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Back to the Performance Improvement Journal Home PageApril, 2003 Editor’s Notes
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info@ispi.org
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Article Summaries
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| The Performance Improvement Dilemma by Gregg Maslak What prevents companies from solving their problems? What can performance improvement practitioners do about it? Performance improvement practitioners, new and seasoned alike, can be stymied in trying to solve their clients’ problems. Clients may fail to recognize that a problem exists, or would rather address the symptoms than the root causes. Even when a problem has been well defined, practitioners may not be able to convince the client to institute a meaningful solution. In many cases the problem is not with the practitioner’s findings but rather in the process of reaching those results. Using internally developed data that ring true to the client, the practitioner can build a case for action. Once a practitioner has established a case for action, he or she should create a clear vision of the solution that specifically addresses the problem that has been validated. Finally, the practitioner who ties the benefits of the solution to something the client cares about will gain that client’s commitment. Applying Human Performance Technology While Staying Out of Trouble by Edward W. Schneider, PhD Human performance technology is a collection of techniques for evaluating and designing human performance systems. It isn’t a philosophy, a moral imperative, or a way of life. When we promote it as more than what it is, we jeopardize our credibility as technologists and distort our own roles as performance engineers. Seven Performance Drivers by Linda Ross, PhD Recent work with automotive e-commerce clients led to the development of a performance analysis methodology called the Seven Performance Drivers. Conditions refer to the employee¹s work environment and how that environment positively and negatively affects job performance. Standards refer to standardized processes as well as performance standards or goals. Incentives motivate employees to perform the job to the best of their ability. Capacity refers to employees’ natural abilities and attributes, which enable them to perform job-related duties. Knowledge and skill refer to those things that can be taught that enable employees to perform their jobs effectively. Measurement refers to the collection and analysis of data to gauge effectiveness. Feedback refers to the systematic provision of information about performance. Analysis data can be collected through surveys, onsite interviews and observation, and blind shopping. This methodology has been highly effective in introducing and implementing performance improvement. Aligning Performance Evaluation With Professional Development, and Vice Versa by Irving H. Buchen There are a number of problems posed by employee evaluation. It tends to be adversarial, single shot, and oppressive. Professional development often suffers from similar and in some instances the same issues. Its topics are unilaterally determined and imposed from the top; fail to require attendance by supervisors, thus jeopardizing followup; and do not typically reflect gap analysis. But suppose employee evaluation and professional development were inextricably intertwined in a collaborative and evolving relationship, and both components were brought to bear on linking individual and company goals. The answer is the subject of this analysis of a process that fuses job description with job aspiration. Instructional Design for Learning to Troubleshoot by David H. Jonassen Troubleshooting is perhaps the most easily recognized and commonly experienced kind of problemsolving. Most people are unable to troubleshoot because they do not possess the required knowledge and experience. Though troubleshooting requires different kinds of knowledge about a system, that knowledge can be constructed effectively by learners only through working through troubleshooting problems. In this article, I briefly describe the cognitive processes required to troubleshoot faults and describes an architecture based on that cognitive model for designing learning environments that engage novices in troubleshooting, while supporting their construction of requisite knowledge. The architecture consists of an integrated systems model, a case library, and a troubleshooter that work together to support learners’ acquisition of experience and construction required for troubleshooting. This model can be applied to different kinds of troubleshooting problems, enhancing the scalability of online learning environments. |
