The Five Moments of Learning Need model describes five moments where employees need support for their role-based learning. Authors Bob Mosher & Conrad Gottfredson developed the model as a learning strategy to sustain effective employee performance. Therefore, supporting these events of role-based learning enhances employees’ ability to share, review, and use the necessary knowledge to be proficient in their roles.

Organizational knowledge systems are a support resource for the task details that are necessary for employee roles. It provides a platform where employees can interact with role-based knowledge to satisfy the specific needs defined by the learning moments. Below is a review of how administering an organizational knowledge system can support the five moments of learning need.

1. First Time Learning 

First time learning moments is when employees get introduced to pre-existing practices for performing their job tasks. Onboarding is a typical example of a first time leaning. The first-time exposures provide employees a start to the learning process. Employees may still need additional learning moments to become proficient in performing their job tasks. 

Organizational knowledge supports first time learning with a platform to introduce employees to the instruction details necessary for their duties. The first-time moments also show employees how to used the support resource to review the task knowledge for future learning.

2. Expanding Learning

Expanding learning moments involve employees enhancing knowledge content by developing or improving the standard practices for job tasks. Although being involved with developing new knowledge does provide the employees with an intense learning experience, the expanded information is still in a fragile, isolated state. Employees need to take steps not to lose this knowledge and make it available for future learning.  

Organizational knowledge systems support expanding learning by providing a method for employees to preserve this new knowledge. The systems have a platform where the employees can use their current information as a basis to support both developing and sharing the changes. With organizational knowledge systems, the expanded improvements are made available as a support resource for future learning.

3. Problem Solving Learning

Problem-solving moments are when employees generate solutions to unintended problems that are outside of the standard process conditions. These problem-solving solutions are additional details to learn on top of the core role-based knowledge. Problem-solving is similar to expanding moments in that solution knowledge is fragile and needs to be recorded and made available as a support resource for future learning. 

Organizational knowledge systems provide branching logic where the solutions to problems are attached to the core job task instructions as a branch. Using branching separates and organized the knowledge by process conditions. With branching, employees can follow the core instructions during the standard process of routine tasks, and only review and apply the branch instructions when they encounter the problem conditions.

4. Change Learning

With change learning moments, employees focus their learning on just the modifications implemented during expanded or problem-solving moments. Change learning moments are quick informative sessions that keep employees up-to-date with modified portions of their job tasks. The learning moments provide an introduction to the modification to improve employees’ awareness of role-based changes. Like the other learning moments, employees may still need future learning to become proficient in performing the change portions. 

Organizational knowledge systems address change learning moments by notifying and informing employees about the changes. For reviewing the changes, the modified portions of the instructions get marked for easy identification.  They are also accompanied by change notes to explain the reason for the modification. Like first-time moments the notifications also identify the locations of the changes to support employees with future learning.

5. Apply Learning 

Apply learning moments are the on-the-job learning events where the employees are productive while they are still learning the job knowledge.  The moments of apply learning are the most significant of the five moments since they complete the learning processes started by the other four. It represents the final moment where employees need and use knowledge from the first four learning moments to perform their business operations.

Organizational knowledge systems aid apply learning by providing quick, just-in-time access to job task instructions through the use of performance support portals. While employees are performing their jobs, they can retrieve answers to job questions within a couple of seconds.

Moments of Learning Summary

The five moments of learning need are interdependent, and sometimes overlapping activities that chart the employees’ journey to becoming proficient with their roles. Organizational knowledge is the compass employees follow on the journey to master the knowledge for job success. It provides the employees with a support tool to improve, review, and use role-based knowledge as they journey through their learning moment activities.

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