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Competency Method(s) for Development Target Date Practice On-the-Job Performance Analysis Skills Read First Things Fast: A Handbook for Performance Analysis by Allison Rossett Purchase by:9/1; Read by:10/1 Determine performance gaps for printing services department Attend Analyzing Human Performance, ASTD, (703) 683-8100 Register by:9/15 for 10/25–28 workshop Questioning Skills Attend Data Collection Techniques workshop, Management Concepts, (703) 790-9595 Register 8/1 for 8/15 workshop Develop survey for printing services department.

Figure 8-1 Portion of a sample individual development plan.

A portion of a development plan appears in Figure 8-1. One final step is to review the entire plan and determine if it is achievable. Over-committing is easy to

do in your eagerness to achieve success. The repercussions of an unachievable development plan can be self-defeating. Trying to acquire too much knowledge too fast could lead you to feel overwhelmed and thus discourage future development efforts. Trying to commit to more development opportunities than you have time or funding for could also prove to be disappointing. On the other hand, not committing to short-term development goals can lead to apathy about the transformation. Review your plan and make adjustments, as necessary. Keep in mind that an individual development plan is not a static document. It should be updated as your priorities shift and as your resources for development change.

Step 3: Take ActionStep 3: Take Action

Once you have your development plan formulated, it is then time to put those plans into action. Buy the books and enroll in the workshops. Schedule time for reading or other self-study options. Look for creative ways to practice new skills in the workplace. Keep managers, peers, and direct reports informed of the new competencies that you are acquiring and hoping to demonstrate in the workplace. Solicit feedback from those who can observe you in action.

Continually revisit (at least monthly) your development plan, and make adjustments as necessary. You may want to consider seeking a development coach who can keep you focused on your long-range development goals and who will continually encourage and support your development efforts. This could be your manager, a colleague, a mentor, or an external coach who can help you stick to your development plan and ultimately guide you to a successful transformation into your broadened performance improvement role.

Following this prescribed process will have you placing on your business card, before you know it, a title like Performance Consultant, Performance Technologist, Performance Improvement Consultant, HPI Consultant, or whatever seems to work for you and your organization.

Summary

This chapter shared the true stories of how some experienced HPI practitioners transitioned into the field of HPI from previous careers. This chapter went on to describe a three-step process for individual development. The steps are: (1) assess your competencies, (2) plan for your development, and (3) take

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action. The chapter described some strategies for carrying out each step in that process. Use Appendix II to assess your competencies. Use the resources in Appendix III to help you—and your training department— to build your HPI competencies and thereby provide the foundation for improving performance in your organization.

References

Bassi, L.J., Cheney, S., and Van Buren, M. (1997). Training Industry Trends 1997. Training & Development, 51(11), 46– 59.

Galagan, P., and Wulf, K. (1996). Sign of the Times, Training and Development, 50(2), 32–34. Gill, S.J. (1995). Shifting Gears for High Performance. Training & Development, 49(5), 25–31. Gordon, J. (1992). Performance Technology: Blueprint for the Learning Organization? Training, 29(5), 27–36.

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tools and materials and began to offer workshops to teach other practitioners how to apply HPT in the workplace. Today, Paul and Dennis are managing partners in a company called Outcome Systems, along with two other partners, Mason Holloway and Dr. Karen McGraw. Dennis and Mason are also the managing partners of Platinum Performance Group.

In 2003 Dennis and Mason cowrote, and then copublished with ASTD, a set of paper-based tools and job aids for performance analysis called Performance DNA. These HPI tools and processes have been taught to thousands of people from at least 16 countries in just over three years since their launch. An electronic version of these tools was created through Outcome Systems, and they are described as

a software toolset to help the human performance improvement professional conduct complex analyses to improve performance more efficiently and effectively. Performance DNA Desktop provides support from project set up and management and reporting through the analysis phases:

Business Analysis Performance Analysis Key Performer Analysis Influence Analysis Analysis Consolidation and Reporting

Performance DNA Desktop was developed to align with ASTD’s HPI certification program and provides the tools and templates the HPI professional needs to vastly improve the efficiency of data collection, analysis, integration, and reporting (www.outcomesys.com/products_desktop.htm).

Dennis likes to pick the brains of his colleagues in order to stay current in the field of HPI. He reads the most recent books and surfs the Internet for the latest articles and research on occasion. Dennis says that the best way to develop your skills is to use them and practice, practice, practice. He says that the most rewarding thing about a career in HPI is when “I see positive change and I see people getting past those barriers.”

Charles “Chuck” Harpham’s career began in public education. He taught at both secondary schools and community colleges. He eventually left the teaching profession to accept a training manager position in the manufacturing industry. His next step was to become a business HR manager. Chuck’s Manager of Human Resources at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company eventually asked Chuck and another colleague to become internal performance improvement consultants. Then, about three years ago, Chuck was asked if he’d like to get involved with the company’s Six Sigma initiatives. Today, Chuck is a Six Sigma Blackbelt working in the HR department at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, a Constellation Energy Company. He is active with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), ISPI, and the local chapter of the ASQ. He likes to network with other operations-based Blackbelts in the company to see the details of their projects.

“There’s a lot to be learned from seeing what others in the field do,” says Chuck. Chuck finds the variety of work the most rewarding part of his job as a Blackbelt. “As an HR generalist, you tend to get spread pretty thin but in this job, I can focus on select projects and I get the opportunity to really sink my teeth into specific problems and work on them until they’re solved,” says Chuck.

Carol Panza today calls herself a management consultant, but that’s not how her career started. Carol received her undergraduate degree in marketing. She went on to earn her MBA in industrial relations. Soon after completing her MBA, Carol went to work for a tiny management firm that focused on training. She was asked to join a job study and quickly took on a leadership role based on her business focus. Immediately following the job study, Carol was assigned to an important training design project that was already underway for a very large client. She was the only one on the project team who had a genuine

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business focus, and ended up designing the entire course. After this, Carol joined another small company, which had just been awarded a project to design a performance appraisal system for use onboard oil tankers operated by a large petrochemical company. She had to learn all of the business processes and understand four different nationality groups so that her finished product could be used cross-culturally.

Carol started her own consulting company in 1985. She describes herself as a very analytical person who likes working with people. She comes at projects with questions rather than answers. She says that she often takes what has been politically and emotionally charged, and converts it into objective information that actually brings diverse people and processes together and, importantly, that the client can use to make improvements. Carol continues to grow and develop in the field by talking with her network of colleagues. She learns every day on her projects by asking lots of questions. Carol cites the ability to form life-long relationships with people as one of the best parts of being in the field of HPI. Carol says, “Being a management consultant allows me to feel like I’m making a difference, that I can help people to be more successful.”

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this way. Joe was used to being an “intrepreneur,” someone who acts like an external consultant, but is actually working for the company full-time. The HR manager did not like Joe’s free-ranging style. Seeing the writing on the wall, Joe began to update his resume and plan for the possibility that he might one day be “downsized.” By the mid-1990s, the final bomb dropped: The board had decided to get rid of Joe’s department, and he had one year to find another job.

Then Joe had an idea. He went to the French chief executive officer (CEO), offered to resign at the end of the month instead of a year later, and instead of them buying him out, he offered to buy them out. He asked the CEO to take the dollars they would have spent on his department’s cost center and write him a retainer check. The retainer check would fund current projects to their conclusion, with Joe now acting as the CEO of his own consulting firm. The CEO thought that this was a very clever proposal, and ten minutes later, Joe was an external HPI consultant.

Joe is still on retainer with that company, and it accounts for a large percentage of his current company revenues. He continues to develop in the field of HPI by utilizing his great network of peers. He also is active in the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), having recently chaired the Society’s awards committee for honoring exemplary work in the field of human performance technology. When asked what he enjoyed most about his career in HPI, Joe said, “When I know and can verify that I’ve made a difference and that I’ve been part of some worthy accomplishment.”

Dennis Mankin, who’s been in the HPI field for about 20 years, started off with an undergraduate degree in behavioral psychology. He studied Gilbert and Skinner and touched base with the works of Joe Harless as part of his studies. Upon graduating, Dennis took a job in sales and marketing with ABC Television and then with Ameritech. He rose to a position of leadership, which required him to coach and develop his own skills and those of others in the organization. In 1986, Dennis decided that he no longer wanted to be in sales and marketing, so he started his own business, delivering time management and project management training. About the same time, Paul Elliott was starting RWD Technologies. Dennis found the work that Paul was doing very interesting and watched Paul grow RWD Technologies into a pretty large organization. Dennis began to realize that training was only taking his clients part of the way. He wanted to apply what he knew from his degree program, so he started to get connected with those in the HPI field. Dennis joined Paul Elliott at a firm called Human Performance Technologies. HPT purchased the rights to Joe Harless’s tools and materials and began to offer workshops to teach other practitioners how to apply HPT in the workplace. Today, Paul and Dennis are managing partners in a company called Outcome Systems, along with two other partners, Mason Holloway and Dr. Karen McGraw. Dennis and Mason are also the managing partners of Platinum Performance Group.

In 2003 Dennis and Mason cowrote, and then copublished with ASTD, a set of paper-based tools and job aids for performance analysis called Performance DNA. These HPI tools and processes have been taught to thousands of people from at least 16 countries in just over three years since their launch. An electronic version of these tools was created through Outcome Systems, and they are described as

a software toolset to help the human performance improvement professional conduct complex analyses to improve performance more efficiently and effectively. Performance DNA Desktop provides support from project set up and management and reporting through the analysis phases:

Business Analysis Performance Analysis Key Performer Analysis Influence Analysis Analysis Consolidation and Reporting

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Performance DNA Desktop was developed to align with ASTD’s HPI certification program and provides the tools and templates the HPI professional needs to vastly improve the efficiency of data collection, analysis, integration, and reporting (www.outcomesys.com/products_desktop.htm).

Dennis likes to pick the brains of his colleagues in order to stay current in the field of HPI. He reads the most recent books and surfs the Internet for the latest articles and research on occasion. Dennis says that the best way to develop your skills is to use them and practice, practice, practice. He says that the most rewarding thing about a career in HPI is when “I see positive change and I see people getting past those barriers.”

Charles “Chuck” Harpham’s career began in public education. He taught at both secondary schools and community colleges. He eventually left the teaching profession to accept a training manager position in the manufacturing industry. His next step was to become a business HR manager. Chuck’s Manager of Human Resources at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company eventually asked Chuck and another colleague to become internal performance improvement

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technical director at EPIE Institute, a unit of Consumer Reports magazine, primarily responsible for testing the first generation of microcomputers to be used in schools. For two years, he appeared in the monthly PBS television program Educational Computing to discuss the application of microcomputers in educational applications. After a former professor asked Lou to work with him on client projects, Lou became a full-time instructional design consultant working on long-term projects at Minolta, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Avaya. He’s now in a partnership designing electronic performance support systems with Christensen Roberts Solutions and is currently working on a large-scale EPSS project at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Lou finds reading books and interviewing experts in the field to be the best way for him to continue to grow in the field of HPI. He likes to participate in webinars. He rarely goes to formal training, but spends a lot of time exploring websites that feature good articles and information on the latest trends and research in HPI. When Lou was asked what he found most rewarding about his career as an HPI practitioner, Lou said, “The promise that I’m going to make a difference.”

When asked, Joe Monaco will tell you that he has been doing performance improvement his entire life. He couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t constantly trying to improve upon some outcome by improving or fixing its process. For Joe, it seemed natural to always looking for ways to do things better. He believes his vantage point is one he learned growing up in the family bakery business, where opportunities for improvement were abundant. He always naturally worked from a systems view of things. In an early job as a production supervisor for a large paint company, he began to experiment. From that job, he moved on to become an operations trainer for a large cosmetics company. He was responsible for all operations training—from designing industrial skills to delivering supervisory and management practices training. Discovering instructional design models for the first time, Joe started developing formal ways to do things that he had been thinking about and experimenting with for years. Soon thereafter, Joe read Robert Mager’s work and was turned on to performance improvement. He eventually adopted the performance improvement vantage points of notable contributors such as Tom Gilbert, Geary Rummler, Joe Harless, Ogden Lindsley, and William R. Daniels.

In his career, he never felt limited to instructional design. Joe could always see the big picture and the systems view of things. Back then, there wasn’t a lot of formal performance management processes in place. It basically worked like this: “I’ll pay you and you will do what I say.” Joe introduced a different approach: “If you just train people in the expected methods, provide them with adequate resources, and get them talking to each other about the work, they’ll go out and do the stuff.” And he found a way to convince the supervisors that it was all their idea. His method was to perform detailed performance/process analysis by interviewing the very people who needed to change their own way of doing things. His early lessons were that you had to use data that people already had about themselves; and that people were more likely to follow new process “rules” if they derived the rules from that data.

Joe spent 10 years heading up a corporate OD and training department where he was able to work throughout the organization. He reported to French executives, which posed some interesting challenges and unique opportunities. The French business executives were cautious, if they didn’t just flat-out reject “flavor-of-the-month” interventions. They were too serious for that. But they would easily embrace and support new initiatives that were clearly intended to improve upon the core process or the effectiveness of their organization. Joe says, “For me, that focused business perspective was like being in performance improvement heaven.” Joe would share with them what other companies like IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and others were doing, but the French managers were unimpressed. He took a lot of risks to continue to implement performance improvement strategies, mostly because the strategies required persuading the non-French managers who were used to seeing flavor-of-the-month offerings and had come to expect it. Fortunately, Joe’s boss was a power broker in the company with lots of influence. Joe began to work primarily as a personal consultant for his boss. When his boss returned to France, Joe admitted, “I enjoyed more autonomy than anyone should.” There was continued pressure for him to move into the HR function,

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but he felt strongly that he needed to reside in operations. He next reported to the chief financial officer (CFO). This became challenging, as this boss was mostly

focused on the financial costs for all training initiatives, with little apparent interest in organizational process. Because the CFO was very demanding from the financial point of view, Joe says that he was forced to learn things about corporate finance that he eventually embraced as a unique and welcomed contribution to his own perspective. His new boss stopped in one day and announced that during the last board meeting, Joe’s location on the organizational chart was called into question. Joe was told that from now on, his department would be reporting to HR. This was a mismatch from the beginning. Joe knew he was in trouble during his first meeting, when he asked the top HR manager to discuss objectives—only to find that he didn’t have any he was willing to share. Joe was convinced that the HR manager didn’t believe it was the proper role of his new subordinate to focus their reporting relationship in

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training the solution? (2) Is training in this area the best return on the training dollar? (3) Will training alone make a difference?

This notion of responding to a request is echoed by Gordon (1992), who believes that trainers’ responses are determined largely by how they view their role: as a “provider of instructional programs” or as a “person in charge of helping this organization succeed by improving the performance of its people.” McLagan (1996) identifies the role of performance consultant as one of nine key roles that must be played by HRD professionals now and in the future.

Mager (1996) goes beyond that by contending that trainers must be performance-oriented to survive into the 21st century. He contends: “First and foremost, survivors will think of themselves as being in the performance business, not the training or education business. Successful trainers will understand that, regardless of their job titles, regardless of their specialties, they have one role: to help improve performance aimed at accomplishing important organizational goals.”

Research has been conducted to study this transformation from training to human performance improvement. As mentioned in Chapter 1, Bassi, Cheney, and Van Buren (1997) report that “89 percent of training professionals ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that a shift from training to performance improvement is a top trend.” In addition, a survey conducted in July 1997 among national HRD executives revealed that the shift from training to performance was currently the number three trend, but that it would emerge as the number one trend within three years. In another survey, however, Galagan and Wulf (1996) noted that “73 percent of HRD executives agree that current training managers and staff are ill prepared for performance support.” So, the demand is there, but the skills are not there—yet!

You can’t just assume that employees in a traditional training role will want to make the shift. There will always be a role for a traditional trainer and/or instructional designer in any organization. You can help persuade those in your organization to make the transformation by giving them the business case for change:

1. There will be opportunities for greater rewards and recognition, not just in the training organization, but companywide. 2. Practitioners will become valued and credible partners with the line instead of being seen as merely an overhead expense. 3. The benefits to the client and the organization are quantifiable and observable in the client’s improved operational and performance results (LaBonte and Robinson, 2000).

The Transformation to HPI Practitioner—True Stories

HPI practitioners find their way into the profession from many different backgrounds. Susan Fehl, VP of Enterprise to Value at Pillar Technology, was a traditional technical trainer. She led a team that conducted classroom-based software training for almost 10 years. She became frustrated and began to question the effectiveness of training. She asked herself, “How can you give people the best tools and the best training and support, but not get the business results that you desire?” She interviewed for and accepted a relational database instructor position at a new company and, when given the offer, she negotiated the terms. She requested that the manager allow her to transition her role to HPI within the first year. While the manager wasn’t too familiar with this new field, she had faith in Susan and agreed to the terms. It was during this year that a manager who was familiar with and highly valued performance consulting was hired into a senior technology role. Susan quickly paired up with this manager and began to serve as an HPI practitioner. Just a few years later, the manager became the CIO and made the IT executive team Susan’s primary customer. Then her company merged with another. As most of the executives she served were leaving the company, she decided it was a good time to go out on her own. She spent almost six years as an

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external consultant before joining Pillar Technology. Today she leads the Enterprise to Value practice, Pillar’s cultural transformation and performance improvement practice. There, Susan designs solutions for their clients with software construction and other sorts of performance challenges.

Susan is a long-term member of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and serves on her local chapter board. She continues to develop in the field by networking with her peers and reading articles and books. She often contacts the authors of those articles and books to further discuss ideas that she finds more interesting and helpful. When asked what she finds most rewarding about a career in HPI, Susan quoted Bob Myers, Pillar’s president, who said, “Here’s what I see in you: You get a super charge out of bringing managers and employees together on the same plane.” Susan continued, “Hierarchy imposes restrictions that don’t need to be there and impede success. Everyone provides value—you simply need to tap into it.” She really enjoys teaching others how to intentionally refine the culture of their organization.

Lou Roberts, a partner with Christensen Roberts Solutions, has been an HPI practitioner for over 11 years. In the early 1980s, Lou completed his master’s in instructional design from Columbia University, Teachers College. He became a

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Steps for Transforming to an HPI Practitioner The remainder of this chapter is designed to help you successfully make the transformation from whatever it is that you do now, to a HPI practitioner by using the following three-step process:

1. Assess your competencies 2. Plan for your development 3. Take action

Step 1: Assess Your CompetenciesStep 1: Assess Your Competencies

The new role of an HPI practitioner is quite different from that of a traditional trainer who designs and/or delivers classroom-based instruction. This transformation will not occur any more rapidly for individuals than for organizations. The timeline to get there will depend on your current level of competence and experience. You may have a gut feeling for your readiness for this new role from reading earlier chapters in this book. While there is much need for “trusting your gut” in this field, true success is realized when decisions are derived from good, solid data.

With that in mind, an HPI competency assessment tool and instructions for completing the assessment tool can be found in Appendix II. The instrument contains the 40 competencies of the HPI field, as they were identified in ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement (1996). There is a six-point scale for identifying your current level of expertise for each one.

It is recommended that you not only complete the assessment for yourself but also that you make several copies of the assessment tool and seek input from managers, peers, and direct reports (if applicable). If you are currently an external consultant, you may choose to have past or current clients complete an assessment for you. The feedback you derive from having others give you input on your current competency levels will help you identify your strengths and areas requiring improvement.

Step 2: Plan for Your DevelopmentStep 2: Plan for Your Development

Armed with the results of the competency assessment, you can then identify ways to build your competencies. Appendix III contains a resource guide for the competencies associated with HPI. There you will also find a partial listing of graduate degree programs that will help you develop many of the competencies listed in ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement. You will also find comprehensive HPI development options. In addition, each of the 40 competencies from ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement is listed. For each competency area, you will find:

Recommended readings: Current publications that will provide knowledge and the foundation for skill development for the competency Workshops: Publicly offered workshops that will help to development the competency Self-study options: Nonclassroom training solutions, including self-study text, video, audio, computer-based training (CBT), and CD-ROM Other development opportunities: A list of nontraditional ways to develop the competency

Armed with these resources, you will be able to begin identifying the optimal development path for yourself. It could be attending conferences and workshops, getting involved with cross-functional teams, receiving coaching from an experienced HPI practitioner, and/or sharing best practices with others in the

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field. Many factors—including time, cost, and learning preference—will go into deciding your overall

development plan. You will need to determine the following:

What are your individual development priorities? Consider such issues as the size of your skill gap, organizational needs, and personal interests. What is your time frame for development? How much do you need to achieve? By when? What are the most likely barriers to the successful completion of your development plan? (Think about cost, time, or lack of support.) How can you overcome them? What are your learning preferences? Who can support your development effort (manager, coach, spouse, etc.)? What does success look like? What opportunities exist in the workplace to demonstrate new or existing competencies?

Whatever format you decide upon, the development plan should be formalized in writing (paper or electronic), and should include the following elements:

Competencies to be developed Method for development Target date On-the-job practice opportunity

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8 Building Your Competence as an HPI Practitioner

While Chapter 7 focused on transforming an organization from one that offers traditional training solutions to one that offers performance improvement solutions to address organizational problems and opportunities, this chapter focuses on transforming an individual from a traditional trainer (or other related role) into a HPI practitioner. This chapter discusses the reasons why you might consider this expansion of the traditional trainer role. It also shares true stories of the transitions that others have made from previous careers to HPI. The chapter then outlines a three-step process for making the transformation.

Making the Shift in Role

Chapter 6 made the case that the demand for HPI services in the workplace will steadily increase. Thus, the demand for those who are skilled to deliver those services will also increase. Settle (1995) highlights some consequences for those who continue to focus on training for the sake of training alone. He cites criticism from other organizational members as to their value, budget vulnerability, potential to be outsourced, and detachment from the business as potential consequences of not heeding the move to a performance orientation.

Gill (1995) stresses that a shift in paradigms is needed among trainers to help them rethink their role and purpose. To accomplish this shift in perspective, Rummler (1996) offers a simple starting point when he states that “the essence of the relationship between training and performance lies in how a trainer responds to a training request.” He then follows with three questions with which a trainer who is operating from a performance paradigm should respond: (1) Is