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. The recipients below will be recognized during the Closing Banquet at ISPI’s 44^th Annual International Performance Improvement Conference April 11, 2006.

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

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

New Mexico ISPI Chapter

The NM ISPI 2005 10th Annual Workshop, “Dollars and Sense: Supporting Successful Client Strategies,” focused on the Human Performance Technology (HPT) principle of establishing and maintaining partnerships with clients and other specialists. This workshop provided opportunities for the New Mexico professional community to learn, network, share ideas, and reflect on workshop lessons.

HPT Standards of Performance Technology were applied in planning and implementing the workshop and sessions were selected based on their reinforcement of good Human Performance Practices. The 10th Annual NM ISPI Workshop met its objectives and received positive feedback. Workshop proceeds enable NM ISPI to provide future professional development activities.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) is a regulated utility in Northern California. Regulations, as applied through a quasi-legal hearing process with state and federal regulatory agencies, cover nearly every aspect of the work that is performed by PG&E, including the ability to determine rates for services and collect billings from customers. The Regulatory Relations Department (RegRel) at PG&E is responsible for managing the cases that are heard at regulatory agencies through a process called “case management.”

RegRel initiated a request to Farrington & Jensen Consulting for professional definition and training for the Case Intake Process and for a Case Communication Guide. As the work began, concerns about making changes in the organization surfaced, and the first priority became to analyze how to facilitate changes to the case management process.

During the analysis process related to change management and communication within RegRel, a number of cultural and methodological issues surfaced, leading to an additional recommendation for action and a greatly increased project scope.

This project scope included the creation of a flexible, comprehensive case management methodology and implementation of this new methodology within RegRel. Implementation required training and performance incentives to facilitate and ensure compliance with the new methodology.

Performance Management Initiative Laura Birk, CPT, Tiffany Chapman, Tomi Clark, CPT, Lucinda Ehlen, CPT, Marie Fang, Lorraine Fella, CPT, Amy Heirman, Janice Magnuson, CPT,  Beth McCarty, CPT, Greg Moran, CPT, Hilary Morris, CPT, and Mark Wojcik, CPT, Discover Financial Services

In 2004 we heard those dreaded words, “We want to completely re-design our approach to performance management.” Thus began an enterprise-wide three-year program to implement a more strategic approach to performance management that included:

• Commutating strategy and procedures at each key stage of the process
• Aligning goals and performance with company strategy
• Creating core competencies to define “personal effectiveness” at all levels
• Developing an online tool for the completion of key performance management tasks
• Implementing instructor-led and computer-based training programs to inform staff and build the required knowledge, skills, and abilities
• Maintaining a manageable level of change

Working closely with the management committee, a cross-functional, company-wide task force, and business leaders throughout the organization, we were able to accomplish our goals and collect measures to demonstrate the impact it had on the business.

Creating Do-It-Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies Peter C. Honebein, CPT, PhD, and Roy Cammarano, Honebein Associates, Inc.

The book Creating Do-It-Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies examines the link between Human Performance Technology and the design of great customer experiences. The central message of the book is competitive advantage through customer performance. Whether it is self-check-out at the grocery store, self-check-in at the airport, or designing customized athletic shoes at NikeID.com, customers in today’s economy are co-creators of value. A co-production experience that integrates vision, access, incentive, and expertise enables customers to perform. The net result is a value chain that increases usage, satisfaction, trust, loyalty, and customer lifetime value.

Demonstrated Performance QuickStart Service Training Program Doug Hall, Gene Hoffman, Ed Veligor, Mike Carden, and Justin Moore, Crown Equipment Corporation

Crown Equipment Corporation’s “Demonstrated Performance: QuickStart” service training program has been designed to teach a lift truck service technician the core skills needed to service an industrial lift truck. Each technician studies and practices at his or her own pace while completing 40 modules and is under the constant supervision of a qualified instructor. All students are required to demonstrate their competence in each skill before moving on. By implementing DP QuickStart, Crown has decreased the time to competence of a newly hired service technician from an average of 12 months to less than 3 months.

Influenza Virus Vaccine Isolator Operator Course J.E. Zandbergen, S. Karadayi, A.J. Maatkamp, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, and Henny Van Der Wielen, CPT, and T. Sleddens-Liebregts, SBK Advies en Training

Solvay Pharmaceuticals installed new technology to produce and pack syringes with the influenza virus vaccine. This means complex handling and packing of a sensitive product in a sterile environment with a high “time to market” pressure. The operators, selected from the existing crew, had to learn to operate this “Isolator.” It is organized as a self-managed and self-paced program. Mentors are available for support. It is also available for continuous and re-qualification training of the operators and for new hires. The program was developed and implemented in a period of four months. A competent crew and satisfied management were the end results. The use of the program is ongoing.

Xerox Global Services is partnering with The Forum Corporation in development and delivery of a four-day training intervention called the Principal Leadership Program. The program equips principals with tools and skills for becoming trusted advisors to clients. This includes learning to make the “Un-Sales Call” required for effective selling of services (as opposed to selling products). The Un-Sales Call signals a transition from the non-billable sales cycle to billable services delivery, and promotes initial contract signing. Highlights of the program include an electronic “Toolkit” and a web-based knowledge sharing portal. The program is a key component of Xerox’s transition to a “services-led” strategy.

U.S. Coast Guard Yeoman “A” School Online CAPT Al Folsom, LCDR Peter Seaman, YNCM Vade Keithley, YNC Tarvin Greene, Shyla Oru, YN1 Cathy Nauta, YN1 Tammy Bingham, YN1 Chris Fiorenza, YN1 Don Chester, YN1 Tracy Rivera, LTJG Dave Torres, Bill Seletyn, United States Coast Guard, and Joe Volk, Vivian Davis, Ray Reid, and Harry Willingham, Perot Systems

Yeoman “A” School (YNA) Online is remarkable if for no other reason than its sheer magnitude. This is a complete 6-week course, taken by about 200 students per year, entirely online. It is also a successful course in which 100% of the students in a recent convening said they believe the course “will adequately prepare them to be Yeomen.”

Yeomen are the Coast Guard’s HR professionals. They process pay, benefits, leave, and all of the administrative provisions of the Coast Guard workplace. Yeoman “A” School was selected for conversion to e-learning because Yeomen do most of their work on computers.

YNA Online is a result of the Coast Guard’s growing commitment to develop e-learning in response to ever-increasing demands on its workforce and training system. By moving traditional resident training to computer-based delivery, the Coast Guard saves time and money.

Facility Claims Processing Support Tool Ferdinand Tesoro, PhD, Lisa Eldridge, Todd Dooley, Tonya Adams, Rochelle Wright, and Denny Jones, WellPoint

When the cast of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia executives met to discuss ways to improve financial results and reduce the amount of rework required in the claims adjudication process, a listing of the top five causes for rework with financial impact or high customer abrasion was analyzed. A scene stealing intervention soon presented itself. This intervention required the incorporation of current job aids and other online reference materials into an electronic performance support tool. In the creation of this tool, the Analysis-Design-Development-Implement-Evaluate process played the role of the new STARR on the scene and introduced a methodology that aided in improving quality and aligning processes throughout multiple business units. This has reduced the need for rework and made the end users STARR performers. Reviews are in and it’s two thumbs up.

Online Performance Aid for Membership Customer Care Associates to Support Rate and Plan Options Michael Ayulo, Glori Graham, Gabriella Huerta, and Jody Smrekar, WellPoint/UNICARE

The online performance aid was created for customer care associates (CCAs) in our UNICARE, Small Group Membership business. This online performance support tool provides CCAs with targeted information supporting customer inquiries on rate and plan options. It is organized and accessible in a manner reflecting their customer’s needs. The performance outcomes of this tool included reducing the need for memorization of product information; decreasing training time for associates; decreasing administrative costs associated with training and training materials; establishing best practice processes, a centrally accessible resource; and increasing first call resolution.

Quality Assurance for Web-based Training Carmen Taran, CPT, EdD, SBC Communications Inc.

Standalone web-based training (WBT) has become one of the most popular mediums for training corporate employees. For this project, standalone WBT is defined as an educational event completed via a browser, which is learner controlled, and occurs in an autonomous and independent way, without the direct supervision of tutors, professors, or other educational agents. A massive amount of literature has been published addressing the topic of effectiveness of WBT: How do we ensure what we produce is of sound instructional quality?  Corporate designers, always struggling with ambitious timelines, do not have sufficient time to research principles that ensure quality in online instruction. Therefore, we have created a comprehensive checklist, which includes various guidelines for ensuring quality in WBT. Although the checklist has been developed mainly for corporate trainers, it may also serve as an academic audience, in the context of an instructional technology program, in which students are learning principles that should be followed for producing effective online training.