page 8
Six Ways to Foster Peak Performance
by Christine Sevilla and Timothy D. Wells
What kind of environment fosters peak performance? What kind of support or infrastructure rewards creativity and learning, and how can we put that infrastructure into place? We don’t have time to rebuild the entire organization, but we recognize the need to do something beyond what we are doing now. There are six initiatives you can support to ensure that the people working in your organization have the tools to do their jobs well. In some cases a top-down approach works. In others, where knowledge management is involved, the supervisory role becomes supportive and facilitative.
page 13
Re-Establishing Performance Improvement as a Legitimate Area of Inquiry, Activity, and Contribution: Rules of the Road
by Roger Kaufman and Richard Clark
What we are doing and delivering are frequently questionable in terms of value added—the increase in worth and contribution to our shared clients and stakeholders. Because of this, the future success of the profession is in jeopardy. Many in our field provide only comfortable solutions to assumed problems, all in a context where people still demand professional help, while our ability to prove that we have made a measurable contribution to our clients is suspect. This article presents the new realities for our profession and world, provides reasons for migrating back to our scientific base, and then suggests "rules of the road" for getting from here to there, to recapture that which gave us credibility in the first place.
page 19
Decisions, Decisions: A Schema for Expert Decision making
by Christopher J. Stape
A myriad of factors may arise when implementing a performance intervention—more factors than most of us can recall and cognitively manage at a given time, even for experienced experts. How are novices to succeed? Research on novice-versus-expert performance suggests that the nature of expertise is largely due to the possession of schemas that guide perception and problem solving. Therefore, using a decision making heuristic to aid the integration of relevant knowledge to a given situation would lead to expert decisions. Based in the generic steps of problem solving, execution, and monitoring, a novice, by reflecting on the various factors provided by the heuristic, may apply the knowledge he or she has or identify an area where information is lacking. The knowledge is then applied toward the end of formulating a plan of action to solve problems and manage projects.
page 23
So, You Have to Write a Business Letter…
by Renée G. Knutson
The keys to effective business writing are to write for results, develop a crisp, reader-friendly style, and establish an appropriate tone. When writing for results, consider applying POWER by carefully Planning, Organizing, Writing, Evaluating, and Refining your document.
To develop a crisp, reader-friendly style, keep words, sentences, and paragraphs short. Create an appropriate and appealing tone by using words that invite (new, easy, benefit). Avoid vocabulary that "sounds" negative (no, not, never), tentative (maybe, might, perhaps), or aggressive (must, ought, should).
Following these tips will enable you to effectively produce professional documents in the shortest possible time.
page 26
In-house Certification: More Performance Bang for Your Buck
by Raymond Robertson
Interest in formal certification as an evaluation technique is growing as businesses seek reliable indicators of employee competence and potential for use in decisions that affect hiring, promotion, and remuneration. Many job performers see certification as a gateway to meaningful work, a new specialization, better pay, or increased confidence and recognition.
In-house certification can help achieve these goals when it is part of a coordinated framework that includes competency analysis, pre-training, criterion-referenced testing, consensus-building communication, re-certification, and reward systems. Testing—the heart of every certification initiative—is conducted at several levels, from simple knowledge retention to full-blown job mastery in real-world conditions. Managers must choose the certification test level that satisfies their business requirements, reconciling results with expenditures.
Improvised certifications can be dangerously counterproductive; carefully designed and managed ones can add significant value to individual and organizational performance.
page 35
Research Review: HRD Initiatives Contributing to Women’s Career
Progress
by Kimberly S. McDonald and Linda M. Hite
Despite progress in the number of women in management, very few are obtaining upper echelon positions. Recent literature suggests that one factor influencing gender differences in organizational advancement is opportunity for management development. An exploratory study examined factors that influence women’s access to management development and discusses how four major HRD initiatives may assist women’s advancement.
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