Don't forget the Humans in training

Coming off an insightful week at I/ITSEC, I am excited about the challenges that are ahead of those of us leading the charge as innovators in training and simulation.

In the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world we live in, we must prepare our service members, first responders, and others to operate with confidence and agility as their missions constantly evolve. As no two missions are identical, no two learners respond the identical way to learning events and experiences. Therefore, we can’t expect one-size-fits-all modeling, training, and simulation solutions to produce the outcomes necessary to face dynamic challenges and environments.

I was excited to see so much technology on the I/ITSEC show floor that is addressing the complex challenges we face. Whereas augmented reality was barely a presence last year, I saw headsets throughout the exhibit hall. The realism on display in serious games, virtual reality, and simulation technology is at an all-time high.

These are all positive trends. Those of us with engineering backgrounds tend to get pretty jazzed about technology and the possibilities it offers us. But technology alone cannot ensure the learning outcomes necessary for the U.S. and its allies to maintain dominance. A traditional system of systems approach to training and M&S development often ignores the most important system component: the human.

A holistic approach that considers not just the needs of the organization but the needs of the learners is critical to preparing individuals and teams to succeed at complex operations—all while maintaining composure. The best approach is adaptive to individuals, teams, missions, delivery methods, and budgets. It needs to consider a wide variety of learning styles, adapt to address knowledge gaps for some and to allow others to accelerate and achieve a higher level of mastery. The learner can’t feel like the training is a waste of time or covering old ground or they will tune out.

We have to remember the human in another way. The language of training and even human resources is evolving in such a way that we too often talk about people in machine-like terms. Although we must address human-machine interaction as we develop new training technologies and encounter more complex missions, we have to remember that we are dealing with people.

A holistic approach not only deals with how they learn but how they handle and recover from their missions. It addresses the total person of strong body and mind.

What is your organization doing to make sure that we don’t forget the human in the middle?

Josh Jackson is a senior vice president at SAIC and manager of the Training & Simulation Service Line.

Follow @saicinc and @J_Josh_Jackson on social media.