Performance Matters | A 5 Moments of Need® Podcast Series Performance First, Always: Joe Dunlap on Driving Real Business Value
Feb 9, 2026
Joe Dunlap, a 25+ year L&D practitioner who leads continuous learning and performance improvement. He talks about shifting from formal training to performance consulting. He outlines four performance roles and how to embed support directly in workflows. He also discusses pragmatic AI use after building a performance architecture.
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25-Year Shift To Performance Focus
- Joe Dunlap described his 25-year journey from instructional designer to head of continuous learning and performance improvement.
- He credited the Five Moments of Need with shifting focus from formal training to performance architecture.
Few Organizations Have Performance Architecture
- Joe observed that many L&D teams assume learning automatically improves performance despite research to the contrary.
- He found under 5% of organizations have a defined performance architecture linking workflows and metrics.
Create Four Core Performance Roles
- Define roles: performance consultant, workflow designer, capability performance coach, and data/quality lead to structure performance work.
- Use those roles to diagnose performance, map workflows, support coaches, and keep metrics honest.