The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Awards of Excellence program is designed to showcase the people, products, innovations, and organizations that represent excellence in the field of instructional and Human Performance Technology.

Outstanding Human Performance Intervention
This award recognizes outstanding human performance interventions.

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Cingular Wireless’s Joining the Team: New Employee Orientation Process Cingular Wireless Learning Services, Employee Development; Betty L. Cotton, Manager, Employee Development and Meghan H. Mull, Curriculum Designer

Joining the Team: New Employee Orientation Process is a blended, step-by-step, multifaceted, process that new employees begin immediately after acceptance of a job offer and complete during the first 30 days on the job. The orientation is comprised of multiple events and training courses that help new employees feel welcome and become productive team members sooner. New employees learn about Cingular Wireless—its history, culture, business, benefits, policies, work environment, what they can expect, and what’s expected of them. The process allows learning, processing, and retention of information to take place over time and through multiple experiences—an effective way for adults to learn.

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Guardian World Class Service Appraisal System Robyn Wagner Skarbek, Guardian Life Insurance

The Guardian World Class Service Appraisal System was designed for Guardian Life Insurance’s inbound call centers. The goals of the performance intervention included standardizing the measurements of the call monitoring appraisal system, aligning the program with Guardian’s mission of “enriching the lives of the people we touch…” and moving toward the goal of becoming a world-class service provider. Intervention results include the creation and implementation of one standard monitoring form with corresponding criteria, implementation of calibration sessions to increase consistency of measurement, creation of a database for documentation and trend analysis, and the enhancement of job competencies.

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Implementing Change from the Middle Program Kirk D. Fleming, Capital One

Capital One’s Implementing Change from the Middle program helps leaders effectively organize and manage workplace change. The program uses tools that support the learning process through focused pre-work, manager involvement, individualized coaching, peer networking, online support, and a lessons-learned database. Additionally, a comprehensive assessment and evaluation strategy facilitates data collection that builds competence in managing change and effectively measures progress. As a result, participants are reporting increased capability and confidence in identifying, organizing, and executing change efforts. The company also has realized a net increase in associate performance and a decrease in attrition, conservatively estimated at approximately $610,000.

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Assessment Center-Pathway to Success State Employees Credit Union and BEI Consulting; Bernadette Howard Johnson, State Employees Credit Union and Victoria A Jarosz, CPT, BEI Consulting

The State Employees Credit Union Pathway to Success Assessment Center utilizes a holistic approach to performance improvement and career development for frontline staff. Besides the certification process itself, the intervention includes a defined career path for the tellers, job descriptions for each position tied to outcomes and core and job-specific competencies, a compensation plan, skill and competency descriptors of expected behavior, learning maps, development plans, and coaching. Short-term results indicate increased competencies and confidence on the front line and positive trends for operational metrics such as “services per household,” “balances per household,” and a reduction in “balancing errors.”

 

Outstanding Instructional Communication
This award recognizes an outstanding communication that enables individuals or organizations to achieve excellence in human performance technology.

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How to Make Smart Decisions About Training: Save Money, Time, and Frustration by Paul G. Whitmore, PhD CEP Press

Training is one of the most powerful tools upper management has to achieve critical corporate strategies. But the key to leveraging training is to ensure that only the right kind of training is used at the right times. How to Make Smart Decisions About Training gives step-by-step guidance on how to assess the value of proposed programs, choose programs that will deliver intended results, and obtain needed buyin and support from key stakeholders. The book offers invaluable advice on what you need to know before deciding on a training program.

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Turning Research Into Results: A Guide to Selecting the Right Performance Solutions by Richard E. Clark and Fred Estes CEP Press

There are a number of performance improvement products and services for sale today, each claiming to effectively meet all your performance needs. Only a few, however, actually do everything they promise. Luckily, a great deal of research has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of performance improvement programs. Turning Research Into Results: A Guide to Selecting the Right Performance Solutions gives research-proven advice on how to identify the various causes of performance gaps and how to ensure that the solutions you select will effectively resolve them.

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The Bottomline on ROI: Basics, Benefits, & Barriers to Measuring Training & Performance Improvement by Patricia Pulliam Phillips; Jack J. Phillips, Series Editor CEP Press

Increasingly, training and performance improvement functions are being challenged to demonstrate their bottom-line value to organizations. To do so, many are turning to the return on investment (ROI) methodology to accurately reflect their bottom-line results. Measuring ROI on human performance initiatives, however, is an extensive, complex project. Before committing outright to an ROI evaluation, one needs to understand what is involved and what to expect. The Bottomline on ROI offers accessible, practical guidance on the basics of the ROI methodology.

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Performance Improvement Interventions: Enhancing People, Processes, and Organizations Through Performance Technology Darlene M. Van Tiem, PhD, CPT, Assistant Professor, Univ. of Michigan-Dearborn; James J. Moseley, EdD, CPT, Associate Professor, Wayne State University; and Joan Conway Dessinger, EdD, CPT, Principal, The Lake Group

Performance Improvement Interventions helps performance technology practitioners advance their understanding of “performance interventions” and apply appropriate interventions to improve workplaces. The goal is to help readers recognize and anticipate the performance impact of almost any workplace activity and enable them to do the following:

• Recognize the value of using the HPT model to select or design systematic and reproducible solutions.
• Define individual interventions within each category.
• Describe strengths and limitations of each intervention.
• Guide performance technology practitioners through the implementation process.
• Provide a reference tool designed to help select appropriate interventions.

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Telling Ain’t Training by Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps

Telling Ain’t Training provides an entertaining and practical tour de force for every trainer and performance improvement professional. It tackles the three universal and persistent questions of the profession: How do learners learn? Why do learners learn? How do you make sure that learning sticks? It deliberately avoids the one-way communication of “telling” trainers how to be more effective. Instead, it models the basic message of the book: Humans learn best through active mental engagement. Despite its fun and breezy tone, every concept in the book is solidly backed up by research. It separates learning myths from research-based facts and dispels counterproductive beliefs and practices that harm the instructional process.

 

Outstanding Instructional Product or Intervention
This award recognizes outstanding results derived from instructional products and interventions developed through systematic approaches to human performance problems, needs, or opportunities.

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Instructor Development Course Joan Friton Sampson, TVI Professional Development Center, Training and Development Coordinator

I created a new Instructor Development Course (IDC) for Albuquerque TVI Community College. The presenting problem was twofold: (1) Typically faculty members are subject matter experts, with no training in teaching, and (2) institutional growth created multiple scheduling and campus needs. The new course has six classroom and six online seminars. Faculty can access the online seminars at any time and place with Internet access. Enrollment increased 53%, retention increased to 80%, and participant satisfaction increased 38%. The new format adds value because faculty members are improving their technology skills as they improve their teaching skills.

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TQFM: Toyota Quality Financial Management University of Toyota, School of Retail Professional Development, Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.

Financing is usually the last point of contact customers have with an automotive dealership and thus has a tremendous impact on the entire buying experience. Because of this potential for influencing future purchases, the University of Toyota created Toyota Quality Financial Management (TQFM), a systematic approach to the sale of financing, leasing, and insurance products. Training is completed through a 10-step continuum and includes one week of immersion training at the University of Toyota. TQFM guides the learner through a department-wide cultural change to a customer-centered process. It is a true performance improvement solution driven by business metrics, with monthly online Dealer Performance Reports showing results in terms of both customer satisfaction and profits. Approximately 14% of the target population has been through the program.

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Imperial Oil Back Office System Training Louise Leone and Robert Sakala, Imperial Oil Limited; Val Quirk, Sonia DiMaulo, and Gina Walker, Harold D. Stolovitch & Associates, Ltd.

The Imperial Oil Back Office System (BOS) training program introduces a new method for retail managers to manage the inventory of independently operated convenience stores. The full intervention includes tiered training, performance support tools, and a communications program to address system implementation requirements and change management issues. Retail managers and their management receive hands-on, customized training and tools. As a result of the training, 94% of retail managers are comfortable using the new system and 100% able to perform key day-end tasks. Business results at BOS sites demonstrated an increase in sales growth over the previous year.

 

Outstanding New Systematic Application
This award recognizes a process, method, or technique new to the field of human performance technology.

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Evergreen Multimedia Development Tool and Process Christopher Dant, Jack Morton Worldwide and Christina Tralmer, Walgreens Co.

Evergreen is a set of software tools used to produce multimedia courses. It revises and enhances the traditional computer-based training instructional systems development model. Through the use of XML, all instructional content is kept external to the course runtime engine, reducing or eliminating the need for programmers and giving greater control to the people who provide the most value to the end product, the instructional designers. Evergreen was developed by Christopher Dant and Jack Morton Worldwide with Walgreens’ backing and design assistance. It has since been enhanced to fulfill the additional needs of two other clients. Today, continuing development for Walgreens is incorporating significant upgrades and useful features.

 

Outstanding Research/Student Research
This award recognizes outstanding graduate student research in human performance technology or related fields.

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Effective HRD Evaluation: An Expanded View of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels Kathy L. Dye, PhD

For almost 10 years, HPT professionals have explored theories of evaluation based on Kirkpatrick’s Four Level framework. Dye’s research, grounded in Thomas Kuhn’s method of improving a theory, shows the inadequacy of Kirkpatrick’s beloved approach and proposes a more comprehensive, precise, and efficient approach to evaluating our efforts.

Specifically, this research does the following:

 

Chapters of Merit
Chapter awards celebrate the accomplishments of local ISPI Chapters. The awards emphasize accomplishments rather than competition of the Chapters.

Chapters of Excellence
The award is given to chapters that fulfill rigorous standards of excellence.

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ISPI Golden Circle Chapter

Six years ago, the Golden Circle Chapter was founded in Des Moines, Iowa. To lend credibility to our chapter we decided to make yet another submission for the Chapter of Excellence Award. Since we’d been awarded Chapter of Excellence the past two years, we knew how to handle it. After reviewing the criteria again, we found them to be a good framework in which to take our chapter to the next level. In essence, it helped us to strengthen our chapter and become a better organization for our members. We now have strong guidelines and procedures in place. The criteria established by International helps us grow and make the changes necessary to continue to be a successful chapter.

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ISPI New Mexico Chapter Joan Slick and Stephanie Fuentes

The New Mexico Chapter strategic plan established Internal and External Connections goals for 2002. Internally we expanded recognition of members and networking opportunities. We increased member recognition efforts at meetings and in newsletters. We worked to increase member involvement and retention by promoting and advertising volunteer opportunities. An electronic newsletter was added to increase communication and provide a timely news vehicle. Externally we worked to broaden member representation and visibility by increasing marketing efforts. We strengthened community relationships and built our student member base. The increased visibility and strong educational programs helped the chapter to exceed its goals.

Outstanding Educational Program
This award is given to chapters that spread the performance improvement message to others in academic and non-academic settings.

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ISPI New Mexico Chapter William Dudeck, Stephanie Fuentes, Jean Strosinski, and Lisa Tokarski, Committee Co-chairs and Joan Slick, 2002 New Mexico ISPI Chapter President

The New Mexico ISPI Chapter’s Winter Workshop 2002 “Building Organizational Trust to Adopt Innovation” was a special educational event for chapter members and the New Mexico professional community. A presentation of the universal topics of trust and innovation provided an emphasis to performance improvement in the workplace. The event took place on March 7-8, 2002. Dr. Everett Rogers, a professor with the University of New Mexico, presented Diffusion of Innovation, and Dr. Dennis and Dr. Michelle Reina, of Chagnon, Reina & Associates, presented Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace. Participants received a customized and experiential learning experience, a free copy of each presenter’s book on the topic, handouts, and an opportunity to network with other professionals.