The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) has three special honorary awards that recognize outstanding individuals for their significant contributions to Human Performance Technology (HPT) and to the Society itself. Those awards are the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, the Distinguished Service Award, and the Honorary Life Member Award. ISPI is pleased to announce this year’s recipients: Robert E. Horn, Lynn Kearny, and Dale Brethower. The awards will be bestowed at the 2004 International Performance Improvement Conference & Exposition in Tampa, Florida, April 18-23.

Robert Horn’s early years touched many elements now considered essential to HPT. He was a TV producer-director in the military and a systems analyst at Univac when the discipline was in its infancy. He worked at Basic Systems and conducted research at Columbia University where programmed instruction was being invented, taught at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business with Dale Brethower and Geary Rummler, and worked with Tom Gilbert and Joe Harless at David Sage Associates. His career has been a series of research and development projects—at universities, research centers, corporations, and five start-ups that he founded—in a breadth of fields related to human learning and cognition, performance, information management, and large-scale problem-solving.

By the mid-1970s, Bob invented the Information Mapping^® method of structured writing, probably his most widely known accomplishment. Through Information Mapping, Inc., the method has improved the productivity of tens of thousands of managers, consultants, trainers, writers, web designers, and others in organizations worldwide, benefiting millions of readers with improvements in the readability and performance application. His seminal works in hypertext design and visual language have influenced how we communicate in cyberspace; and his visual mapping of complex arguments has clarified an array of scientific, philosophical, and policy issues, including a recent application for the British Foreign Office at 10 Downing Street.

Bob received the Outstanding Research Award from NSPI for his Information Mapping research and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Computing Machinery. His work has appeared in numerous publications including the renowned journal Nature and at an art museum in The Hague. He currently lectures worldwide, consults to NASA and other organizations, and is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

Lynn’s unassuming demeanor belies her extensive and exceptional HPT career. She is a certified performance technologist, author, facilitator, instructor, and recognized expert in graphic recording. Her publications include chapters in the Handbook of HPT, second edition, and the Intervention Resource Guide, as well as From Training to Performance, in the first ISPI/Jossey-Bass series, and Creating Workplaces Where People Can Think, co-authored with Phyl Smith. Lynn has a unique ability to translate theory into practice as evidenced by her essential resource, the Facilitator’s Toolkit.

Her contributions to the Society range from local chapters to international forums. Lynn served as ISPI Director from 1999-2001 and as a Board facilitator for three ISPI presidents. She served on two presidential “kitchen cabinets,” lending her creative vision to the development of the ISPI HPT Institutes, the CPT certification process, and several strategic “think tanks.” She has served on the Awards, Nominations, and Gilbert committees, as deputy chair of the 1998 Conference Committee, and as co-chair of the 2003 Conference Cracker Barrel.

Lynn’s commitment to the Society is unmistakable. She has presented at every conference since 1990 and continues to serve as faculty for the Principles & Practices Institute. Her contributions to the field of HPT are notable. She made workplace analysis and design visible and accessible to the mainstream of practitioners, promoted the effective use of graphics, and created a 360-degree business model to broaden the HPT practitioner’s understanding of business issues.

Her artistic talents and HPT competence are a unique blend that has touched the lives of many in and outside of ISPI. Her integrity and selfless professionalism serve as standards for all HPT professionals.

Dale Brethower learned fundamental concepts of general systems theory while growing up on the family farm in Kansas. After graduating with honors (summa cum laude, Outstanding Senior in Psychology) from the University of Kansas, Dale earned a master’s degree at Harvard in 1961. While studying with B.F. Skinner, Dale learned that there is a science of behavior that can be applied effectively in natural settings. He also learned that many intelligent people believe nonsense about behaviorism, such as the idea that behavior principles cannot be applied to cognition and emotion. Some people make such comments to this day, not paying attention to the extensive research that continues to show many varied and successful applications.

Dale earned a PhD from the University of Michigan. He applied general systems and behavioral psychology principles successfully in a not-for-profit agency as chief of the Reading Service, Bureau of Psychological Services at the University of Michigan. With Geary Rummler and George Geis, among others, at the Center for Programmed Learning for Business, he pioneered applications of these principles to instruction and to performance improvement in for-profit companies and not-for-profit agencies.

Dale was elected president of ISPI and of the North Central Reading Association. He has been honored for his long history of achievement by the Organizational Behavior Management Network of the International Association for Behavior Analysis.

A professor emeritus of psychology (Western Michigan University), Dale writes, publishes, operates three small businesses, and continues to learn from Carl Semmelroth, Geary Rummler, Karolyn Smalley, and dozens of former students and several ISPI colleagues. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Performance Systems Analysis area of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. He has consulted with schools and private businesses and has been active in ISPI for about 40 years.