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Back to the Performance Improvement Journal Home PageOctober, 2003 Editor’s Notes |
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Executive Summaries
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| Should We Conduct Cause Analysis or Change-of-State Analysis? by Danny Langdon This article asks us to consider replacing cause analysis with change-of-state analysis. Cause analysis has long been one of the critical steps in the analysis of gaps in performance. The ISPI performance improvement model suggests that the performance consultant should identify the actual performance, determine the desired performance, describe the gap, and then analyze the reasons for the gap. This analysis would then determine whether poor incentives, lack of standards, skill, or knowledge, was the “cause.” The article argues that determining how the performance would be changed--that is, would it be established, improved, maintained or extinguished--provides a better tool for determining the interventions that are needed. 7 Steps for Linking Performance Improvement Initiatives to Corporate Strategies by Timothy J. Trow This article outlines seven specific steps that performance improvement managers can take to strengthen their position as contributing members of a business team and to link their performance improvement interventions to corporate strategies. The steps are identifying stakeholders, constructing a compelling message, discovering business objectives, writing a strategy for performance improvement, getting agreement on the strategy, managing changes to the intervention, and using metrics that link to the business strategies. The interventions described in this article emphasize education; however, these are not the only performance improvement interventions and should not be construed as the best for every situation. Recommended interventions should be grounded in an understanding of business problems or issues as they relate to the overall corporate strategies. Interventions may include approaches such as coaching, individual development, mentoring, action learning, or the training and education solutions that are explained here. By following this course of action, performance improvement managers can bring greater value to their organizations as they and their work link more directly with the business initiatives, offering business-related solutions that have short- and long-term benefits, and demonstrating to the organization that performance improvement is an integral part of any business strategy. Succession Planning: How Seven Organizations Are Creating Future Leaders by Diane Kubal and Michael Baker A leadership crisis is afoot; in the next 10 years a large number of employees in upper and middle management will retire. That may put some organizations at risk for losing critical knowledge and capability. The process of succession planning proclaims to the organization that “all people are not equal; some are ‘worth’ more than others. ”This creates a dilemma about whether to publicize the program and those who have been identified as “future leaders.” Four approaches to succession planning have been identified through interviews with human resource leaders in seven organizations. These approaches include talent management, advocacy, multi-rating, and emerging innovation. The article includes a succession planning diagnostic tool that can be used to drive discussion with senior executives, identifying where an organization currently is in respect to a continuum of approaches for succession planning and where it wants to be. Transitioning Learning From Brick and Mortar to OJT by Susan L. Coleman, PhD, CPT, Joe Collins, and D. Daniel Stiff Classroom structures are designed to function in a classroom. When training is migrated to the operational environment, it is necessary to rethink the use of classroom structures to fully exploit the advantages of training in an on-the-job training (OJT) environment. As we transitioned a traditional brick-and-mortar course to on-the-job training, we found that defining and capitalizing on the new roles for traditional course structures were not always obvious. Although the brick-and-mortar course was well designed, the traditional classroom structures could not be simply converted and made equally effective in an OJT environment. This article addresses some of the ways course structures evolved as we designed, developed, and implemented a successful OJT program from a traditional brick-and-mortar course. Being aware of these changes will help anyone challenged with transitioning such a course to OJT or creating new OJT. The Performance Improvement Multiplier by William Seidman, PhD and Michael McCauley Most organizations must continuously improve their performance to beat their competition. Organizations can convert their experts’ “secret sauce” and the performance improvement achieved in the initial eight minutes into a system for long-term, sustainable improvements that constantly multiplies performance and financial gains. The non-expert is coached by digital coach technology (DCT) to become more organized and efficient, mastering the details of a behavior and developing an action plan for applying the secret sauce...tacit expert knowledge. DCT monitors execution of the plan, creating accountability for use of the content, and recording new learnings. The learnings refresh the secret sauce, enhancing the authenticity required for instant engagement. Top performers, liberated from mundane tasks, generate new secret sauce. The refreshed secret sauce increases authenticity, which increases use, which generates new secret sauce. This creates a fully closed-loop system for multiplying performance improvements. |
