usually they're happy with it because it becomes part of how they manage people.”
“Empower managers and leaders to do their part. Once they're enabled to do it, usually they're happy with it because it becomes part of how they manage people.”
About Carl Binder
Carl Binder is a leading expert in performance improvement and the founder of The Performance Thinking Network. With a background in behavioural psychology and decades of experience in organisational learning, he has helped businesses worldwide shift their focus from behaviour change to measurable work accomplishments.
Carl has applied behavioural science to real-world business challenges, developing practical frameworks for performance mapping, onboarding, and enterprise-wide capability building. His work empowers L&D and business leaders to drive tangible results by focusing on what truly matters—performance outcomes.
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