Advertisement |
 |
Would you like to advertise in this space? Contact marketing@ispi.org
There’s a “perfect storm” brewing in the training field. A combination of budget cuts, which could be permanent, the rise of ridiculously easy to use web 2.0 technologies, and the realization (finally!) that most learning takes place on the job, portend radical changes for our profession. Perfect storms bring images of disaster, but for human performance technology (HPT), it is more like a perfect opportunity.
Most organizations struggle with maintaining competitiveness while controlling costs. They need training, but, as we know, they may not need so much of it or they may not need it in its current form. Performance technologists have always argued that there are other ways—often better ways—to solve performance problems. Getting HPT into the hearts and minds of many senior executives—those with the money and clout to make HPT interventions successful—has been difficult, to say the least.
With reduced investments for training functions, there has been a stronger recognition that most learning (and performance improvement) takes place informally, in the workplace, and not through structured classroom or e-learning scenarios. This understanding has started to take hold in senior management. They are beginning to understand that getting knowledge, coaching, expertise, tools (including performance support), and other resources to their people—wherever and whenever they need it—makes sense. Whether we like it or not, they “get” this a lot easier than they get HPT.
So two parts of our perfect storm are realized—fewer dollars spent on training (as we know it) and an increasing acceptance of informal, workplace learning. Now, let’s consider a third part—technology.
Sure, e-learning technology is becoming easier to use. Authoring tools are not the complex, programmer-centric monsters they once were, and learning management systems are more manageable. Where we once had to build a special room to do distance learning, all we need now is a laptop, a phone, and a webcam. But there is easy, and there is really easy.
That’s where new web technologies (such as blogs, wikis, social networking, etc.) come in. In the fifteen years or so that the Internet has been a part of our daily lives, it has transformed at least twice, first from a primarily read-only medium to a transactional medium (e-commerce) and now to a dynamic social medium, aka “web 2.0.” Opportunities for using web 2.0 technologies to deliver information and create collaboration opportunities are certainly growing, and have become, to paraphrase a popular commercial, “so easy, a CEO can do it.”
The web 2.0 revolution is a knowledge revolution. From marketing and mass media to politics and world events, web 2.0 technologies allow content (knowledge) to flow almost instantly—from those who have it to those who need it, across the office or around the world. Given the explosive growth and decreasing shelf-life of information, organizations of all types and sizes are looking for cost effective ways to deliver information to improve performance in the workplace. Whereas e-learning is often defined as a formal training alternative, web 2.0 is definitely informal.
What does this mean for HPT? It means openings are emerging in an organization’s need for new thinking around learning and performance solutions, and our ability to deliver those solutions. Training is still important but we cannot lead with that solution. We’ve known this for years, but the new fiscal realities make accepting this paradigm shift a matter of survival. Growing opportunities exist for HPT professionals to approach learning and performance problems with tools that clients can use by themselves (with guidance from us), to deliver knowledge directly in the context of doing work. Of course, standard HPT processes, like performance analysis and evaluation, still apply. Incentives, rewards, motivation, environment and capacity remain keys to sustainable results, and, in many cases, solutions in and of themselves. But focusing on the knowledge revolution, fueled by new, simple, and widely accepted technologies, gives us entry into the executive suite in ways we have not experienced before.
We should take advantage of this opportunity to get in the door, to sit at the table, and to address real business needs without the trappings of our past. Once in, we can successfully leverage the entire HPT toolkit. And we cannot wait. Everywhere I look, I see management beginning to embrace web 2.0 technologies, beginning to bypass the classroom for workplace solutions, and doing it themselves. We should encourage such moves, not fear them. There is an opportunity for HPT professionals to help organizations succeed by addressing their insatiable appetite for knowledge. Will we step up?
Learn more from Marc during his keynote presentation in St. Louis, Missouri, September 24-25, at ISPI’s Achieving Results in Uncertain Times Fall Conference. Best Educational Value Around: Members register for just $699 and non-members $899 by July 15. Space is limited—reserve your space now to guarantee you won’t miss out on this learning opportunity.
Marc’s 33-year career spans positions in the university, the corporation, and large scale consulting. He has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies, authored two best selling books, more than 40 articles and book chapters, and has spoken at over 200 corporate and industry conferences in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Marc may be reached at info@marcrosenberg.com.
|
|||
TrendSpotters is pleased to welcome David Hartt, CPT, EdD to share a work-in-progress. David, david.c.hartt@uscg.mil, is Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Performance Technology Center in Yorktown, Virginia, and is responsible for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation for Coast Guard performance and learning solutions. David is also serving as a Director on the ISPI Board. He graciously contributes his evolving 8-Button Analysis Model to the TrendSpotters Open Toolkit (TOT).
Here at TrendSpotters Central we often encourage participants in the ISPI Institutes or at presentations we give to adapt a particular performance improvement model or tool to meet the needs of their client organization. However, we rarely say how to go about making the modifications. The 8-Button Analysis Model is an example of one modification to a model familiar to many performance improvement practitioners, Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model (BEM).
Like other organizations, the U.S. Coast Guard mandates the use of specific models and tools for performance improvement programs and initiatives. David identified the need for an additional model that spoke the language of clients and made the technology of performance improvement more easily accessible. He thought that some less complex projects could be completed more quickly with a simpler, streamlined analysis, and newer practitioners in the field could be successful with a more basic model.
David chose the BEM as the framework for his analysis model and enhanced it with buttons rather than Gilbert’s familiar boxes. The buttons came from David’s view of the “Easy button” we often push to choose a training solution without first thoroughly investigating the driver/cause of the performance problem or opportunity.
To customize the BEM to reflect performance components important to the Coast Guard, David added two buttons to Gilbert’s original six categories. The Coast Guard treats knowledge as required information and skills as essential how-to skills for job performance, providing different solutions for each. At the individual level on the lower row of the model, David added a knowledge button and another for skills. Selection assignment is newly added to the upper/organizational row of the model to reflect the Coast Guard’s differentiation of what the organization controls and what the individual controls.
The 8-Button Analysis Model provides a great introduction to HPT for a client or a newer performance improvement practitioner. Ask your client or colleague to think of one thing that would help them, or someone they supervise, to be a more effective employee. Next, show which button to “push” to address the need and explain why:
At one Coast Guard Training Center, the leadership noticed a pattern of aggressive instructor behavior toward military students and increased injury rates during physical fitness training. These two indicators showed that something was wrong and the command was at risk for a more serious incident if the trend continued unchecked.
Moving quickly to solve the problem, experienced practitioners from the Performance Technology Center helped a team of novice practitioners use the 8-Button Analysis Model to examine the situation. The team determined that instructor “juniority” was a significant contributing factor. Assignment and selection processes over a period of several years resulted in many young and less experienced instructors serving in higher positions of responsibility. While many rose to the occasion, a few simply didn’t possess the maturity or Coast Guard experience for the job. The organization, for a variety of reasons, selected and assigned some of the wrong people to critical instructor jobs.
The 8-Button Analysis Model is a diagnostic tool you can use to look at a variety of performance-related issues.
The model guides your examination of the problem. The buttons you “push” point to possible solutions.
The 8-Button Analysis Model tool supports these principles of Performance Technology:
R |
Focus on Results: Because this is a classification model, the only applicable results are identification of the driver(s) responsible for the problem/opportunity. |
S |
Take a System view: The tool is systemic in nature. |
V |
Add Value: The tool is pragmatic, easy to use, speaks the client’s language. |
P |
Establish Partnerships: The tool is accessible and client friendly. |
Many colleagues, including Carl Binder, Roger Chevalier, Jim Hill, and David, have taken the BEM and customized it for themselves or their clients, often with their clients’ help. Take David’s 8-Button Analysis Model and modify it for your clients.
The 8-Button Analysis Model will keep you focused on the areas to leverage for the most effective and efficient response to performance problems and opportunities. The model speaks a language that your clients understand and its simplicity will resonate with them at a time when they will particularly appreciate a straightforward approach.
David welcomes your ideas for further customizing the 8-Button Analysis Model for your world. Let him know how it works for you at david.c.hartt@uscg.mil.
Click here to find all the models and tools featured in TrendSpotters.
Carol may be reached at carolhaig@earthlink.net or http://home.mindspring.com/~carolhaig; Roger may be reached at rogeraddison@earthlink.net.
Whether we are looking at a website or listening to a Podcast, we continue to hear about a turbulent economy and unparalleled challenges. Leaders are reflecting upon all parts of their organization, looking for ways to improve business outcomes to combat the global competition. A sense of urgency has been magnified as reduced profits and layoffs abound.
To combat this malaise, many organizations are taking a disruptive innovation approach that can change the way they learn. Companies that exhibit these characteristics have employees who agree on what they want and how to get there. Senior leadership is looking for ways to maximize these traits with their most valuable assets-their employees. We as learning leaders must maneuver, focus, and assist by providing them with concise information, knowledge and tools to compress the decision making process and deploy the necessary resources for success.
So how do we do this? Organizations must implement new learning initiatives aligned and prioritized with the organizational strategic objectives to prepare for these new competitive cycles. Expediency will be the key to this successful execution—however this has not always been the case with our profession.
With the combination of rapid technological advancement and an economy faced with many challenges, organizations faced with budget constraints are increasingly turning to e-learning initiatives to solve their training needs. These investments come in many forms:
In implementing these initiatives, there has been a tendency to focus on quantity rather than quality. While this may satisfy some corporate requirements for training, such as compliance—the cost of the lost goodwill of employees who have had to excruciatingly endure “boring and ineffective” e-learning—can never be recovered. It is important that the first exposure to e-learning actively engage the learner’s mind to do things that improve their ability and readiness to perform effectively in their job. This is particularly the case in asynchronous e-learning, where the learner interacts directly with the content via a technology system that maximizes learner flexibility in timing and access so as to allow for control of pace, schedule and location.
It is important to view these e-learning interventions or courses through what we call a performance filter. This filter has four parts to the lens and accesses the necessary ingredients or instructional design needed to actively engage the learner’s mind to do things that improve their ability and readiness to perform effectively in their job.
First, is to analyze the importance of motivation in the learning process. Adult learners need to value the anticipated learning outcome in a context that is relevant to their ability to perform in their job. Unfortunately, context is missing from most asynchronous e-learning.
Next, the course needs to challenge the learner with meaningful context important to the learner’s performance and not trivial recall. Real world actions and situations that require the learner to actively process are needed to achieve this objective.
Third, the challenges do call for action, which in today’s computer-based environment takes ingenuity because the instructional designer is most likely only working with a keyboard and a mouse. Diligent designers can allow the learners to take actions, make corrections, and explore differences and alternative answers, in a risk-taking fashion to achieve their goals.
Lastly, does the course offer feedback to the learner based on their actions? Is the feedback extrinsic which is most frequent but least effective, or intrinsic which will allow the learner to see the effects of their decisions? By delaying judgment and allowing the learner the opportunity to observe the effects of their actions, and make corrections as they typically can do in the real world, the learner will be able to reach their desired goal even through a somewhat circuitous route.
Organizational evolution embracing these learning concepts and responding to today’s challenges will continually be tested. Mastering change is difficult, but incorporating the learning performance filter will focus leaders in accomplishing their critical performance and business outcomes with their employees through a learner-centered environment that is challenging, engaging and meaningful.
To learn more, we invite you to purchase and download last month’s SkillCast webinar: Just Like Your Mother Said: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Performance! by Scott Colehour, Co-Founder of Allen Interactions Inc. For more information, visit www.ispi.org/content.aspx?id=390. To learn more about Allen Interactions’ custom e-learning design and development services, visit www.alleninteractions.com. For more information and examples on The Performance Learning Filter, visit: http://learning.alleninteractions.com/content/clo.
R. John Welsh Jr. is vice president at Allen Interactions and leads business development, performance, and innovation efforts. Allen Interactions partners with leading global organizations to determine the optimal e-learning and technology-enabled solutions based on specific business needs. Working in a collaborative relationship, they design and develop custom learning events that will get people to think, act and work more productively. As an accomplished senior executive with more than 20 years of experience, Welsh holds a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. John may be reached at jwelsh@alleninteractions.com.
|
|||
Performance improvement has increased significance in our current economic situation. Adopting a systematic approach to improving productivity is the key to global competitiveness. Join ISPI in Washington, DC, July 21-23, 2009 for Principles & Practices of Performance Improvement, a 3-day institute designed to deliver the tools and best practices needed to achieve measurable performance results. Led by Roger Addison, CPT, EdD, this learning event is scheduled for 8:30 am to 5:00 pm each day. Secure your spot by registering today!
As an attendee, you will be able to apply performance consulting skills and tools to analyze real-world performance situations, present possible solutions, and evaluate results. Upon completion, you will be able to:
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: What is Human Performance Technology (HPT)
Module 3: Performance Analysis Part 1
Module 4: Performance Analysis Part 2—Total Performance System (TPS)
Module 5: Performance Analysis Part 3—Driver Analysis
Module 6: Application Exercise—The Financial Institution
Module 7: HPT Solutions: What Are They?
Module 8: How Do We Evaluate Improved Performance?
Module 9: Embedding Performance Improvement Technology in the Organization
After a day of learning, continue networking with your Principles & Practices colleagues at the Washington Nationals baseball game! Register before July 10, and you’ll receive a complimentary ticket to see the Nationals take on the New York Mets Tuesday, July 21 at 7:05 pm. The number of tickets available is limited. July 21 is T-shirt Tuesday at Nationals Park. The first 10,000 fans will receive a free Washington Nationals t-shirt.
Click here for more information on hotels and local attractions. If you have any questions, or would like to register, call ISPI at 301.587.8570, or visit us online at www.ispi.org.
The Member-Get-A-Member program is in full swing and the response has been very positive. The number of you willing to be ambassadors for ISPI to win great prizes pleases us! For those of you that have not participated yet, there is still time. Don’t be left out!
There are four ways YOU can refer your colleagues:
Members who refer new members (referrals MUST become paid members of ISPI) will be entered into a drawing to win one of three prizes! Referring members will receive one entry for each referral joining ISPI. The more of your colleagues who join, the greater your chances to win one of the following:
The last day to be entered into the drawing is September 30, 2009. The winners will be contacted the week of October 5, 2009 and will be featured on the ISPI website.
Note: Referrals must be individuals who have never been members of ISPI or individuals who are former members whose membership has lapsed for two years or more.
As Director of the Coast Guard’s Performance Technology Center, I would like to think I know something about technology and compared to some, I suppose I do. After all, I have three teenagers and I had to be an early adopter of texting if I was ever going to communicate with my children again. I have a Facebook page, but my kids won’t be my “Facebook friends” for that is way too uncool. I was in touch enough to see the rise of Google, but too out of touch to actually invest any money. I know what Twitter is and know that tweeting is more than birds singing. But alas, in the eyes of my very own offspring, I’m nothing more than a techno-anachronism. I have been known to actually call somebody on a phone and talk to them instead of texting. I remember life before the cell phone, before the Internet, and before the personal computer. In college, I typed term papers on an IBM Selectric and used White-Out to correct my all too frequent errors. To my children these events are just a few years after the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel. For many of you out there who, like me, may be suffering from the early stages of techno-anachronism, fear not, the affliction is not terminal, but the regimen for a cure gets a bit harder with each passing year.
A recent ISPI membership survey uncovered some rather telling information. The average age of an ISPI member is 50.7 years. At 45, that makes me a feel like a totally hip Gen X minded spring chicken compared to our Baby Boomer average. In spite of a aging demographic, there are young emerging talent that are helping us move forward and leverage web 2.0 technologies for the betterment of ISPI and our field. In fact, an Emerging Talent Committee headed up by Marci Paino and past president Matt Peters is in the process of taking shape and some of our veteran members are pushing many of the boomers to grab the “technology bull” by the horns and ride it into the future. Guy Wallace has graciously volunteered his time to work with some of our long time members to build an ISPI and HPT blogosphere to increase the visibility of our field and the power of our discipline.
The Board of Directors has sanctioned a technology initiative, spearheaded by past president Jeanne Farrington, CPT, EdD to take a comprehensive look at how ISPI is currently using technology. The technology team will make recommendations to the Board of Directors on how the society can better leverage technology for our future. In particular, focusing on the use of technology to add value for members, provide additional services, increase revenue and reduce existing technology costs. The initiative is looking to answer the following questions:
The Online Community Governance Committee, chaired by Stephanie Wawrykowicz, CPT, PhD continues its work with HPT Connections and is involved with the technology initiative. This committee will have some responsibility for implementing one or more of the recommendations coming from the initiative. At the same time they have created several subcommittees to explore integrating commercial social networking applications like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with HPT Connections and another subcommittee is examining knowledge management.
Some of you are bleeding edge, forward leaning technophiles, blazing the technology trail the rest will follow. Others are a bit more reserved and have been pushed to use technology while kicking and screaming. The reality is our society is made up of both technophile and technophobe. One serves as the Ying to the others Yang—this keeps us centered. ISPI does not believe in technology for technology sake, just like we frown on training for training sake. ISPI does believe that technology, used appropriately, is a game changing performance tool to improve lives, schools, organizations and nations.
We must all understand the only constant is change and where technology is concerned, the rate of change is frenetic. ISPI and its membership have a responsibility to not merely stay in step with the technology times, but to lead the way. The consequences of anything less are not good for long term viability. General Shinseki, Army Chief of Staff (2003) said it best, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” So it is also true with technology, we must remain, current and adaptive in order to remain relevant.
What’s the can’t-miss professional development opportunity taking place September 24-25, 2009, in St. Louis, Missouri? Who’s the “Who’s Who” among the performance improvement field headlining this event? Here’s everything you’ll get from ISPI’s Fall Conference and our presenters for just $699 (ISPI member rate) if you register by July 15.
In addition to this spectacular program, ISPI is offering (for an additional fee) one two-day workshop, The E-Learning Design Workshop: Results Focused, Paul Swan, PhD, Darryl L Sink & Associates Inc.; two one-day workshops Managing Mentoring Processes for Measured Results, Margo Murray, CPT, MBA, MMHA The Managers’ Mentors, Inc. and Constructing Level 2 Evaluation and Certification Systems: Technical and Legal Guidelines, William Coscarelli, Shrock and Coscarelli, and Sharon Shrock, Southern Illinois University; our three-day Principles & Practices Institute; and two-day CPT Workshop.
For more information, visit www.ispi.org/fall. We look forward to welcoming you to St. Louis!
For years people have been raving that the government does not answer to anyone. They have the ability to run multi-trillion dollar deficits, creative initiatives and commissions without measurable outcomes, and provide economic relief money to companies flying their CEOs in private planes across the country. On June 19, 2009 this all changed with the confirmation of the nation’s first Chief Performance Officer in Jeffrey Zients.
As a native to the Washington, DC area, Zients has seen the transformations of government most of his life. “I have watched many individual serve in government across the years and always hoped, at some point, to be able to give back and serve as well,” said Jeffrey. He now has the opportunity to give back to the nation’s government in one of the current administration’s top priorities—improving government performance.
With his new appointment, Zients has five areas he plans to focus on for the President:
With twenty years of business experience, he served as chief executive and chairman of the Advisory Board Co, a DC-based consulting and research company and chairman of the Corporate Executive Board, organizations that provide business performance benchmarks. Zients is no stranger to human performance technology and improving workplace performance. During a statement read before the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Zients stated,
“As a CEO and advisor to CEOs, I found that leadership, measurement, and a motivated workforce create the foundation for good performance. Leadership starts with putting together the right team and articulating the right goals for the organization. Measurement means translating those goals into operating plans with clear metrics and frequent checkpoints. A motivated workforce requires creating a culture to attract, develop, and retain the best talent. Together, they lead to strong performance, accountability, and ultimately, to improved results.”
The International Society for Performance Improvement welcomes and congratulates Jeffrey Zients to his new government post and looks forward to continuing to promote the field of human performance technology and workplace performance improvement.
To view the public hearing for Jeffrey Zients, click here (Zients portion begins at 77:30 minutes).
An organization implemented a new employee development process to document employee evaluations, identify high potential workers, improve employee retention, and ensure a pipeline of promotable people for future needs. It included such typical components as:
Unfortunately, the new process failed to meet its goals. Initially, the concerned HR manager investigated the employee development process to see if it contained any design flaws or if managers were not following the process. When nothing indicated a problem with the process and fully 98% of managers were using it, the HR manager was stymied.
When a process isn’t “broken” it is time to look at how it is actually utilized—the practices employees follow when using the process. In our example, many managers waited until the last possible moment to write up evaluations or plan skill-building opportunities. These practices resulted in shoddy documentation and employees who felt slighted. The managers also emulated the example of their senior leaders and substituted emails for face-to-face evaluations, perpetuating a practice that was detrimental to the process and its goals.
In the world of performance improvement, practices are patterns of behavior that are rarely documented in company materials, but are communicated by established employees to newer people or are learned through observation. They are part of organizational culture and represent what is important to the organization. Practices are how work gets done in organizations.
So if practices exist under the radar, yet are responsible for performance issues that undercut goals and programs, how do we find them? Fortunately, we performance improvement types are skilled at making the invisible visible because we have tools. Some are:
With our observation skills, performance improvement practitioners can enlist one or more of these tools to document what employees do and say—both process and practices—to capture how work is actually accomplished.
It is relatively easy to sabotage a well-intentioned process with inappropriate practices. In the failed employee development process we began with there was nothing inherently wrong with the process or its adoption. It was undermined by the practices of the managers using it, in imitation of their superiors, we might add. When an organization’s processes and practices are aligned, performance is likely to improve. When alignment is lacking, there is work to be done.
For more about process and practices and other challenges at the Work: Process/Practice Level, please see chapter three in our new book, Performance Architecture—The Art and Science of Improving Organizations, available at a 15% discount to members through ISPI’s online bookstore.
Roger Addison and Carol Haig write the long-running TrendSpotters column in this publication. Roger leads Addison Consulting. Roger may be reached at rogeraddison@earthlink.net. Roger blogs at http://rachekup.blogspot.com. Carol leads Carol Haig & Associates and specializes in performance analysis. Carol may be reached at carolhaig@earthlink.net or at http://home.mindspring.com/~carolhaig. Lynn Kearny leads a performance consulting firm that assesses organizational needs and design and develops performance improvement solutions. Lynn may be reached at lkearny@sprintmail.com.
We are inviting you to submit a proposal to present a session during THE Performance Improvement Conference, April 19-22, 2010, in San Francisco, California. You can present in one of the following: an educational session, a Cracker Barrel or a workshop. If you haven’t presented before, Cracker Barrels provide a great way for you to try your hand at conference presenting. The sessions are designed to be fun, fast-paced 20-minute events in where you can showcase something that you have developed or if you are a student you can present an aspect of research you are doing. A variety of formats are available for the presenter to select from.
Your submitted proposals for education sessions and workshops will be categorized according to a range of current and emerging issues shaping the field of human performance technology. We are organizing presentations into seven tracks including analysis, measurement and evaluation, instructional interventions, organizational design interventions, process or tool interventions, the business of HPT, and research to practice.
Share your expertise and bring recognition to yourself and your organization as well as further the discipline of human performance technology (HPT).
We want to hear from you. We encourage you to submit a proposal if you have a story to tell about applying HPT solutions to meet challenges created by external environmental forces. For example, if you have used an HPT solution to:
Download the Invitation to Present and decide what to share with your colleagues in San Francisco, then, complete your proposal, and submit it to ISPI by July 31, 2009 for workshops and August 28, 2009 for educational sessions or Cracker Barrels. If you have any questions about the proposal process or the conference, contact ISPI for assistance at 301.587.8570, or by email at conference@ispi.org.
The key to a successful conference is the quality of the sessions offered! It all starts with the proposals submitted by professionals like you.
Change is in the air and with it comes new opportunities for you to find your new perfect performance improvement career. The International Society for Performance Improvement’s (ISPI) Career Center is growing and changing everyday. Now with over 100 jobs openings available and growing each week. As you transition into a new career we provide you access to these high-quality and industry-specific positions. Our improved and re-launched Career Center offers job seekers:
In this challenging economy, it’s important to evaluate your recruiting programs in light of shrinking budgets. Many HR professionals are finding it difficult to fill jobs. They receive an overload of resumes but few strong candidates. Shift your recruiting dollars to maximize your targeting efforts, exposure and improved performance. Post your job today at our Career Center. For employers seeking qualified candidates, you can:
For more information, visit ISPI’s Career Center or call 301.587.8570.
Imagine being approached by an organization with performance problems. They desperately need, truly want, and will absolutely benefit from the type of HPT you practice. They can structure your engagement as you wish, as employee or consultant. You will increase their productivity, receive financial rewards, and probably become a published expert on an international level.
There’s only one catch: The organization’s purpose—the one you will be helping them to achieve—is the training of terrorists.
Obviously you don’t think twice before declining, albeit carefully and politely! Your response is a clear illustration of the importance of what Roger Kaufman calls the “Mega” level of organizational involvement. “Mega” goes beyond our impact to the individual, group, department, and organization; it looks at our impact on the broader community or society. What are we really helping to produce? When the client’s answer is this extreme, our immediate response is, “no thank you.”
Examples of negative Mega impact fill the media. Enron fleeces the public for their energy needs; Citigroup orders a private jet after receiving taxpayer-funded bailout money; the list goes on. It sounds as though the evil organizations are conspiring to defraud and abuse the powerless masses of good individuals.
Those living and working in organizations scratch our heads at this picture. Many of our companies are doing good things, creating jobs, and improving lives through health care, technology, infrastructure, personal comfort, and a myriad of useful products and services. Sure, we feel outrage at abuses that occurred, yet we are unwilling to concede to the inherent evil of organizations. Our society would not be what it is today were it not for the massive positive contributions made by people working together—that is, the positive Mega output of human organizations.
You get what you measure! Today’s economic climate mandates that we focus upon those positive contributions. ISPI is positioned to help. Presentation proposals for THE Performance Improvement Conference 2010 will require presenters to address the Mega impact of their work. It’s no longer enough to explain how HPT helped the individuals, groups, or organizational systems. You must also consider how those systems, once helped, interact with the world around them. Perhaps your work in the financial sector had Mega impacts to regulatory requirements. Perhaps your improvements in manufacturing efficiency were critical to company longevity in the broader context of the economic downturn. Or, perhaps your work in technology helped address developments in support of environmental challenges in the same industry sector. The possibilities are as diverse as the work of ISPI’s members.
If you think this sounds forced or impractical, here are three reasons to think again: First, today’s world is far too complicated to be fixed by individuals working alone. Human systems may be part of our problem, but they must be a part of the solution. Second, the newest generation of workers entering the workforce—the “millennials”—are using these sorts of Mega questions to decide where to invest their time and energy. And third, the workers of any age who are most likely to remain engaged, committed, and productive in their workplace roles are those who can find a direct link between their company’s broader purpose and their own internal value system, or an alignment of Mega.
This year, as you think about possible conference proposals, take time to consider the Mega impact of your own work. Your reflections may go far beyond meeting a requirement of the proposal template: they may help you to clarify your own role in the economic recovery and reenergize yourself about your own career.
Edward Muzio is CEO of Group Harmonics and the author of the ISPI Award of Excellence winning book, Four Secrets to Liking Your Work. His analytical approach to human systems has been featured in international media including CBS and Fox Business. His next book, Culture of One, will release in 2010. He is involved with proposal submissions and the Executive Round Table for THE Performance Improvement Conference 2010, and may be reached at ed@groupharmonics.com or 505.232-9143.
Tales from the Field, a monthly column, consists of reports of evidence-based performance improvement practice and advice, presented by graduate students, alumni, and faculty of Boise State University’s Instructional and Performance Technology department.
An east coast manufacturer of electric lift trucks developed a New Employee Orientation (NEO) program in 2004 to train new employees. The objective of the NEO program is to share company and product information and to assist new employees to have “immediate success on the job”. Since its inception, the NEO program has served 850 new employees.
The company’s manager of Organizational Development and Training (OD&T) has oversight responsibility for the NEO program and wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of the inherited NEO program in preparing new employees for immediate success on the job. She also wanted to identify what improvements could be made to increase the effectiveness of the program. A team of evaluators consisting of Boise State University graduate students from Yonnie Chyung’s Evaluation Methodology class conducted an evaluation of the NEO program. The authors of this article include the evaluation team members and the company’s OD&T manager (evaluation client).
The evaluation team used Michael Scriven’s consumer-oriented evaluation approach (Davidson, 2005; Scriven, 2007; Stufflebeam & Shinkfield, 2007) as the guiding framework for this evaluation. This consumer-oriented strategy allowed stakeholder input to be integrated into the evaluation design. Using a logic model supported by stakeholder input, the evaluation team identified five key dimensions of merit (criteria), addressing quality of the process, outcomes and cost of the program. Then, the team worked with the stakeholders to weight the importance of each dimension of merit (see Table 1).
Type |
Key Dimensions of Merit (Importance Weighting) |
Process |
Selection of NEO Topics (Critical) |
Curriculum Design (Important) |
|
Outcomes |
New Employees’ Competency in Performing Immediate Job Tasks (Critical) |
New Employees’ Compliance to Company Policies and Procedures (Important) |
|
Cost |
Reduced Time for Supervisors/Co-Workers to Train New Employees (Important) |
Table 1. Key Evaluative Dimensions for the NEO Program
The evaluation team analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data collected from multiple sources through survey questionnaires, telephone interviews, and record review of existing data. The team also developed rubrics (‘how good is good’) to rate the quality of each dimension and to determine the overall rating of the NEO program on a 5-point scale (Poor, Marginal, Satisfactory, Good, and Excellent).
Evaluation findings resulted in an overall rating of “Good” for the NEO program. Analysis revealed that the management and team leaders consider the NEO program topics to be appropriate; new employees believe that all six of the company’s performance factors addressed in the curriculum (quality results, effective communication, teamwork, professional behavior, customer focused, safety) are relevant to their job; and the NEO program helps to prepare new employees for immediate success on the job through increased confidence. Results also showed that the NEO program’s curriculum and delivery could be improved to enhance employee recall, knowledge, and compliance.
The evaluation team provided several recommendations for possible improvements to the client, including:
Based on the experience of conducting this evaluation project, the evaluation team provides the following advice to other evaluation practitioners:
Davidson, E. J. (2005). Evaluation methodology basics: The nuts and bolts of sound evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Scriven, M. (2007). Key evaluation checklist. Retrieved from http://www.wmich.edu/ evalctr/checklists/kec_feb07.pdf
Stufflebeam, D. L., & Shinkfield, A. J. (2007). Evaluation theory, models, & applications. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (Chapter 1—http://media.wiley.com/ product_data/excerpt/59/07879776/0787977659.pdf)
Christina Caswell holds a Master of Science degree in instructional and performance technology (IPT) from Boise State University (BSU). She currently works as a natural resource project manager in the federal government. She may be reached via email at ctina1166@yahoo.com. Teal Gaylord SPHR® PMP® is currently the manager of organizational development and training at Raymond Corporation, and holds a Master’s of Science in Technical and Professional Communications. She may be reached via email at teal.gaylord@raymondcorp.com. Joanne Letourneau is employed as an Educational Specialist in the Human Resources Department of St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. She is a Registered Nurse and is due to complete her master’s degree in IPT in May 2011. She can be reached via email at joanne_letourneau@ssmhc.com. Randy Kirk is due to complete his master’s degree in IPT at BSU in May 2011. He is an organizational effectiveness specialist for the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. He may be reached via email at Kirkcoach@aol.com. Marc Donelson will be completing his master’s degree in IPT at BSU in December 2009. He is a Program Manager in the training department at Belk Department Stores and also owns his own eLearning and Performance Consulting company. He may be reached via email at Marc@donelsoninteractive.com.
This month’s article features the CPTs actively supporting their chapters and what they are doing to strengthen their chapters, build awareness of HPT, and develop the skills of local practitioners—Daniel Hardin, CPT, Seattle Chapter and Gary DePaul, PhD, CPT Tampa Bay Chapter.
Preeti Bhat—VP Programs, ISPI Seattle
Judith Hale—Dir. Of Certification
Daniel Hardin—President, ISPI Seattle
Oksana Schubert—VP Logistics, ISPI Seattle
Madhura Chatterjee—Volunteer
Sylvia Washington—SPHR Volunteer
Daniel Hardin, CPT is with the United States Coast Guard and is the president of the Seattle Chapter. Like some other chapters, Daniel is finding it difficult to recruit volunteers to run for office, specifically someone to replace himself as president. However, he did recruit a wonderful team to help put together a program for the chapter. Preeti Bhat was made the VP of Programs. The team offered a workshop to raise chapter funds as well recruit new members. Preeti recommended they survey members to find out what people wanted. The result was the chapter sponsored two half-day workshops.
The first, “Assessment: Diagnose Before Prescribing” focused on the front end skills essential to improving performance. The second workshop, “Implementation: Sustaining Initiatives” focused on how to keep initiative alive so to increase the odds of fully reaping the benefits. The workshops were preceded by a regular evening event where they heard about the “Politics of Performance.” Oksana Schubert, VPT of Logistics, Madhura Chatterjee, and Sylvia Washington helped with the logistics. They secured meeting space at the 2100 Building, a modern facility that is the home of the YMCA and other non-profits. The program attracted experienced practitioners including Carl Binder, CPT and Jack Welsh, CPT as well as new people to performance improvement. One of the unanticipated benefits was two attendees asked to join one of the 11 CPT industry teams engaged in promoting HPT. To learn more about how Dan is rejuvenating the chapter, you may reach him at Daniel.E.Hardin@uscg.mil.
Shawn Overcast, Director of Memberships
Susan Delp, Director of Communications
Gary DePaul, President
Dawn Suni, Webmaster
Craig Gatrel, Director-at-Large
Rod Jurado, Director-at-Large
Phil Benyola, President Elect
(Not Shown)
John Ferguson, Director-at-Large
Rob Parrott, Director of Finance & Accounting
The Tampa Bay Chapter has a strong leadership team who has successfully provided services for the Tampa Bay area. Established in 2004, the chapter provides expertise and educational resources for the Tampa Bay area. Members benefit from an online resources library, a mobile book library, and monthly events.
The chapter uses innovative social networking tools for attracting new members and event attendees. Initiatives for social networking mediums include:
To learn more about how the chapter is using social networking to attract members and promote programs, join their sites.
Gary DePaul, CPT, PhD, Chapter President, and his team of directors collaborate with other local groups to identify quality speakers within the Tampa Bay area and with ISPI. This year, for example, Judith Hale and Miki Lane are conducting workshops. For the past five years, monthly events and workshops have included:
|
|
To learn more about their events, see the chapter’s future and past events site. You may also contact Gary at gary@garydepaul.com for more information.
If you have a story to tell that you think others would value, send it to judy@ispi.org.
How would you like to have all of ISPI's SkillCast webinars right at your fingertips to listen and learn as often as you'd like? School may be out for the kids, but you can continue your learning with the ISPI SkillCast Summer Learning Series. In just 15, one-hour segments, you'll experience the best in Measurement and Evaluation, Organizational Design Interventions, The Business of HPT, Analysis, Instructional Interventions, and Process and Tools.
SAVE $300 when you purchase the Summer Learning Series! For only $235 you can learn about tools, techniques, strategies, and best practices from the leading experts in the field. Only ISPI offers this exclusive, comprehensive webinar package featuring the most distinguished thought leaders covering such an expansive array of topics. Don't miss out on this extraordinary value. Click here to purchase today!
Now is a great time to join. When you purchase the Summer Learning Series for just $400 (a savings of $635) you'll receive a COMPLIMENTARY one-year membership to ISPI. You'll be able to take advantage of all the great benefits of membership including Performance Improvement, discounts on ISPI conferences, discounts on affinity programs, unlimited networking opportunities, and much more. Click here to purchase, and join today!
Presenter |
Session Title |
Jim Hill |
Giving Away Power |
Margo Murray |
Measuring Mentoring Results |
Ruth Clark |
Building Expertise Through Problem-based Learning |
Diane Gayeski |
Connecting with Tomorrow's Workforce - Performance Strategies and Technologies for a Global, Mobile, Intergenerational Workforce |
Ken Silber |
Seeing Organizations Through Business Glasses: Understanding Them the Way Your Clients Do |
Marty Rosenheck |
Accelerating Speed to Proficiency with Cognitive Learning Strategies |
Thiagi |
Increasing Interactivity in Webcasts |
Darryl Sink |
SuperFrames: Combining Job Aids and Performance Based Activities to Increase Transfer |
Don Tosti |
Innovation: Strategies and Practices |
Howard Rohm |
Using The Balanced Scorecard as Your HPT Framework |
Calhoun Wick |
How to Turn Learning into Improved Workplace Performance |
Paul Elliott |
Accelerating Top-line Sales Performance |
W. Thalheimer/A. Laures |
Is Your Learning Organization Healthy? |
Scott Colehour |
Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Performance! |
*Lynne Waymon |
Building Credibility: 10 Ways to Cultivate and Capitalize on Your Network in Tough Times |
*Building Credibility: 10 Ways to Cultivate and Capitalize on Your Network in Tough Times with Lynne Waymon will be available on July 13, 2009.
ISPI has partnered with author Mark Salisbury and John Wiley & Sons to bring you a new book, iLearning: How to Create an Innovative Learning Organization. According to Salisbury, most organizations do not know what they know when it comes to improving their performance. The traditional way of sending workers “away” to a training session to learn what they need to know does not help organizations build on what they know. Even having workers “go away” to a distance education course that is launched from their workstation takes them too far away from the learning that is needed for their immediate work. It is becoming apparent that learning must be part of work-and that it must take place in collaboration with others as teams solve problems together. iLearning is a means for organizations to facilitate this innovative learning in a purposeful manner. Once instituted, iLearning becomes an organizational strategy for innovation.
To celebrate the arrival of iLearning, five iTouch iPods—one for each of the five parts of iLearning—will be given to lucky subscribers of the iLearning U newsletter!
First Winner—Ildiko Oravecz of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA!
You may be next! Sign up now to win one of five new iPod Touches and celebrate with Salisbury and ISPI the arrival of iLearning. To do so, visit: www.ilearningu.com/newsletter.aspx. ISPI members receive a 15% discount on this publication through our online bookstore:
Mark Salisbury has an extensive academic background in economics, computer and information science, and education. Professional experience includes working for a large aerospace company and successfully founding and running a high-tech startup company. He is currently an associate professor at the University of New Mexico where he teaches courses and conducts research in the way organizations create, preserve, and distribute their knowledge. As a result of this vast experience, he is a leading expert on preparing individuals, groups, and organizations for success in the new knowledge economy.
The goal of ISPI’s Video Podcast Contest, spearheaded by Guy Wallace, is to showcase the diversity of human performance technology (HPT) situations and applications and practitioners. The dual focus this year is on HPT elevator speeches and everyone’s current or next focus for learning more about the diversity of human performance technology.
This year’s five-point script is:
You can interview your subject—or have your subject speak directly into the camera.
Joe Harless has again agreed to be one of the first for this year’s efforts!
The Board of Directors will vote for the one winning podcast that meets the goals and rules of the contest. Up to two prizes will be awarded to the “best” submission’s subject and video producer—if they are different people. The prize is either a free annual ISPI membership or a copy of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology.
Our 2008 HPT Podcast Contest winners include Margo Murray and the team of Mari Novak and Steven Kelly.
Why not get started? Take your three- to five-minute video—edit and add a title slide at the beginning and a credit slide at the end to identify the subject, the producer, and both the date and location where the video was taken—and then post it online at YouTube or Google Video, etc. Then post/embed your Video at HPT Connections —where you can find the 2008 submissions, the rules for 2009, and guidelines and tips to walk you through the submission/posting/embedding process.
You do not have to be a member of ISPI—at either the international or chapter levels—but you do need to be a registered member of HPT Connections. It is free to post your submission. Once registered, check it out and then share with your fellow HPT practitioners!
Are you finding it a challenge to keep up professionally? Got a stack of books and articles you keep meaning to get to? Let ISPI provide that vital professional boost with our new SkillCast series. A SkillCast is a 60-minute webinar educational session designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of the performance improvement professional. Each month, ISPI will feature the latest thinking from the experts you rely on for your continued professional development. In just an hour a month, you will come away with new ideas, perspectives, and tools that you can put to work immediately.
ISPI is proud to announce you can view our past SkillCast webinars at your convenience beginning with last July’s presentation. If you missed the opportunity to attend Jim Hill, Ruth Clark, Margo Murray, or any of our past live SkillCast webinars, you can hear the recorded session and obtain the handouts. For more information and to order these webinars, visit www.ispi.org/content.aspx?id=390. As we move forward in the coming months, all SkillCast webinars will be recorded and made available approximately 48 hours after the conclusion of the live event.
Put your focus on your own results, for a change, and join a SkillCast!
For more information, or to register, visit www.ispi.org/webcasts.
The
International Society for Performance Improvement’s Career Center will
revolutionize how you search for jobs and source candidates! Our job board,
powered by career services leader JobTarget, makes it easier than ever for ISPI
members to enhance their careers and stay connected within the performance
improvement community. Below you
will find the most recent job postings added to ISPI’s
Edison Job Corps Academy
Director of Education & Training
Job Location: Edison, NJ 08817
Job Type: Full Time
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Instructional Designer - #09-06
Job Location: Portland, OR 97204
Job Type: Full Time
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Instructional Design and Technology Manager II
Job Location: Multiple Locations (Tampa, Chicago, Florham Park, New York, Boston)
Job Type: Full Time
Training Resources Group, Inc.
Mid-level Organizational Development Consultant/Trainer
Job Location: Arlington, VA 22201
Job Type: Full Time
Virginia Military Institute
Manager, Instructional Technology Services
Job Location: Lexington, VA 24450-0304
Job Type: Full Time
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 Sales, Keith Pew at keithp@ispi.org or 301.587.8570.
Books Career Resources Conferences, Seminars, and Workshops Join us for the Fall Conference, September 24-25, in St. Louis, MO. The Power of Performance: Achieving Results in Uncertain Times. Register Today! |
Online Anytime: The Course Developer Workshop Online 24/7. Darryl L. Sink & Associates, Inc. Register online at www.dsink.com, or call Jane at 800.650.7465. Magazines,
Newsletters, and Journals Performance Improvement Quarterly is a peer-reviewed journal created to stimulate professional discussion in the field and to advance the discipline of HPT through literature reviews, experimental studies with a scholarly base, and case studies. Discounted to ISPI members.
|
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.
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:
In addition to the article, please include a short bio (2–3 lines) and a contact email address. All submissions should be sent to johnc@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 johnc@ispi.org.
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 johnc@ispi.org,
and you will be added to the PerformanceXpress email 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 John Chen at johnc@ispi.org.
Stay informed: add ispi.org to your Address Book and/or Safe Senders list to ensure you don’t miss important announcements and valuable offers from ISPI!
ISPI