This reflection is about Antonio Cortes’ webinar.
As part of the EDCI 528 course, Human Performance Technology, attending webinars with practicing HPTs is included within the course design. One such speaker was Antonio Cortes. Antonio currently works for the firm NonProfit HR. NonProfit HR is a firm that works nationally with nonprofit organizations, either as a consultant or as HR. NonProfit HR has six main domain areas that are offered to clients: Strategy and Advisory, HR Outsourcing, Search and Impact, Social Enterprise, and lastly, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice.
Antonio chronicled his academic and professional journey and how it helped him secure his role as the Managing Director for the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice team (EDI). The EDI team is a 9-person team with diverse academic and professional backgrounds. They work closely as a team to meet client needs. The EDI team was founded in August 2020 as the need for EDI consulting or education had drastically increased due to the pandemic. There are four areas that clients can receive consultation with: Equity Assessments and Strategy Design, EDI Training, EDI Strategic Advisory, and Interim Equity Officer/EDI Outsourcing. Antonio explained how engagements with clients usually are longer in nature but can also be only for certain segments. They often start with an analysis of client needs. Afterward, they develop an action plan. Should clients need EDI training, it can also be offered. All training is customized to the client’s needs. Finally, NonProfit HR can even work as an Equity Officer for the client.
My takeaways:
Having very limited knowledge about Human Performance Technology, I had many ”aha moments”. First, I realized that working systematically was important in this field as well. Antonio clarified how important using methodical and data-driven practices are within the performance improvement field. This systematic approach was quite similar to my field of study, Instructional Design.
Another takeaway I had was something that Antonio said. He said that a driving statement he has when developing performance improvements is, ”What makes the most sense for the people we are trying to have an impact on.” I have a statement similar to this as I develop and design instruction. I design instruction from a learner-centered perspective and bring up the learners’ needs and perspective when meeting subject matter experts (SMEs).
Personal reflections/impact:
Listening to Antonio describe his work within Human Performance Technology gave me a clearer understanding of the field. Throughout my graduate studies, I have only considered instructional design as a future career. However, thanks to Antonio’s presentation, HPT and working with clients to improve performance using varying interventions is definitely an area that I would be interested in learning about.
