Performance Technology: The Integrator
by Roger M. Addison, CPT, EdD

A Problem
Today, most organizations embrace the value of improving the performance of their employees and have made investments in specialists and materials to realize better results. Such performance improvement efforts may take many different approaches within a single organization and are usually conceived and implemented in splendid isolation. Unfortunately, when these initiatives are not integrated into the enterprise’s total performance system, the outcome is general confusion and diluted achievements for the affected workforce and the organization.

Organizations would be well served by an integrative approach that could unite a variety of performance improvement initiatives by showcasing their commonalities and applying them across the three levels of the organization: worker, work, and workplace.

A Proposal
Performance Technology (PT) is such an integrative approach. It is a powerful systematic process that can help integrate performance improvement initiatives at all three organizational levels. PT links business, education, and government goals and strategies to workforce responsibilities for achieving results. PT enables the identification of opportunities and analyzes performance problems. PT helps design systems that enable people to do their best work, producing results that are valuable to the organization. 

PT can support individuals, teams, organizations, and society by cost effectively increasing the value of results they produce. PT methodologies and applications are numerous and varied; however, all are focused on the same fundamental principles, RSVP-Plus.

• Results focused: start with the end in mind
• Systemic: take a systems viewpoint
• Value added: focus on what matters to the enterprise
• Partner: with clients and other performance professionals
• Plus: the added objectivity of solution-independent analyses

The power of PT resides in the performance improvement professionals who use the many models, tools, and techniques to align activities among:

• The workers—individuals and teams
• The work, activities, processes, and operations
• The workplace, organization, and enterprise
• Society

A PT Professional’s Profile
Rather than defining ourselves by the solutions we develop or recommend, performance technology professionals take a comprehensive systems view of performance. We focus on the alignment of an organization’s total performance system. This includes the:

• Environment
• Culture
• Inputs
• Processes
• Outputs
• Feedback
• Consequences
• Stakeholders

Performance technology professionals apply a systematic approach by determining the need or opportunity; defining the requirements; determining the performance gaps, causes, and drivers; designing and developing solutions; implementing and evaluating results for continuous improvement; and embedding PT in the organization to produce sustainable results. 

The PT methodologies and applications we use are numerous and varied. However, all contribute to the accomplishment of one or more of the following:

• Value Identified: Clarify the problem, issue, or opportunity.
• Outcomes Defined: Specify the requirements to close the business gap between existing and desired results, and create value.
• Performance Analyzed: Identify the factors in the performance system that can influence the production of outcomes to meet requirements.
• Solution Selected: Identify and select from a range of possible PT applications that best meet the requirements, given the information about outcomes and performance.
• Solution Designed and Developed: Plan and build solution and materials including decisions about what it will take to cost effectively implement the solution and match culture requirements.
• Solution Deployed: Execute the design to meet requirements.
• Solution Evaluated: Measure results to determine how well the requirements were met and what might be required to further improve results.
• Performance Technology Embedded: Increase the sustainability of performance-based solutions in the enterprise.

The Integrator
The competing performance improvement models, tools, and techniques used today range from organization development to Six Sigma to human resource development. Each approach to improving performance has its own models, language, and tools and is often deployed in just one part of the organization. To add to the confusion and lack of communication, each area may report to a different executive.

Nevertheless, as we have seen, these methodologies have more commonalities than they have differences. And the differences are in the terminology used and perhaps in organizational focus. With our sights clearly fixed on proven sustained results, PT methods, tools, and techniques can be used to integrate performance improvement initiatives across the organization. The power of PT is not in emphasizing the means but rather the ends. The integration of the worker, work, and workplace is the key to improved organizational performance.

Roger M. Addison, CPT, EdD, is an ISPI Senior Director and internationally respected practitioner of performance technology. He is a past president of ISPI, past Chair of the Board and President of IFTDO. Roger has received ISPI’s awards for Service, Organization of the Year, and Outstanding Product. In 1998, he received ISPI’s highest award, Member for Life. Roger has worked and presented in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He may be reached at roger@ispi.org.

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TrendSpotters: Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning
by Carol Haig, CPT, and Roger Addison, CPT, EdD

Our guest this month is Cal Wick, wick@forthillcompany.com, a leading consultant and researcher in organizational learning and leadership development. Cal is founder and CEO of the Fort Hill Company, an organization that provides the tools, know-how, and support services to ensure that strategic, business, and learning objectives are converted into business results. We are pleased to add Cal’s Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning model (6Ds™) to the TrendSpotters Open Toolkit and to share it with you.

Genesis of This Model
In 1999 when Cal asked two of his major clients what business results were achieved as a result of a leadership development program he delivered, he learned that only 15% of the program’s participants actually applied what they learned and achieved results. Determined to find a way to ensure transfer of training to produce business results and increase that percentage, Cal extensively researched the delivery of the course, checking such variables as individual classes, instructors, participant characteristics, and so forth. After developing several tools, such as Friday 5s™, that helped program participants increase their results, and continuing his investigation, Cal determined that learning programs that produce business results commence long before delivery and conclude well beyond the close of formal training. To capture the characteristics of such high-impact programs and guide their development, Cal identified the six disciplines critical for success and expressed them in the 6Ds™.

Model Description
The 6Ds™ helps organizations identify the best opportunities to increase the value of learning and development and to implement practical, high-impact solutions. Use the six dimensions to evaluate a current program or to build a new one:

The 6Ds™ is deceptively simple. Its spirit is easy to grasp and it makes us nod our heads and say, “Of course.” This simplicity makes the model accessible to clients, executives, and key decision makers who are essential to ensuring results.

How to Use the Model
The 6Ds™ forces us to think about how the application of learning will play out on the job and causes us to consider the entire system in which participants work as we design and develop learning solutions. Use the model to ask your clients what business results they expect from a program.

The model lends itself to the continuum of considerations inherent in designing any performance solution and becomes a systemic implementation plan for increasing the sustainability of the solution:

Use the 6Ds™ to create a common results-focused language across an organization. The new language serves as a quick check for the progress of a performance solution through all its phases: “What’s the D3 plan?”

See the Brief Guide to the Six Disciplines for more details for using the 6Ds™.

Success Story
Several years ago a major U.S. food company changed the way they mixed and prepared dough in their plants from a time-based method to one that was energy based to increase financial returns. To plan this significant production change, 10 or 11 different product lines used the 6Ds™ to design the complete learning experience to drive this change.

The resulting learning experience included these components:

• Clearly identified business outcomes
• Complete operational design
• Application of focused learning
• Processes constructed to measure employees’ improvement
• Coaching while doing
• Metrics to capture improvement

Advice to Users of the 6Ds™
As we know, performance improvement efforts always start with the end in mind. Cal emphasizes the value of working slowly and carefully to define the business outcomes when you first use the 6Ds™. Project the model out into the future and determine what participants will do better and differently as they bring back key learnings to their jobs. What will management accept as evidence of their success?

You might also use the 6Ds™ to revisit an existing or past program. Select a program and identify the business results linked to it. What business issues were targeted for improvement? Next, develop a scorecard and ask colleagues to complete it. How can the model improve the program’s results?

Links to the Performance Technology Landscape
The 6Ds™ supports these principles of performance technology:

Application Exercise
Select a current initiative in your organization. Use the 6Ds™ Learning Transfer and Application Scorecard to evaluate the readiness of the program to deliver results. Based on the scoring guidelines provided, use the 6Ds™ to determine where to make improvements.

For more information and many valuable case examples, see one of ISPI’s best-selling books, The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning by Cal Wick, Roy Pollock, Andrew Jefferson, and Richard Flanagan.

To review past contributions to the TrendSpotters Open Toolkit and find all the models and tools featured in this column, click here.

If you have an HPT model or tool that supports you in your performance improvement activities, contact Carol Haig, CPT, at carolhaig@earthlink.net or http://home.mindspring.com/%7Ecarolhaig, or Roger Addison, CPT, EdD, at roger@ispi.org.

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10 Strategies for Building Successful Partnerships: Part II
by Terrence L. Gargiulo

This is part two of a three-part article exploring 10 strategies for building strong partnerships within your organization. The 10 strategies are:

1. Seek to be an integral part of every functional area.
2. Be proactive.
3. Reduce administration.
4. Streamline standard offerings.
5. Get to the executive table.
6. Support partner activities.
7. Establish liaison roles.
8. Align T&D with corporate communications.
9. Celebrate successes.
10. Reinvent the partnership.

In this article, we will examine strategies four, five, and six.

4. Streamline Standard Offerings
In many organizations, T&D provides a core of standard offerings. Although these courses may be necessary, they are only a small part of the value we can bring to the organization. We need to evaluate what percentage of our time is spent in these routine activities. Because every organization is different, I can’t pin down the ideal percentage of time we should be spending on designing, delivering, and managing these standard courses. Each T&D department will need to take into account the size of its organization, number of its employees, industry it is in, culture of its organization, and a host of other factors. Suffice it to say, whatever percentage of time we spend on these activities, it should not get in the way of our being proactive, integral partners offering just-in-time learning and performance solutions to our customers.

Start by working with your partners to assess how many of these standard offerings are really necessary. How much does each one cost? How do your partners prioritize these offerings? Are there any trends or seasonal demands for these courses? Are there any other ways of delivering the learning and information contained in them (and I am not talking just about turning them into e-learning courses)? Can you use outside vendors? Answer these types of questions with input from your partners. Our time is best used creating learning, performance, and communication solutions tied to our partners’ organizational objectives and real-time needs. Minimize broad-stroke, cookie-cutter course offerings wherever possible. Be aggressive about it. As a general rule, our profession has been largely focused on these standard offerings. Times are different now. The future relevance of our profession is riding on our ability to transform ourselves into strategic partners.

5. Get to the Executive Table
Executive-level support of T&D facilitates our ability to effectively partner with our customers. I have highlighted the importance of building relationships at all levels, but the endorsement and commitment of executive-level management in particular makes our job easier. Although executive-level support is not enough in itself to build partnerships, it will open doors. New partners are far more likely to try working with us if we have strong, vocal allies in high places. Our challenge lies in getting on the bandwidth and winning the respect of executive-level folks. If we do not already have their support, we will need a combination of tenacity, patience, and entrepreneurial spirit to acquire it. Start by identifying highly visible, large-scale projects where training and development does not already have a role. Do your homework. Use whatever lines of communication are appropriate in your organization to offer concrete ideas about the ways T&D will help the project succeed. Work out your plan ahead of time, and get key people involved in the project to be your sponsors.

Another path to the executive table is through others. Lots of little successes with strong partners will generate goodwill and positive word of mouth throughout the organization. When influencing executive-level people, you do not need to be your own spokesperson. Oftentimes, it is more effective to have others be your advocate. Remember, no matter how earnest and well intentioned your efforts may be and no matter how brilliant your plan, there are no guarantees that you will get executives’ attention. Stay the course. Eventually, with some persistence and luck, you will earn your rightful place at the executive table.

6. Support Partner Activities
Our partners are involved in a multitude of organizational activities. We will not be directly involved in all these activities; however, many of them will provide us with opportunities to show our interest and support. It is a simple truth: people are more likely to support people who support them. Supporting others is a good way to strengthen our relationships and encourage a spirit of community. We need to be aware of our partners’ activities and, without diverting too much time and energy from our major initiatives, find ways to demonstrate loyalty. If it is not always clear how to support your partners’ other activities, ask them. It is likely that they will have some good ideas. Maybe you can act as a sounding board, be a guinea pig, be an early adopter, or act as an advocate for what they are doing throughout the rest of the organization. Do not forget there may be political dimensions to supporting a partner’s activities. So however we show support, it needs to take such dynamics into account. We would not want to alienate another partner or different part of the organization. There are times to take a strong stance, but we need to be shrewd about avoiding turf wars or getting unnecessarily involved in other people’s political machinations. Besides, remember that our goal in supporting partner activities is to nurture our relationships. Here is a general rule of thumb: if our support creates more negative energy than positive energy, then we should find a different activity to support.

Note: This article is an excerpt from Building Business Acumen for Trainers: Skills to Empower the Learning Function and is reprinted with permission by the publisher, Copyright 2006, John Wiley & Sons.

Terrence L. Gargiulo, MMHS, is a six-time author, international speaker, organizational development consultant, and group process facilitator specializing in the use of stories. He holds a Master of Management in Human Services from the Florence Heller School, at Brandeis University, and is a recipient of Inc. magazine’s Marketing Master Award. He is co-founder of the Storytelling Organization Institute (STORI). Highlights of some of his past and present clients include GM, HP, DTE Energy, Dreyers Ice Cream, UNUM, U.S. Coast Guard, Boston University, Raytheon, City of Lowell, Arthur D. Little, KANA Communications, Merck-Medco, Coca-Cola, Harvard Business School, and Cambridge Savings Bank. Terrence may be reached at terrence@makingstories.net.

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Achieving Business Results Through Performance Improvement: 2007 Fall Conference

Organizations exist to deliver value to stakeholders, and value is tied to productivity driven by efficient business processes and practices that contribute to overall results. The theme for the 2007 International Society for Performance Improvement Fall Conference is Achieving Business Results through Performance Improvement. This educational program focuses on how performance improvement helps drive productivity at every level of the organization and the results that are achieved.

• Conference: September 27–29
• Workshops: September 26
• CPT Workshop: September 25–26
• HPT Institute: September 24–26

The conference will take place at the Embassy Suites Golf Resort Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, which overlooks the spectacular Phoenix Mountain Preserve and Stonecreek Golf Course.

Keynote Presentation: Business Alignment for Results
by Cedric T. Coco, CPT General Manager, Engineering Excellence,
Microsoft Corporation

For many years, organizations have struggled with the best ways to optimize workforce in order to execute on company objectives. In this day and age, the smart companies ensure equal participation of corporate strategic leadership and the learning organization. Learning leaders are no longer satisfied by a simple definition of the goals and objectives for the workforce. Instead, the learning and performance development teams have to be engaged in strategic business planning and creating organizational goals. Microsoft’s engineering community realized this and acted on it. The Engineering Excellence team, Microsoft’s learning and performance development organization, aligns with Microsoft Leadership Teams to develop HPT solutions in the areas of people, processes, and tools.

During his keynote presentation, Cedric will share with you:

• How Engineering Excellence created and implemented an organizational solution to business alignment
• How Engineering Excellence was able to operationalize the business process to create shared ownership with operational leadership over employee performance development
• Insights and lessons learned in turning a traditional training-on-request organization into an effective and credible performance development team

What’s on the Program
Here are some of the presentations slotted for your educational enjoyment in Phoenix:

• Sharpening Your Analysis Skills: Performance Analysis for Business Results
• This Is Not What I Expected When I Became a Project Manager
• Getting Kirkpartick’s Four Levels to Work in Real-Life Organizations
• Tracing the Dollar: Achieving Granularity in Performance Measurement for Large Organizations
• Understanding Causal Relationships and Their Impact on Achieving Peak Performance
• Creating Collaborative and Motivated Cross Culture Teams
• Tracking Adoption: 7 Techniques for Keeping Initiatives on Track
• Sustaining Results: 10 Steps for Sustaining Results
• Organizational Alignment: A 9 Step Method for Maximizing Organizational Performance
• Designing the Process-Centered Organization

In addition, ISPI is offering two interactive one-day workshops on September 26:

• A Supervisor’s Guide to Improving Workplace Performance by Roger Chevalier, CPT, PhD, Principal, Improving Workplace Performance
• Change, Choices, and Consequences: Ensuring Useful Performance System Improvement by Roger Kaufman, CPT, PhD, Distinguished Research Professor and Professor Emeritus, Sonora Institute of Technology and Florida State University

For more information or to register, visit www.ispi.org/Fall2007.

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From the Board: A Declaration of Dependence
by Jim Fuller, CPT, ISPI Director

Over the years, there have been several discussions and even debates regarding the name of the organization we call ISPI. As our vision of what we are doing has evolved, the “PI” part of our name has moved from Programmed Instruction to Performance & Instruction to Performance Improvement. The “I” part of our name has changed as well as we moved from National to International. The one part that has remained a constant throughout our evolutionary process has been the “S.” We have always been a “society.” But what does that really mean?

There are differences between a society and a services organization. In a services organization, you are the customer. You pay lots of money to have other people provide you with information and perform services for you. Because there are limits to what people are willing to pay, the information and services are limited by the size of the staff that the services organization can hire and sustain.

A society is different. Rather than being the customer, our roles are expanded. We are not only the recipient of information and services, we are also the provider. As a member of the society, we benefit from the contributions of the other members of the society, and they benefit from our contributions. This creates an environment that is limited only by the cumulative capabilities of the society membership.

However, we must recognize that being a member of a society carries with it the responsibilities of citizenship. A society of “takers” quickly folds in upon itself. Members must also contribute as well as receive. Some members have asked, “What has ISPI done for me lately?”

You know the follow-on question. “What have you done for ISPI lately?” As a member of the Society, what have you done to help other members of the Society? Looking for some ideas? Consider these:

• Did you know we have a Volunteer Committee? Their job is to link members with opportunities to make a contribution. Contact them and let them know you are available to help. There are opportunities ranging from small to large. The Volunteer Committee will help you find the perfect fit.
• Submit a presentation proposal and share your research, insights, experiences, and success. Other members are waiting to hear from you. If your proposal is not accepted this year, it is not a rejection. It simply needs some more work. Improve it and re-submit.
• Take the time to vote. When ISPI elections roll around, take the time to look into the candidates and express an opinion through your ballot. Take ownership for the selection of the Society leadership.
• Write an article. Or two. PerformanceXpress, PI, or PIQ. Find the right publication and find your voice.

Whatever form you choose, get involved and make a contribution that benefits the other members of the Society. When we all make a contribution, the benefits we all receive are nearly unlimited. Do something. We are all depending on you.        

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Remembering Rebecca Birch:
A Champion in Our Field

ISPI International and the Potomac Chapter regret very much the passing of Rebecca Birch on April 25, 2007. Rebecca was a “force” both in the local chapter and at the international level from the mid-70s until 2002 when her husband became ill.

About 10 years after the founding of this first chapter (Potomac, 1962), Rebecca was instrumental in the revitalization of the chapter in the early 1970s. She, Donald Bullock, Judy Springer, Judi Fernandez, and others in the area reignited interest in what was then called the National Society for Programmed Instruction (NSPI). This was the first of many “rejuvenations” of the chapter. It was instrumental to the continuation of the chapter then and now.

Rebecca will long be remembered for her many, many workshops at ISPI conferences on Active Learning Designs (and other topics, such as facilitation). She and Cynthia Denton-Ade presented the Active Learning Workshop together for several years when the concept of interactive learning was coming to the forefront of ISPI theories and techniques. The workshop was so popular and revered that one year, ISPI invited Cynthia and Rebecca to present both as an Encore Workshop and Conference Session. In addition, they published “Active Learning Designs: Simple Techniques to Make Your Teaching Dazzle” in The Adjunct Faculty Handbook, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, in 1996. Rebecca also had the honor of serving as a Masters’ Series presenter.

In that same year, Jeff Parks (also Potomac Chapter) and Rebecca gave a presentation at the ISPI Annual Conference to four visiting trainers from Russia. Rebecca presented the component on HPT, and Jeff presented the portion on running the chapter.

Rebecca found close colleagues in ISPI with whom she collaborated on work for the organization and some of whom she willingly mentored. She was an excellent facilitator and often gave that work to ISPI “pro bono,” demonstrating her devotion to the work of ISPI. She is irreplaceable, but her legacy will live on with many of us.

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I(SPI) ♥ New York!
2008 ISPI Conference in the Big Apple

Your job aid for excellence:

1. Get calendar.
2. Find April 3-8, 2008.
3. Save the date.
4. Plan.

Yes, it is never too early to plan your participation in Enhancing Knowledge, Know-How, and Results, The Performance Improvement Conference, April 3-8, 2008, in New York City, New York. Each month in PerformanceXpress, you will read about another aspect of this event to help you get the most out of the conference. This month, we take you on a brief tour of our gracious host and the city fondly known as “The Big Apple"—New York City.

New York History
In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was working for France and searching for a link to the Pacific Ocean. He landed in Brooklyn. Thus, the international city destined to host the 2008 ISPI conference began a global connection.

In 1664, British conquerors gave the city the name “New York” in honor of the English Duke of York, heir to the throne. Over the next couple of centuries New York City grew; in 1925 it became the most populous city on earth (depending on whom and how you ask, a distinction shared by Tokyo, Japan, or Mumbai, India today). Most recent data indicates you will be joined by over 8,200,000 residents of the five boroughs—The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—that make up the city.

The 2008 Conference Location
The Performance Improvement Conference 2008 will be held at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in the Times Square theater district of midtown Manhattan. This is a world-class New York City hotel that sparkles with newly renovated hotel rooms, high-speed elevators, and six hotel restaurants and lounges. The hotel is within walking distance of the Broadway theater district, Fifth Avenue/Madison Avenue shopping, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, NBC studio tours, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and Central Park and the Central Park Zoo. Also nearby are Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Empire State Building.

Sports. Music. Theater. We will not be the only performance professionals in town. NYC boasts a wide range of entertainment, educational, and exploration opportunities. Home to the United Nations Headquarters, NYC is no stranger to welcoming international visitors. The 2008 Conference Planning Committee is developing ideas on how to encourage participants to find each other for city excursions during the conference.

How You Can “Be a Part of It, New York, New York”
Speaking of the 2008 Conference Planning Committee, we want your help. If you are interested in volunteering to help us create the best conference and best professional association possible, please contact Jean Strosinski, CPT, Chair, ISPI Volunteer Committee, jean@constructivechoices.com.

If you want to volunteer on-site at the 2008 conference in our community center, please contact: Elke Koll, ISPI 2008 Conference Committee Member and Volunteer Ambassador Coordinator, ekoll@koll-consultants.de. Speaking of Elke, there was an oversight and her name was inadvertently missing on the letter recently mailed with the 2008 Invitation to Present. Please know she an integral part of the 2008 Conference Planning Committee.

Do you have a great performance improvement tool, experience, research result, or idea to share? Accept our “Invitation to Present” for The Performance Improvement Conference 2008. The proposal deadlines are as follows:

• July 27, 2007, for workshop proposals
• August 17, 2007, for educational, debate, and Apple Barrel session proposals

This year, specific evaluation criteria and guidelines have been developed for the Science and Research Track. For more information on submitting your proposal, please visit www.ispi.org/AC2008/presenters.htm.

So we hope you are as excited about our 2008 host city as you will be about our conference! Register today. We look forward to seeing you in 2008.

Additional Websites of Interest
The following websites will give you a good start for information about the city:

• Official New York City website
• Information for visitors to New York City
• “Why is New York City Called ‘The Big Apple’?”
• NYC statistics
• The Society for New York History
• New York Public Library
• Online tour of Central Park in New York
• Virtual New York City tour
• New York City Point of View: “A unique way to visit the city using high-quality 360-degree panoramic virtual tours”
• Ground Zero, the name for the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, “A dedication to the men and women at the World Trade Center”
• Ground Zero Museum Workshop: “Images and remnants from the Ground Zero recovery”

Conference Information

• The Performance Improvement Conference official website
• Invitation to Present
• Conference Registration
• Website for the hotel, the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square

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Call for Nominations to the 2008-2010
ISPI Board of Directors

It is time once again for you, the ISPI membership, to determine the future direction of ISPI by nominating those members who you feel have the qualifications, experiences, and vision to lead our Society. Up for nominations this year are the President-elect (3-year term, President-elect, President, and Immediate Past President) and three Directors (2-year terms). They will join the President, two continuing Board members, and the non-voting Immediate Past President and Executive Director who make up the nine-member Board.

The duties of the Board are to manage the affairs of ISPI and determine the strategic direction and policy of the Society.

Brief Job Descriptions
President-elect
The President-elect assumes the presidency of ISPI for a one-year term at the conclusion of his or her one-year term as President-elect. The President-elect’s efforts are directed to assuming the Presidency, and assignments are designed to prepare for that transition. The President-elect serves to provide continuity of programs, goals, objectives, and strategic direction in keeping with policy established by the Board of Directors. Presidents serve on the Board for one year after their term as the Immediate Past President.

Director
Each Director on the Board serves a two-year term and is a leader in motivating support for established policy. He or she serves to develop new policy and serves to obtain support for ISPI’s programs. A Director should provide an objective point of view in open discussion on issues affecting the membership and profession. He or she should thoroughly analyze each problem considered, vote responsibly, and then support those actions adopted by majority vote.

Individually, each member of the Board is considered a spokesperson for ISPI and represents the integrity, dedication, and loyalty to established policy.

The deadline for nominations is August 30, 2007.  If you would like to nominate a member, please send the following information to nomination@ispi.org:

• The candidate’s name and contact information.
• The position for which the candidate is being nominated.
• Your name and contact information.
• A 250-word statement on the candidate’s qualifications.

If you are interested in additional information on the nominations process, or the complete job descriptions and qualifications required, click here.

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Driving Performance through Learning

Organizations today that are strategy focused can drive performance in a much more integrated and cost-effective way when they view performance management “holistically.”

As we continue to evolve into a global society, there is growing awareness that we are part of a much larger “whole” and that we can no longer treat just the parts without taking the whole into consideration. 

We see many examples of this. In medicine, simply treating the parts causes so many adverse side effects that more and more emphasis is being placed on treating the whole person. In politics, countries must increasingly take into consideration their actions on the rest of the world. In education, additional importance is being placed on diversity, relationship building, and people skills.

And, we are witnessing the same phenomenon in organizations, which are shifting:

This evolving paradigm takes a systems-thinking approach to performance so that all initiatives are aligned to strategic objectives:

• Improvement efforts are tracked and measured in a standardized way.
• Change is implemented to benefit the whole, not just the parts.
• Duplication of effort is eliminated.
• Everyone is on the same page with clear goals and targets.
• A clear linkage between individual performance and strategy exists.
• Interdependence is fostered to strengthen the system.
• Learning and growth are part of the culture.

Peter Senge, an expert in the field of organizational development and author of the Fifth Discipline, states that

“For a modern, knowledge-based, service-focused business to survive and be successful, learning needs to be a strategic part of the whole organization·and must be driven by systems thinking.”

Kaplan and Norton developed the balanced scorecard as a way to track and measure four focus areas to ensure a company’s success—financial, customer, process, and learning and growth. They emphasize the fact that learning and growth drive the other three focus areas.

The Learning Performance System
Performance Redefined provides a web-based system, which drives an organization’s growth strategy through a fully integrated system that:

• Manages and measures how well an organization is reaching its strategic objectives
• Aligns all project activity, performance measures, and individual goals to the strategy
• Provides innovative ways to measure and deploy learning 

To learn more, visit us at www.performanceredefined.com. ISPI would like to thank Performance Redefined for their support of our 2007 International Performance Improvement Conference.

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Organizational Performance
by Donald Tosti CPT, PhD

Let’s be honest, most CEOs are usually not overly concerned with the performance of individual employees. But what does concern him or her is the overall effectiveness of the organization and its performance in the marketplace. How human performance technology (HPT) can play an important role in those areas is just beginning to be understood and appreciated.

As I have often said, the organization is, at its most fundamental level, a human performance system and the marketplace, too, can be seen as part of a lager human performance system. Using scalable HPT models, we can impact all levels of the organization.

There are two important models key to enabling HPT professionals to create successful organizational applications:

1. The Organizational Performance Framework
2. The Organizational Alignment Model

The Organizational Performance Framework is derived from the human performance system model and identifies 15 classes of variables that impact organizational results. It does this in terms of the three primary stakeholders—customers, owners, and employees. It allows us to categorize the effect of every single factor that impacts the results: from culture to strategy, from process to equipment, from employee morale to customer loyalty, from executive leadership to shop floor collaboration. The list and the potential for HPT to help are endless. Other forms of improvement such as quality initiatives like Six Sigma, organizational development, and management consulting limit their analysis to just a few of these factors. HPT practitioners can and do consider them all within the context of the human performance system.

The second model is the Organizational Alignment Model. Management has long recognized the need to make sure the goals and objectives are aligned with desired results across all levels, but have not understood or appreciated the need to align the organization’s cultural practices with results as well. Management is even more negligent in ensuring that the leadership and governance of the organization are also aligned with results. The Organizational Alignment Model can be used to analyze issues or design applications that greatly increase the organization’s ability to succeed and be able to adapt to ever-changing business conditions.

Because it impacts every aspect and every level, HPT applied to organizational performance has the potential to create a revolution in business that may even exceed that of information technology.

Don will be presenting a two-day workshop, Organizational Performance: Focus on Results, at ISPI’s ProSeries November 8-9, in New Orleans, LA. To learn more, visit: www.ispi.org/proseries.

Donald T. Tosti, CPT, PhD, is a consistent contributor to PerformanceXpress. He is the managing partner of Vanguard Consulting, which specializes in the alignment of organizational processes and people with the stated strategy of the organization. Don is an expert in organizational systems. His pioneering work on contingency management began in the 1960s. As the principle investigator for the multimedia leadership/management course conducted at the U.S. Naval Academy, he adapted the methods of performance analysis to the study of leadership and management behavior. His subsequent work on modifying behavioral norms and leadership has demonstrated the power of HPT in organizations such as British Airways and General Motors. Don may be reached at Change111@aol.com.

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Coming to Baltimore in July:
HPT Institute, CPT Workshop, and You

One of the many great things about Baltimore is how close it is to several great American cities—and how easy it is to access. Baltimore is about a 60-minute drive from Washington, DC, about two hours by car from Philadelphia, PA, and about four hours from New York City. There’s a major international airport (Baltimore-Washington International Airport) on the edge of town and a train station in the heart of the city. So, you can see why ISPI selected Baltimore as the sight for two of our upcoming educational events:

• Principles & Practices of Performance Improvement Institute, July 24-26, 2007
• CPT Workshop, July 24-25, 2007

The Institute and CPT Workshop will be held at the Holiday Inn Inner Harbor (across from Oriole Park at Camden Yards home to Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles). The room rate is $161 per night, plus applicable taxes. You will need to reserve your hotel room directly through ISPI by completing the Housing Registration form (90 kb Word).

Speaking of Camden Yards, the Orioles will be playing two night games against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on July 24 and 25. Tickets for great seats are available. And, if you want to stick around Baltimore for the weekend, the Orioles are playing the New York Yankees on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Holiday Inn Inner Harbor is conveniently located only three blocks from Baltimore’s famed Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is one of the world’s oldest seaports and is home to the National Aquarium, the USS Constellation, the Maritime Museum, and The Gallery. Since the 1600s, Baltimore’s harbor has been welcoming people from around the world.

Principles & Practices of Performance Improvement Institute
Learn how to apply performance consulting skills and techniques to diagnose performance improvement opportunities and prescribe strategies and tactics to address them.

• Increase your performance improvement skills and resources
• Network with performance improvement specialists
• Focus on the Total Performance System
• Respond appropriately to training and performance improvement requests
• Recommend cost-effective solutions to performance problems.

Register Today!

CPT Workshop
Receive an overview of the standards on which the Certified Performance Technology (CPT) is based, the certification process, and how the credential came about. As a result, you will gain a deeper understanding of the standards and the criteria for achieving the CPT. You will engage in exercises where you will apply a reviewer’s checklist to sample applications. You will see examples of well-documented applications and reviewers’ feedback on some that did not meet the standards. You will also use a self-assessment guide to determine your readiness to apply for the certification.

• Understand the value of the CPT certification to you and your organization.
• Better evaluate your work and the work of others.
• Assess your readiness to apply for the CPT designation.
• Develop a plan for your professional growth.

Register Today!

So, join us in Baltimore to advance your professional development and have a little fun at the same time!

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Project Proven Tools and Techniques for ISD:Design of On-the-Job Coaching and Qualification/Certification Events
by Guy W. Wallace, CPT, Representative of the Instructional Systems ProComm

The seventh topic we are covering in this 12-part series is Design of On-the-Job Coaching and Qualification/Certification Events.

These are two types, of many, of instructional activities (IAs) that are outputs of an ADDIE-like, third level of ISD, where the intent is not to develop a training program, but rather to develop what could be stand-alone instructional “components” and also used potentially sometime in the future as components of a training program.

It is the difference between building knowledge management systems (KMSs) products that, by design, could stand alone or be used “plug-n-play” style by someone building a training course.

Think of IAs as Legos™—where they each contain different information, demonstrations, or application-type content. And where you can clone one or clone and then tweak any for reuse in different products as appropriate. It is much like when your car manufacturer uses the same brake components on many of its models to save both time and money.

The Third Level of ISD
The third level of ISD serves KMSs in helping structure the content-flow structure for each type of content (for example, policy content versus product knowledge content) before the dozens or hundreds of content objects are developed by SMEs and others without regard to user-friendliness, instructional design, and so forth.

This third level of ISD is an attempt to get ahead of the curve and create IA templates for KMS efforts so that the end products produced can stand alone and be reused “plug-n-play” style with less ISD rework—saving both money and time!

This approach requires a content inventory scheme to house all of your content, before you build or buy all your content. It is akin to the SKU (stock keeping units) architecture and number coding scheme for all bar-coded products in the world. It requires standards and tagging that go way beyond SCORM tagging.

If this third level of ISD and the content inventory scheme is in place, then your ability to develop content will be better, faster, and cheaper. This third level of ISD is similar to the second, the ADDIE level, but with a narrower focus or slant.

Structured On-the-Job T&D Events
The structured on-the-job (S-OJT) T&D event is itself a combination of info IAs, demo IAs, and application IAs that can be designed on an event map and a series of lesson maps. Here we can reuse an existing template for S-OJT.

For example, let’s say that we have to start with, as a template, a four-lesson T&D event for another target audience where the first lesson is a series of self-paced readings kicked off by an “advanced organizer” info IA. The second lesson was IAs face-to-face with a certified coach (see Figure 1). The third lesson was a blend of reading assignments, structured interviews, and guided observations. The fourth lesson was another face-to-face with the designated coach.

Figure 1. Structured OJT Lesson Map Template

Can we clone and tweak this template for our needs? Almost always!

First, blank the used original design templates and lay them side by side. Decide what administrative IAs can be tweaked later and which IAs need to be “off the design table” as inappropriate for reuse. Then using the Performance Model and K/S data, plus the existing T&D assessment data, initially sort where that content will exist in the new instructional product being developed.

Qualification/Certification T&D Events
The qualification/certification event is where one or more Q/C lessons exist with a focus on one or more application IAs, where the application IA is a test—written tests where absolutely necessary as a pre-step to the performance tests. Performance tests are to be used instead of knowledge tests wherever Q/C is important.

The Q/C IA is easy to design. You start with the performance in mind, using the Performance Model’s data. The application IA that you begin the design process with reflects the Performance Model in that the tasks must be performed correctly to produce the right outputs.

A design consideration here is whether to use a real-work approach, a work-simulation approach, or a work-talk-through approach due to time and costs for development and deployment in the users’ worlds. What assures us that the approach taken is sufficient and feasible and balances costs with risks? A decision by the project steering team taking a business view.

Figure 2. Qualification/Certification Instrument Template

The design team is facilitated to create the performance-based design outputs that the project steering team will review and approve, modify, or reject before it is used to guide development and acquisition.

Summary
A third level of ISD along with a content inventory scheme can support both KMS efforts and improve content reuse for ISD efforts, including S-OJT and qualification/certification events and lessons.

Next month: Key ISD Roles

Note: An expanded version of this article and the prior articles of this series may be found in the documents area of the IS ProComm. Click here to visit the website.

Guy W. Wallace, CPT, has been an external ISD and HPT consultant since 1982, is the president of EPPIC Inc., has been a member of ISPI since 1979, is a past president of ISPI, is the author of lean-ISD, and is a recipient of an ISPI 2002 Award of Excellence. He may be reached via guy.wallace@eppic.biz, and related resources may be obtained at his website, www.eppic.biz, including his three most recent books available as free PDFs: lean-ISD, T&D Systems View, and new in 2007, Management Areas of Performance.

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Performance Technology’s Growing Role in the Nuclear Industry

A technical meeting—“Effective management of NPP personnel training to increase organizational performance”—was held at the IAEA Headquarters May 14-18, 2007. Twenty-eight participants from 17 countries and six IAEA staff from three departments took part. Participants have reviewed the drafts of two new documents: an IAEA Nuclear Energy series guide, “Human Resources in the Field of Nuclear Energy”; and a Nuclear Energy series report, “Increasing Training Effectiveness and Improving Organizational Performance in Nuclear Facilities: Management Perspective.” These documents are planned for publication this year. The representatives of a wide spectrum of organizations from the nuclear sector took part, namely from the operating organizations and NPPs, regulatory bodies, technical support and training organizations, educational institutions, suppliers, and governmental agencies. The topic of the meeting attracted significant attention of the Member States’ representatives.

These two documents will serve to introduce performance technology to senior and line managers of nuclear facilities throughout the world. Dr. Roger Chevalier, CPT, presented the ISPI experience that was helpful for further development of the documents. Guidance and experience accumulated in the documents will provide line managers with a systematic approach for improving workplace performance. More information may be obtained from Alexey Kazennov (A.Kazennov@iaea.org), Scientific Secretary of the meeting; and may also be found on the ENTRAC website: http://entrac.iaea.org.

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Performance Marketplace

Performance Marketplace is a convenient way to exchange information of interest to the performance improvement community. Take a few moments each month to scan the listings for important new events, publications, services, and employment opportunities. To post information for our readers, contact ISPI Director of Marketing, Keith Pew at keithp@ispi.org or 301.587.8570.

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ISPI Membership: Join or Renew Today!

Are you working to improve workplace performance? Then ISPI membership is your key to professional development through education, certification, networking, and professional affinity programs.

If you are already a member, we thank you for your support. If you have been considering membership or are about to renew, there is no better time to join ISPI. To apply for membership or renew, simply click here.

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Newsletter Submission Guidelines

ISPI is looking for Human Performance Technology (HPT) articles (approximately 500 words and not previously published) for PerformanceXpress that bridge the gap from research to practice (please, no product or service promotion is permitted). Below are a few examples of the article formats that can be used:

• Short “I wish I had thought of that” Articles
• Practical Application Articles
• The Application of HPT
• Success Stories

In addition to the article, please include a short bio (2-3 lines) and a contact e-mail address. All submissions should be sent to april@ispi.org. Each article will be reviewed by one of ISPI’s on-staff HPT experts, and the author will be contacted if it is accepted for publication. If you have any further questions, please contact april@ispi.org.

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About PerformanceXpress

Feel free to forward ISPI’s PerformanceXpress newsletter to your colleagues or anyone you think may benefit from the information. If you are reading someone else’s PerformanceXpress, send your complete contact information to april@ispi.org, and you will be added to the PerformanceXpress emailing list.

PerformanceXpress is an ISPI member benefit designed to build community, stimulate discussion, and keep you informed of the Society’s activities and events. This newsletter is published monthly and will be emailed to you at the beginning of each month.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact April Davis, ISPI’s Associate Executive Director, at april@ispi.org.

ISPI
1400 Spring Street, Suite 260
Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA
Phone: 301.587.8570
Fax: 301.587.8573
info@ispi.org
www.ispi.org

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