by James A. Pershing, CPT, PhD, Kok Pun Foong, and Khe Foon Hew

by Carol Haig, CPT and Roger Addison, CPT, EdD

• What trend(s) are you experiencing or observing in your organization that will change how employees do their work, how the organization is perceived, or how your human performance technology (HPT) responsibilities will change?
• To what extent are these trends universal in your industry or specific to your employer?
• What implications do you perceive these trends will have on your organization’s results?
• How will your work be affected?
• What are the potential impacts for the field of HPT?

by William Dudeck, CPT

Have you ever gone to a workshop, seminar, or training course and walked away completely energized by what you learned? You felt ready to return to work and implement changes that would positively impact your organization. The concepts you learned provided answers to some of your organization’s difficult issues, and finally you saw a way to help improve your piece of the company.

When you returned to work you were still excited about your new knowledge and ready to implement some changes. For the first day or so, you made some progress, but soon after your enthusiasm waned and by the end of the week, you reverted back to the “old” ways. What happened? Maybe the content wasn’t THAT great after all?

Wait! Before you blame the content, or yourself, let’s talk about role set theory. Role set theory focuses on the system of interconnected relationships each of us has, both at work and outside of work, and is a powerful determinant of learning transfer. To effectively predict the success of learning transfer, one must consider the power of the role set and use it to its own advantage. A role set, in its purest form, is made up of a focal person and a role sender, often with multiple senders to one focal person. “Roles” are interchangeable; it is possible to play both the focal person and sender at different times and in different circumstances, which can change from moment to moment.

For example, a manager’s “role” involves not only being a “manager” to direct reports, but a “colleague” to other managers, a “mentor” to another employee, a “contact” to a vendor, or a “company representative” to a customer. They would also have a role set outside of work: consider the varied relationships with parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, children, and friends.

Considering that each person has a unique role set, and that this role set is interconnected to any number of other role sets, a single role set structure becomes very complex. What’s more, role sets resist change at almost any cost. So when you, as the focal person in a role set, decide to change by bringing that new concept back to the office from a workshop, the role senders work to put you back in your original focal role. Think of the role set as a net: a tug on any one part of the net will cause stress to other parts. Too much tugging causes the net to tear; too little tugging brings the net back to its original shape. Are you beginning to see a pattern?

Training professionals need to look at role sets when analyzing a training or performance intervention to meet a knowledge or performance gap. These professionals should also look at other systemic issues at play and determine how best to deliver the intervention for maximum impact and learning transfer. For example, if safety is the issue, it is desirable to deliver the information or message to all of the target audience as close to the same time as possible. In this way, the possibility of a safety incident occurring because someone did not receive the message is mitigated.

In a similar way, role set theory applies to management development and training. Management development and training almost always deals with a change of some sort and to effectively facilitate the change, it’s important to deliver the information to all managers as close to the same time as possible. Two scenarios could unfold: 1) the training is delivered to groups of strangers who are then released back into their respective organizations to implement the change (sound familiar?), or 2) training is targeted at a certain level of manager within the organization and delivered not only to those managers but to other lower-level managers at the same time. By having all managers in the same room at the same time, training professionals can better ensure that they receive the same message and effectively engage the role sets.

Incorporating role set theory by encouraging at least three levels of management to attend the session at the same time results in the entire management team hearing and understanding the content together. As a result, discussions have a higher degree of relevance to all participants because everyone works in the same organization and has the same point of reference. They leave the room with understandings that are more closely matched. It also provides a support structure for managers when they return to their real-life work environment.

Importantly, the design process of the learning intervention should incorporate real work issues, projects, and challenges. When participants are asked to bring their work with them to the session, they can work through that work as a team and a role set. The result is the concepts and processes learned are transferred back to the job and the solutions devised stick because participants worked through them as a role set. This, coupled with brief follow-up sessions and executive coaching, makes a powerful change management combination.

Related Readings
Daniels, W.R. & Mathers, J.G. (1997). Change-ABLE organization: Key management practices for speed and flexibility. Mill Valley, CA: ACT Publishing.

Merton, R.K. (1957). The role-set: Problems in sociological theory. British Journal of Sociology, 8, 106-120.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-378.

Milgram, S. (1983). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York: Harper/Collins.

Pfeffer, J. & Salancik, G.R. (1975). Determinants of supervisory behavior: A role set analysis. Human Relations, 28, 139-153.

Zimbardo, P.G. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 17, 237-307.

Zimbardo, P.G. (1974). On “obedience to authority.” American Psychologist, 29(7), 566-567.

William Dudeck is a performance consultant for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico and focuses his practice on business, leadership, and management development. William has a Masters Degree in Organizational Learning and is a Certified Performance Technologist. He may be reached at wddudec@sandia.gov.

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by Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan, CPT, PhD

• Know how done now — David Wilkins
• Knowing how, doing now — Steve Woodruff

• A learning application symphony — Janis R. Currie
• Accomplishing a planned impact — Carolyn M. Blake
• Blueprint to quality results — Jan Watrous-McCabe
• Change peoples’ performance behaviors — Jewell Hunter-Hannah
• Creating the “can do” — Steve Weston (arrived 12/1 at 4:35 pm)
• Cultivate Performance Improvement Behaviors — Learn-Think-Do-Change
• Demonstrate…practice…performance success — Jean Strosinski
• Design to improve performance — Jan Myyra
• Get work done right — Charlie Coiro
• Got objectives, metrics, results? — Maren Franklin
• Human performance gap putty — Alvaro Estrada
• Identify, learn, perform, measure — Sue Meyer
• Improving human capital value — Carl Nielson
• Just Do It — Better! — Michael C. Peterson
• Know do do now (“No doodoo now”) — David Wilkins
• Learn it, do it! — Stephen Woodward
• Learn it, live it — Holli Whitt
• Open Door To Performance — Judy Wade
• Performance gap filling intervention — Alvaro Estrada
• Practice + evaluation = successful performance — Kate M. Sauer
• Produces more work now — Heidi Cribb
• Relevant practice shapes performance — Maren Franklin
• Systematic learning fuels performance — Michael D. Salazar
• Systematically change human performance — Lesa Denton-Silis
• Teaching that demonstrates ability — Bill Wake
• The key to improvement — John Pielli
• Where knowledge meets performance — Bruce DeViller

by Brian Desautels, CPT

Welcome to the kick-off of CPT@Work, an article series designed to increase the visibility of the impact that CPTs are making in the workplace. These stories are meant to provide a showcase for CPT successes. So, share them with your clients.

Performance Issue
The problem was one of not realizing potential. A Midwest credit union was dormant in a growing market. While its reputation was excellent with existing members (customers), the organization was not producing new products, not addressing new markets, and not attracting new customers. Employees were comfortable doing work the way it had always been done; however, competing financial institutions were attracting customers faster. The CEO perceived that the resistance to change would be the obstacle to overcome before real change could be achieved.

Performance Analysis
The 40-year-old organization had 26,000 members and $89 million in assets. The credit union had a great reputation among its members, primarily employees of several local school districts.

Looking at the whole business, the CEO determined that the following five components needed to be analyzed for its ability to contribute, rather than be an obstacle, to the credit union’s growth strategy:

1. Organizational Structure: The credit union was in a unique position because it was small enough to make changes relatively quickly, yet large enough to have the financial resources to make the changes. The executive team consisted of seven people whose roles tended to overlap and were somewhat unclear.
2. Facility Design: 13,000 square-foot building which was cramped, isolating groups and preventing customers from reaching their party quickly.
3. Culture: Many long-term employees were resistant to change strategies that could impact the existing culture or the fundamental business plan. The culture was administrative and reactive vs. the needed proactive cross-selling culture. When the CEO joined, he replaced a person who had been there for 27 years; the culture displayed a very safe, consistent, “we’ve always done it this way” approach to business.
4. Core Processes: Core processes were not adequately using technology to automate and streamline processes. For example, loan approval was a 300-step process that took one-and-a-half days to complete and approve loans. Members had to visit a different employee for each type of transaction.
5. Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes: The organization had no HR policies and procedures in place; nothing which provided consistent guidance on job requirements, recruitment, pay, training, termination, retirement, and so on.

The CEO discovered that employees felt good about their jobs in general but had issues with pay, incentives, and work environment. The CEO also discovered that the organization recognized its need to respond to changes in the market. Employees were ready to move ahead.

Performance Solution
A three-year business plan was created, which focused on the following change strategies:

1. Restructuring the Organization: The credit union’s executive team needed to be streamlined into five different specialties with very clear parameters on where one role and responsibility ended and another started. A team charter was created that delineated how to make decisions and address issues between departments or divisions.
2. Redesigning the Facility: A larger building that encourages cross-collaboration between employees, better communication, and smoother accessibility by members was designed.
3. Developing a Sales-oriented Culture: Employees were cross-trained to deliver multiple banking services, to present features and benefits of all credit union products, and to identify opportunities to present products and services to customers in a non-threatening way.
4. Redesigning Core Processes: Automation of internal-facing and external-facing core processes was undertaken. Repetitive steps were eliminated, and data collection was now conducted online.
5. Training and Developing Employees: The CEO wanted career-pathing for employees. A Knowledge Matrix and a Resource Matrix for employees to self-manage their careers was developed. The Knowledge Matrix identified the required skills for each organization job; the Resource Matrix identified how to acquire those skills. From the matrices, a curriculum was designed to close the gaps between skill requirements and knowledge levels.

Organizational Results

1. Restructuring the Organization: The new, condensed management team is more specialized, and communication has been greatly enhanced. The 360 feedback is measured to continuously improve the management team to guide the organization into a stronger market position. Policies and procedures are followed 100% of the time or an exception is escalated to the Board of Directors to review the real need for the policy.
2. Redesigning the Facility: A new facility, designed to be a financial mall, was constructed. The new headquarters is 38,000 square feet and serves municipalities, educational associations, teachers, retirees, and other organizations.
3. Developing a Sales-oriented Culture: A sales-oriented culture that promoted service, value, and convenience for all members was created. A “one-stop shopping” customer approach merged the Member Service and Loan Departments and developed employees who could handle member needs on any credit union product.
4. Redesigning Core Processes: As a result of the improved processes, more than a half million dollars of savings was realized within one year. Loan approval, for example, was reduced from 300 steps in 1.5 days to 30 steps in 20 minutes.
5. Training and Developing Employees for the New Culture: The credit union is now fully staffed with competent, sales-oriented employees and turnover is almost nonexistent. The HR Manager now conducts regular salary surveys to ensure competitiveness with other financial institutions and organizations in the demographic area.

Bottom-line Results
In less time than planned, the credit union showed a 19.2% increase in membership (to 31,000) and a 77.8% increase in assets (to $160 million). In addition, two new products launched within a nine-month period generated sales of more than $10 million.

The changes have been so significant and well received that the CEO regularly receives calls for advice from other credit union executives. Ongoing organizational assessments prove that cultural success was achieved.

About the CPT: Sally Lollie, certified in 2003, is a partner with Michigan-based IRI Solutions, Consultants to Management. She may be reached at LOLLISA@irisolutions.com.

To submit a CPT success story, contact Brian Desautels at briandes@verizon.net.

Brian Desautels, CPT, is a past ISPI Board Director and Society Treasurer, 2000 ISPI Conference Chair, and co-founder of the Seattle chapter of ISPI. He is a former Sr. HR Manager for Microsoft Corporation and is currently the Managing Partner of JB2D Performance, a Seattle-based consulting firm which applies performance technology strategies to human resource management.

For many people, this is a time of year to seek guidance and find renewal. Perhaps this is a reason that January has been designated National Mentoring Month. As HPT professionals, we grow through the ongoing connection, support, and inspiration from our colleagues within, and beyond, ISPI. This month, we seek some sites to help with mentoring. Our theme is To Each To Teach. Just in time to honor your doors, thresholds, and bridges.

Quick recap: Every month, three sites, one theme. While far from comprehensive, hopefully these sites will spark readers to look further and expand views about HPT. Please keep in mind that any listing is for informational purposes only and does not indicate an endorsement either by the International Society for Performance Improvement or me.

These are the general categories I use for the sites featured:

1. E-Klatch: Links to professional associations, research, and resources that can help refine and expand our views of HPT through connections with other professionals and current trends
2. HPT@work: Links to job listings, career development, volunteer opportunities, and other resources for applying your individual skills
3. I-Candy: Links to sites that are thought provoking, enjoyable, and refreshing to help manage the stresses and identify new ideas for HPT

E-Klatch
Who Mentors Whom? To learn about a variety of resources on mentoring and peer guidance, lead yourself over to the comprehensive website of Peer Resources. A Canada-based non-profit, Peer Resources provides training, resources, and consultation “to persons who wish to establish or strengthen peer helping, peer support, peer mediation, peer referral, peer education, peer coaching, and mentor programs in schools, universities, communities, and corporations.” You can access a list of recommended books and videos on mentoring, learn about the National Peer Trainer Certification, and identify other like-minded associations. The section on Mentoring provides links to book reviews, tools, conferences, and more.

HPT@work
Who Mentored You? So asks the website of National Mentoring Month, a site of the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Health Communication. This website contains celebrity reflections on their mentors, including Ray Charles, Gloria Estefan, Colin Powell, and Tom Brokaw. The site also offers you the opportunity to submit a story to thank your mentor. So, mark the calendar for January 25, 2005, as Thank Your Mentor Day, and find a way to honor the mentors in your life.

I-Candy
Who’s Mentor? Well, at the very least, this loyal friend of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey is not alone, as we see at this website of eponyms from the “Diversions” section of the online collection of tales and other literary writings from Scorpio Tales. According to the site, “An eponym is a word derived from the name of a real, fictional, mythical, or spurious character or person. Most eponyms originate from a person’s surname.” (Any ISPI eponyms come to mind?) Here we learn that January comes from “Janus, Roman god of doors, thresholds, and bridges.” Other pleasant diversions include expressions and sayings, tongue twisters, phobias, and other explorations into the unusual quirks of the English language. This site serves as an interesting mentor on unique words and language expression, for all of us free of Sophophobia (Fear of learning) and Sesquippedaliophobia (Fear of long words).

I am eternally grateful to the many wise and wonderful people in ISPI who have taken the time over the years to offer their advice, insights, wisdom, and humor to help me develop as a professional. So, to all of my mentors, thank you. See you next month!

When he is not Internet trawling for ISPI, Todd Packer can be found improving business, non-profit, and individual performance through research, training, and innovation coaching as Principal Consultant of Todd Packer and Associates based in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He may be reached at tp@toddpacker.com.

In accordance with the Navy’s Revolution in Training’s focus of aligning military qualifications and civilian certifications, a third of the Navy’s Human Performance Center’s (HPC) employees have now achieved designations as Certified Performance Technologists (CPT).

An important building block in achieving the vision of the HPC is the development of the best-qualified human performance professionals. This has become a driving factor in the HPC endorsing the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI)/American Society of Training Development (ASTD) CPT program.

A CPT is a human performance practitioner who has proven his or her ability to systematically identify opportunities to improve organizational and individual performance. ISPI developed the CPT designation, along with the Standards of Performance Technology, in response to demands in the private and public sectors for specific criteria to distinguish capable practitioners in the Human Performance Technology (HPT) field.

The mission of the HPC, which was established in 2003, is to address U.S. Navy performance deficiencies by systematically analyzing and diagnosing the entire “performance system.” Human performance practitioners evaluate specific tasks, the individuals involved, the processes and policies governing the activity, as well as the overarching environment and organization, to identify and remove the barriers to optimum performance. Consequently, the focus of the HPC is on performance, not the performer.

According to Dr. Roger Chevalier, CPT, ISPI director of certification, the HPC currently has 33 proficient and qualified CPTs.

“This vast effort and press toward certification has resulted in HPC having the largest concentration of CPTs in the industry,” said Chevalier. “The next largest in the industry is in the 12 to 15 range.”

In order to attain the certification, applicants must have at least three years of practical work experience in the performance improvement field and demonstrated use of the 10 Standards of Performance Technology.

According to ISPI, these standards are based on the following four principles: Focusing on worthy results (address problems clients care about); Considering the larger context (like the client’s constraints and marketplace reality); Adding value (the outcomes are worthwhile); and Collaboration (work as part of a team and bring in appropriate specialists). An applicant’s documented work is attested by clients and supervisors, and reviewed by ISPI’s panel of experts.

In addition, all applicants must commit to ISPI’s Code of Ethics, promoting ethical practice in the profession while guiding the performance improvement process through commitment to value, validated practices, collaboration, improving proficiency, integrity, and confidentiality.

HPC clients, as well as the individual practitioners, benefit from this certification. Clients benefit from having use of highly competent professionals who can immediately and positively impact their organizations, while the performance technologists have the professional satisfaction of being part of an interactive, exclusive group of professionals with a shared interest in continuous improvement and growth in the performance improvement field.

Dr. Burton F. Krain, the HPC detachment manager at Naval Service Training Command, feels that his certification gives him additional exposure and access to a wide range of individuals and organizations that share the common goal of systemic and systematic identification of performance related issues.

“Gaining my CPT certification has meant a greater degree of interaction with professionals in the private and public sector that deal with similar performance problems,” said Krain. “Having access to fellow professionals has resulted in the sharing of ‘best practices,’ tools, and techniques to effectively engage in problem identification and intervention. Those partnerships have saved our HP Det. time and improved our efficiency. The result is greater productivity for the Navy.”

HPC human performance technologists are not just claiming to be performance improvement professionals. Instead, they are proving it through their certification and demonstrating it through their work.

“Having the CPT designation from ISPI gives me an initial credibility with a customer,” said Karen McBee, CPT and HPC Standards and Methodology department head. “It tells the customer that I not only know the principles of Human Performance Improvement, but also that I am experienced in applying them. This helps me get my foot in the door. Oftentimes, that’s all I need as an HPT to start the performance improvement ball rolling.”

For more information on HPC, visit www.hpc.navy.mil.

by Chris Nelson,CPT, ISPI 2005 Conference Committee Chair

Since the 2005 conference committee first met to outline the plan for ISPI’s 43^rd Annual International Performance Improvement Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 10-15, 2005, over 14 months ago, many members have asked me “what’s going to be new and exciting about Vancouver?” Well, in addition to Vancouver being an incredible destination with culture, art, science, and outdoor activities galore, the committee has pulled together a program that is sure to provide something valuable for all. This year’s theme, “Process, Practice, & Productivity” focuses us on the HPT process and practices that contribute to individual and organizational productivity and has attracted world-class presentations and thought leaders from countries around the globe.

In addition to a program filled with innovative and informative presentations, the conference has two sub-themes, networking and emphasizing the first “I” in ISPI. From the opening event focused on “making connections” and the traditional “Cracker Barrel,” to the “International Room” and “ISPI Communities” gathering spaces, this year’s conference has been designed to facilitate networking across geographies and disciplines. Everyone attending receives a Conference Passport that serves as a guide for navigating and capitalizing on four information-packed days filled with opportunities to make valuable connections with friends and colleagues from around the globe.

At the center of this year’s conference is a new networking event on Thursday evening, Explore Canada’s West Coast. Included in the cost of the conference is this evening of food, drink, and camaraderie during which we will enter a surreal world through fresh evergreen trees surrounded by the aroma of a British Columbia Rainforest. You will be able to make your way into the rainforest, wander into Okanagan Wine Country, or visit Little Italy for delectable pasta. If it’s sushi you’re craving, plan to spend time in the Pan Asian Square. Whatever path you follow on your journey, you are assured to experience an electric ambiance and a night filled with networking opportunities as you mingle with colleagues from around the globe.

So what are you waiting for? Click here to learn more about our 43^rd Annual Conference in Vancouver and register today!

If you are knowledgeable in OD and have lots of energy and connections, ISPI wants you to be the volunteer Director of the Organizational Design/Alignment Community. For further details or to express interest, please contact Jeanne Farrington at jeanne@jfarrington.com.

According to “The Objectives and Criteria for Accreditation of Training in the Nuclear Power Industry,” National Academy for Nuclear Training, March 2002 ASAD 02-001, training is used as a strategic tool to provide highly skilled and knowledgeable personnel for safe, reliable operations and to support performance improvement. 

This is why the International Society for Performance Improvement developed a Principles & Practices of Performance Improvement Institute focusing on Performance-Based Solutions for the Nuclear Industry. During the three-day program, attendees learn to:

• increase performance improvement skills and resources,
• network with performance improvement specialists,
• focus on the Total Performance System,
• respond appropriately to training and performance improvement requests, and
• recommend cost-effective solutions to performance problems.

This program will be held February 7-9, 2005, at the Sheraton Midtown Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Click here for further information, or to register.

Are you working to improve workplace performance? Then, ISPI membership is your key to professional development through education, certification, networking, and professional affinity programs.

If you are already a member, we thank you for your support. If you have been considering membership or are about to renew, there is no better time to join ISPI. To apply for membership or renew, visit www.ispi.org, or simply click here.

ISPI is looking for Human Performance Technology (HPT) articles (approximately 500 words and not previously published) for PerformanceXpress that bridge the gap from research to practice (please, no product or service promotion is permitted). Below are a few examples of the article formats that can be used:

• Short “I wish I had thought of that” Articles
• Practical Application Articles
• The Application of HPT
• Success Stories

In addition to the article, please include a short bio (2-3 lines) and a contact email address. All submissions should be sent to april@ispi.org. Each article will be reviewed by one of ISPI’s on-staff HPT experts, and the author will be contacted if it is accepted for publication. If you have any further questions, please contact april@ispi.org.

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PerformanceXpress is an ISPI member benefit designed to build community, stimulate discussion, and keep you informed of the Society’s activities and events. This newsletter is published monthly and will be emailed to you at the beginning of each month.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact April Davis, ISPI’s Senior Director of Publications, at april@ispi.org.

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