PerformanceXpress

How Will e-Learning Evolve in a Performance-centric World?
by Marc J. Rosenberg, CPT, PhD

How is e-learning impacted as performance technology takes hold in organizations? When performance, rather than learning, becomes the goal, doors open to a variety of new ways to use new e-learning, information, and collaborative technologies directly in the context of work. What changes lie ahead? Questions such as these are addressed in-depth in the recently released book Beyond E-Learning: Approaches and Technologies to Enhance Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Performance (Pfeiffer, 2005).

E-learning is not really new anymore; most organizations are invested in e-learning programs in one way or another. But our current, comfortable e-learning practices may not fit the new realities of organizational learning and performance. Here are five ways e-learning will evolve in a performance-centric world:

1. E-learning will be viewed as more than simply “e-training.”
This does not lessen the value of quality training, but it is increasingly clear that the two are not the same. What we commonly refer to as e-learning is primarily online training. E-learning is much more. In the workplace, people are more likely to “learn” from access to information or collaborating with peers and experts than they will from a sole reliance on courses. Technology enables these capabilities across place and space, and helps manage the sheer weight of everything everyone must know.

2. Managing knowledge will be more important than managing courses.
The ability to get information from those who have it to those who need it—when they need it—will be critical. Training does this—transfers knowledge and skill from subject matter experts to learners through formal courseware (classroom and online), but if training, online or otherwise, was the only way we learned anything, we would all be in class 24-7. Going forward, we will devote more attention and resources to building high-value, easy-to-use information repositories for access to the wealth of explicit, codified information that people need to do their jobs. We will embrace communities of practice, so that individuals and teams can easily collaborate and share what they know. And, we must do a better job of leveraging our experts and their expertise in the organization. This is precisely what ISPI is doing with its Professional Communities initiative.

3. An accelerating shift from formal to informal learning is inevitable.
Even in the best companies, the amount of time individuals can devote to formal learning (classroom or online training) is around 5% of their annual work time. The other 95% is spent on the job, where learning is much more informal, through access to information, colleagues, teams, and experts. Yet the bulk of training and learning departments’ budgets, staff, and time is devoted to creating formal learning programs, leaving workplace learning and support to others, including front-line managers. This is not enough. In the future, training and learning organizations will discover that their value increasingly lies in supporting people in the context of actual work, not just in the classroom.

4. Building sound work processes, rather than continuing to support bad ones, will require more “upstream” involvement of training, learning, and performance professionals.
Unfortunately, training is often used to compensate for a bad work process or poor work documentation. There is far too much investment in training programs that try to help people deal with work processes that are hard to manage or just don’t “work” at all, or documentation that isn’t easy to follow or just doesn’t “document” anything of value. So we train people to cope, create workarounds, and deal with the status quo. One reason for this is that the involvement of most training and learning professionals is too far “downstream” when a work process or document is too far along to change, or is already implemented. When we become involved much earlier in the development cycle, we can embed better learning, information, and performance support tools into the system from the start. We can also use techniques of performance technology to better design processes and documents so that less training and support is needed to perform to standard. This is the ultimate, high-value performance improvement strategy—creating work process, documentation, and routines that are so well designed that the need for training is significantly reduced.

5. Finally, the success of workplace-based learning and performance approaches will not depend so much on the sophistication of the technology, but on acceptance by the organization.
When great technology, and great learning and support, meets an unsupportive culture, the culture wins every time. That is why the future of e-learning will not focus on the “e,” or even on the “learning,” but on the organization’s readiness to embrace the transformation that this future represents. Leadership and change management that build a solid learning culture will be as important as anything else we do, if we want to be successful.

The continuing growth of traditional e-learning notwithstanding, the overarching move to a performance-centric world will create profound challenges and opportunities for us all. As we seek to take advantage of what new technologies offer, we would do well to redefine our view of e-learning—and learning in general—and not see our future as simply more of the same.

Happy New Year and welcome to TrendSpotters 2006!

This column marks a new direction for us as we shift our focus from spotting trends to spotting Human Performance Technology (HPT) models and tools that can help you in your work. This year we will be talking with colleagues to identify and bring you models and tools to support you in your performance improvement activities.

The Open Toolkit
In HPT presentations and in the literature, we often see the term toolkit used to describe the materials we consult as we do our performance improvement work. Most HPT practitioners have several favorite models and tools in their personal toolkit that they use regularly, and they may also have others down there in the bottom that are less familiar or that they have never tried.

Think of TrendSpotters as two extra pairs of hands that will guide you to both new and familiar models and tools, sharing with you how others have used them and providing suggestions for how you might employ them in your work.

Operational Definitions
To ensure that we have a common understanding of critical terms, here are three core definitions:

The Technology (as in Human Performance Technology) is science as applied to practical things.
Models, such as an organizational chart, help organize concepts visually.
Tools, such as checklists, help do our work.

We sometimes find that the terms model and tool are used interchangeably, probably because some familiar HPT models also serve us as tools. An example is the Systems model shown below:

Figure 1. Systems Model.

We will call out other such hybrids when we present them, and clearly identify the “pure” models and tools as well.

The Performance Technology Landscape
We begin with the Performance Technology (PT) Landscape, a comprehensive model that functions as a topographical map for performance technologists. It is a multi-dimensional representation of the routes we can take in pursuit of improved human performance. We will use the PT Landscape as our frame of reference as we present models and tools to add to your personal HPT toolkit.

The PT Landscape calls out these elements:

Basic principles
Where we work
How we think
What we do

At TrendSpotters, we are particularly interested in the four Principles of Performance Technology because they are among the 10 Standards of the Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) designation:

R	Focus on Results
S	Take a System(s) viewpoint
V	Add Value and focus on the business or organizational purpose
P	Establish Partnerships and work collaboratively

Once we have internalized these principles as critical to sustained results, we are ready to look more closely at the six phases of the Systematic Approach shown in the PT Landscape.

The Six Phases
Performance improvement practitioners are accustomed to planning their work by following a formal or informal model to help conceptualize the steps they must take in response to a particular performance problem or opportunity. The PT Landscape pulls together all the elements to be considered and presents them in the six phases of the Systematic Approach:

Need	Assessment and analysis of need, performance, or opportunity
Results	Functional requirements analysis
What	Cause or means analysis, solutions or interventions, recommendations
How	Organize, design, develop
Do	Implement, deploy, manage change
Evaluate	Effectiveness, value, continuous improvement, lessons learned

You will notice that all the considerations critical to any performance improvement effort are covered in the six phases, although you may be accustomed to grouping them a bit differently.

Application Exercise
To get better acquainted with the PT Landscape, take a look at an HPT model or tool you use regularly, and determine first if it is a tool, a model, or a hybrid. Then, identify which of the six phases it supports—and it can be more than one.

Did you determine where your tool or model fits on the PT Landscape? This is a good introductory activity because every model and tool that we explore in this space will be clearly linked to one or more of these phases.

Toolkit Online
The models and tools we feature in this column will be posted on the ISPI website for your use. We will provide additional information in a future column.

If you have an HPT model or tool that supports you in your performance improvement activities, contact Carol Haig, CPT, at carolhaig@earthlink.net or http://home.mindspring.com/%7Ecarolhaig, or Roger Addison, CPT, EdD, at roger@ispi.org.

How Time Series Designs Work: Why They are Practical and Powerful, and Why You Should Care
by Dale M. Brethower, PhD

Time series designs are the preferred research designs for many scientists, including economists and applied behavior analysts. The designs are well known in applied areas such as rehabilitation, occupational injury, and safety. Unfortunately, the time series designs are relatively unknown in psychology, education, and business.

Why are they unknown? Partly because the often-sited book Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research (Campbell & Stanley, 2005) included time series designs in the “quasi-experimental design” category. The label has hidden something important: Campbell and Stanley said clearly that a properly executed time series design is more powerful than any experimental design!

Two Pathways from Research to Practice

Experimental Design
The “traditional” idea is that we do scientific research, develop robust theory that summarizes the findings, then use the findings and theory to build bridges and rockets and computers and cell phones and vaccines and other wondrous things. The method has worked well in the physical sciences, yielding society-transforming technological innovations, sometimes in a matter of decades.

Unfortunately, experimental designs have produced a smaller yield in the social sciences and in much of psychology, education, and business. The smaller yield is due, in part, to technical problems with even the best experimental design. The technical problems are straightforward, but it takes a quite a few pages to say clearly what they are. I think it would better serve PerformanceXpress readers to offer an approach that takes us quickly from theory and research to practice.

Time Series Designs are Widely Used. To check my assertion that time series designs are widely used, click on www.scirus.com/srsapp, which takes you to a site where you can search for studies. When I searched with “Time Series Designs” as the key words, I found references to 2,309 journal articles; searching with “quasi-experimental” yielded 3,660 studies, many in areas relevant to our field.

The Logic. The logic of time series designs applies common sense: observe something, do something, and see what happens next:

An Alphabet Soup of Refinements. The very simplistic “observe, do something, and see what happens” design has a lot going for it. But careful researchers have invented stronger time series designs. The following material presents four common and useful designs:

Time series designs can always be used to monitor and manage implementation of business initiatives or to evaluate business decisions. Furthermore, the business measures are often already being collected but just not being looked at carefully to answer business questions.

Analyzing the Data Collected in Time Series Designs. Data analysis can use all the tricks, transforms, and computations that are used for experimental designs. To see evidence of that statement, look for articles about time series data analysis in economics. But one of the very best ways to analyze time series data is to put it on a graph. Put data points on graph paper to show sales or customer complaints or returns or shrinkage or whatever is of interest. Measures you are interested in go on the vertical axis and time goes on the horizontal axis. Look at the trends. If you can’t see anything, you could do statistical analyses to try to pull little effects out of noisy data—statistics are good for that. But if the effects of your interventions are large, the trends will be clear. Doing computations would be like wearing a belt with your suspenders. If the effects are small, and you are a business person, you might want to modify the interventions until you get larger effects.

Summary Points about the Time Series Path from Research to Practice
Time series designs:

Reference
Campbell, D.T., & Stanley, J.C. (2005). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

A cold January morning, sipping a cappuccino, and reading about this very coffee chain from an easy chair near the fireplace in one of their stores. News says that this chain will have 30,000 stores globally in the next few years. Wow!

Interesting number 30,000. That was the number of employees that General Motors thought they would reduce by over the next few years. So did Ford. That was the number of Xboxes Microsoft^® thought they would sell on opening night last month.

Thirty thousand upside stories and 30,000 downside stories. Each a CPT@Work story. Is it pompous to say that Human Performance Technology (HPT) may have been able to influence these situations and yield a different outcome? You tell me.

In this article series, CPT@Work, we saw one CPT dramatically influence the culture and direction of a financial institution in Detroit, and profits improved. Another CPT changed life at an oil company in Houston. Another improved the operations of a call center in Dallas. Yet another changed operations within a real estate firm in the Southern California area, and another CPT made a difference in the United Kingdom.

During the course of editing this article series, the most remarkable comment I’ve heard from the CPTs is that the issue owners (their clients) consistently could not define the performance they were looking for. Each CPT described a routine where the issue owner gave an initial quick answer, then quickly lost his or her smile when, through questioning, realized that his or her description was a smoky high-level feeling aimed at cheerleading action, rather then a well-defined target tied to organizational requirements.

Each CPT described the surprise from the issue owners that there was someone to help them think it through. Huge jumps in awareness occurred consistently when the issue owner realized that not all performance problems would be solved through training and motivation.

Funny, many CPTs described how their level of influence jumped twice: 50% during that initial 30-minute discussion with the issue owner, who begins to see that there is a methodology behind the improvement of performance, and another 50% when the CPT delivered a solution that closed the gap between what is and what should be.

CPT@Work describes an environment where CPTs are constantly overcoming local opinions regarding how to improve performance. CPTs observe that organizations typically look for activities and, by saying that the first step will be to analyze the situation, the HPT approach runs counter to the quest for results. This specific moment is the tense eye-to-eye examination of their courage and belief in their process; each CPT responded by describing the soundness of the HPT approach.

From what I heard, the CPTs produced valuable results because they insisted on performing the front-end work and they were willing to walk away if unsupported. They described that the issue owners who agreed did so with caution, but did so because the CPT helped them realize that their performance goal was ill-defined and, without the clarity that analysis would bring, all solutions would be equally ill-defined. After the solution worked, there was never any push back. Hmm…

So, as we end this series of CPT@Work articles, let’s say thanks to those who, by sharing their endeavors, helped us see the vision more clearly. If you ever need to refer back to this series, all articles are archived on the ISPI website. You can view them by clicking here.

My coffee is cold now. I’m reading the story that some of the tsunami survivors are still homeless. I think of the chaos of nature, of monitoring mechanisms, and responding actions with well-defined deliverables, processes, required resources, and feedback loops. I think of all the work still to do and the continuing need to evangelize our approach.

Before “lean,” Six-Sigma, Knowledge Management, or one-minute cures, Geary Rummler, CPT, PhD, Judith Hale, CPT, PhD, and Robert Brinkerhoff, EdD, were breaking new ground in the principles and practices of performance technology. ISPI’s Performance Professional Workshop Series commences next month, February 7-10 in Phoenix, Arizona.

From the Board: Chapter Awards—What Are We Looking For?
by Andrea Moore, CPT, ISPI Director

Coinciding with the redesign of the ISPI Awards of Excellence is the redesign of the Chapter Awards. About a year ago, the ISPI Board of Directors decided it would be best if the Chapter Partnership Committee (CPC) took over the Chapter Awards process. You can equate this to allowing local government control (CPC) of citizens’ (chapter members) matters. At a CPC meeting in November 2004, its Board of Directors unanimously voted to take on this charge.

The reason why control of the Chapter Awards was handed over to the CPC is quite logical. Who better to determine the “Bests in Show” of chapters than the committee whose primary purpose is to serve those chapters? Put another way, the CPC is the commonsense answer to the question, “Who should determine award-winning chapter practices?”

There are two parts to the Chapter Awards redesign process: 1) the criteria to judge the chapters’ operations, and 2) the process in which the chapters are judged. First, let’s tackle the criteria issue. The CPC has formed a task force to specifically focus on determining the redesign of the Awards criteria. This task force started its work in November and is well on the way to delivering a strategic plan to the ISPI Board of Directors for approval at their meeting later this month. One strategic direction for the Awards redesign is to reward quality improvement process efforts and results, which would align with ISPI’s requirements for the Certified Performance Technologist designation. The awards criteria will align with the Standards of Performance Technology, such as take a systems view; be systematic in needs, opportunities, causes, design, and development; and focus on quality rather than quantity. The timeline is to have the Chapter Awards redesign complete by the August 2006 Call for Chapter Awards. During the 2006 ISPI Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas, this task force will report on its progress at the Chapter Leader’s Workshop on April 8, 2006.

The process for judging chapters absolutely depends on the criteria developed. So in that case, the process will remain the same. That is, if a chapter meets the criteria specified, it will receive the award. What could be different are the mechanisms used to judge the chapters. The task force is exploring alternative methods to the one-dimensional paper response. This could include telephone interviews, interactive presentations, and member testimonials, among others. We’ll all have to wait and see what the task force comes up with and presents at the Chapter Leader’s Workshop.

In the meantime, the task force could use help from chapter members all over the world. Collecting input on awards from a diverse group of chapter members would be the ideal way to ensure that a majority of opinions are represented—kind of like democracy! Make your vote on Chapter Awards count by getting involved in the CPC! Contact either William Dudeck at WDUDECK@pnm.com or Stacy Rafter at lsrafter@earthlink.net to help on the Chapter Awards redesign.

Another bit of advice for chapter leaders and other members out there: Start thinking about what it would take to submit for an award. With the new year upon us and with chapter Boards of Directors transitioning to new personnel, it’s never too early to start planning for this task. It does take pre-planning and time to submit for an award. But the rewards and prestige are well worth it! Just ask the New Mexico Chapter. They have won a Chapter Award of Excellence for three consecutive years and were elected to the Chapter Hall of Fame in 2005. This, too, could be your chapter!

Check out the CPC-dedicated section of the ISPI website, or go to the Awards of Excellence to see past years’ Chapter of Excellence recipients. The chapters are listed at the bottom of the Awards of Excellence page.

Looking for Resources? Look No Further!

The ISPI website is a wealth of information for the performance professional. On the homepage www.ispi.org, the left-hand table of contents leads a visitor to the valuable Resources & Services web page, where one will find information about Human Performance Technology, Certification, and the Job Bank. However, one of the most valuable resources is the Suggested Reading.

Archived on the Suggested Reading web page is the six-part article series The Performance Technologist’s Toolbox, published by Anne F. Marrelli, PhD, CPT, in the ISPI journal Performance Improvement. Each article is devoted to data collection methods. An in-depth knowledge of data collection methods is an essential competency for performance technologists because the systematic collection of data is required to meet several of the Standards of Performance Technology.

Also available are White Papers from the Society for Human Resource Management and select articles from Performance Improvement journal and Performance Improvement Quarterly (PIQ) that one would normally access only if he or she were a member of ISPI or, in the case of PIQ, a subscriber.

Visitors can also link to the PerformanceXpress archive web page, as well. Each month, PX publishes current, exciting information, and this website offers a different way to find content. Readers can browse PX articles organized by regular columns, such as TrendSpotters and Tidbits from Behavior Science, or easily access a list of the most relevant feature articles that have been published.

This is only a small part of what ISPI has to offer—click here to start taking advantage of these valuable resources.

Get Radical at ISPI’s 44th Annual International Performance Improvement Conference

Researching the Radical! Validating Unconventional Technologies
On Saturday, April 8 through Tuesday, April 11, revisit those exciting times when a young ISPI challenged the status quo and offered innovative strategies related to the art of teaching and the science of learning.

For a Limited Time: Special Bring-A-Colleague Registration Discount!
Register with a colleague for as little as $450! Deadline is January 27, 2006. When you register for the conference, think of a colleague from your organization, a client organization, your local ISPI chapter, or an acquaintance in the field who may not have experienced a recent ISPI conference. Offer that person an opportunity to save hundreds of dollars while benefiting from the premier educational event in workplace performance improvement. One of you will register for only $450. For more information, click here.

What is the Cost of a Conference Registration?
Early registration discounts are being offered for a limited time. Take advantage of these discounted rates by January 27, 2006. For more information and to register today, click here. All fees are listed below in U.S. dollars:

ISPI Member Rates
You must have a valid ISPI membership to qualify for these rates. Join ISPI today and register at the reduced Member rate!

By Friday, Jan. 27 — $799
After Friday, Jan 27 — $899

Delegate Rate/Non-member

By Friday, Jan. 27 — $999
After Friday, Jan. 27 — $1099

Student/Retired Rate
You must have a valid ISPI Student/Retired membership to qualify for these rates.

By Friday, Jan. 27 — $279
After Friday, Jan. 27 — $349

Make the Most of Your Conference Experience
Come to Dallas early to attend one or two ISPI pre-conference workshops, in-depth classes on a variety of topics. Click here to learn more about the Pre-Conference Workshops.

Advance your professional development. Register to earn a Certificate in a specialized area while attending conference workshops and sessions. Click here to learn more about ISPI’s Certificate Program.

Registration Open!

Customer Performance and the Coproduction Revolution

Something was different about this hotel experience. It seems that they really wanted to enhance customer performance, which in this case was me getting a good night’s sleep.

As I stepped off the elevator, an interesting sign came into view. It said I was assigned to a Quiet Floor. It promised that housekeeping and maintenance activities would not start before 10:00 a.m. and not continue after 9:00 p.m. It also promised that families with children, trade groups, marching bands, and circus animals would not be assigned to this floor. But that wasn’t all. The sign also asked for my help in making the floor quiet. It asked that I keep television and radio volume low, prevent the door from slamming, and to not sing too loud in the shower.

As I opened the door to my room, I quickly noticed some odd things in the room. On the bed were a mesh bag and a cardboard CD package. I picked up the mesh bag and examined its contents: eyeshades, earplugs, and a bottle of lavender sheet spray. The CD package had an audio CD, and the package itself had tips for getting a good night’s sleep. For example, I learned that pumpkin and peaches are foods that promote sleep.

There was a CD player in the room, and it was open, inviting me to insert the CD. I did. The first two tracks were the calm voice of a sleep therapist who taught me techniques for relaxation. The remaining 60 minutes were some of the most beautiful electronic music I had ever heard.

The experience in my hotel room continued to have the feel of an Easter egg hunt. By the curtains was a clothespin-like device that enabled me to pin the blackout curtains shut in the middle, so that annoying thin line of light couldn’t show through. I thought the room would be completely dark, but a well-designed nightlight cast an even green glow throughout the room. My choice of pillows, feather or foam, waited for me on the bed.

Did I sleep well? You bet! The room was dark, the relaxation exercises removed the day’s stress, and the calming music was the lullaby to which I fell asleep the next three nights. Waking up was not a problem either, since the hotel offered a guaranteed wake-up call.

In this experience, I could see elements that set vision, enhanced expertise, coordinated the environment, and stimulated motivation. The Crowne Plaza’s Sleep Advantage program is just one example of how companies are adopting Human Performance Technology (HPT) ideas to enhance do-it-yourself customer experiences, which we call coproduction experiences. You’ve probably experienced for yourself the self-service check-in and check-out experiences at airports, grocery stores, and the local home improvement store. Perhaps you’ve constructed your own teddy bear at Build-A-Bear^® Workshops or designed your own athletic shoes at www.nikeid.com. Through these experiences, companies are asking customers to assume a more active role in unlocking value from goods and services. This shift of work from company to customer reflects a coproduction revolution, and it means that customer performance is vital to the success of these coproduction experiences. Click here for more information about coproduction experiences.

Certification Workshop: Applying the Standards of Performance Technology for Professional Development and for Potential Designation as a Certified Performance Technologist

The International Society for Performance Improvement is offering a two-day Certification Workshop on April 12-13, 2006, in Dallas, Texas, directly following the Annual Performance Improvement Conference. Each of the 10 Standards of Performance Technology will be presented with exercises to reinforce participants’ understanding and use of the Standards. Participants will review their readiness to apply for certification using a self-assessment guide; then the Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) application and review process will be presented. As a result of this program, participants will be able to:

Understand the value of the Standards of Technology for their professional development and as a means of improving performance within their organizations.
Apply the principles and systematic approach to the way in which they improve individual and organizational performance.
Assess their readiness to apply for the CPT designation and develop a plan for their professional growth so that they can apply for the CPT designation within three years.
Understand the CPT application review process.
Apply for the CPT designation within three years at no additional charge.

All applications for the CPT designation are subject to the regular evaluation process. The CPT application fee is included in the price of the workshop, which is $1,095 for ISPI members and $1,295 for non-members.

For more information on the Certification Workshop, click here. ISPI can also bring this program to your organization to train and prepare groups of 15 or more CPT applicants. For more information, contact certification@ispi.org.

An Evaluation Strategy for Building Organizational Learning Competence
by Robert O. Brinkerhoff, EdD

The central challenge for organizations today is how to leverage learning into improved performance. In the typical state-of-the-practice in the typical organization, this capability is extremely low. When training impact is defined as the application of new learning in job behaviors that produce or lead to valuable organizational outcomes, then the typical rate of impact from training is less than 15%. Given this low rate, organizations and learning professionals need an evaluation strategy and method.

If this topic interests you, don’t miss Evaluation of Training: Making Sense of the Morass and Building Sensible, Practical, and Useful Approaches, a new workshop offered February 9-10, 2006, in Phoenix, Arizona, as part of the Performance Professional Workshop Series offered by ISPI. To register for one or more of these workshops for the advanced professional, click here.

The overarching purpose of training evaluation is to build understanding of the factors that keep training from being more successful, then teach key stakeholders in the organization what needs to be done to improve their training success rates. Training today yields about an ounce of value for every pound of resources invested. The goal is to reverse this recipe.

Evaluation is not self-serving, defensive, and solely for the benefit of the Learning and Development (L&D) function. Like learning and performance services, evaluation is another tool to improve performance and business results. This is clearly not a challenge the L&D function can accomplish alone.

A Fundamental Shift in Focus
In creating the Success Case Method or SCM (Brinkerhoff, in press), we shift the focus from evaluation of “training” to an evaluation of how effectively the organization uses training. This focuses inquiry on how training is integrated with performance management and determines whether training is likely to get performance results.

To ensure this more systemic focus, the SCM adopts a conceptualization of the training process (Brinkerhoff & Apking, 2001) that suggests we look at any training intervention as a training-to-performance process whose three parts—described below—work together to produce the impact that the organization seeks: improved customer service, increased quality, and reduced costs. For training initiatives to work, all three parts must be completely and effectively implemented:

Creating clear and valid intentionality.
When completed effectively, this ensures that all learning interventions are linked to worthwhile organizational goals, and that managers and leaders are committed to them. It also means that individual learners have made a commitment to the learning outcomes the training could provide to them, to their job, and to job results.
Producing effective learning outcomes.
This would typically be defined as the training program (i.e., workshop, seminar, class). This represents the learning intervention itself and includes all of the instructional activities in which trainees would engage to be sure they mastered the knowledge, skill, and attitudinal outcomes of the training program.
Supporting sustained performance improvement.
Learning is fragile when it is new; and if proper support activities are not in place, it is likely that learners will not try their new learning. This includes ensuring coaching, feedback, incentives, reviews of actions plans, and manager support for new performance.

All three process elements must be integrated and aligned for training to achieve consistently high rates of impact. It is possible, for example, to conduct an excellent learning event that achieves no impact at all. Imagine that an employee completed a training program and her manager provided no encouragement or, worse yet, said: “What a relief to see you’re back from that training program. There’s a lot of important work that’s piled up since you were gone.”

A remark like this demonstrates no encouragement for her to apply the new learning, and gives an implicit message that the training was merely an unwelcome interruption of business. Despite the quality of the training and the new methods the employee learned, there is little likelihood any of it will be put to use.

This illustrates one of the ways that the performance environment overwhelms the best intentions of training. The same message is sent by entrenched behavior, rigid management practices, fear of change and risk taking, misaligned incentive systems, out-of-date information and measurement systems, and so on.

These many factors have to be acknowledged before they can be changed. A training evaluation approach that ignores them will never reshape practice and make fundamental change.

Redefining the Evaluation Process
We define the SCM approach as a process that seeks out and identifies these key impact-determining factors, to give credit and feedback to the deserving parties, and pinpoint the weaknesses in the system. Above all, the SCM is intended to help all stakeholders learn the results of the training.

The SCM evaluation approach is organized around three primary questions:

How well is our organization using learning to drive needed performance improvement?
What is our organization doing that facilitates performance improvement from learning that needs to be maintained and strengthened?
What is our organization doing, or not doing, that is impeding performance improvement from learning that needs to change?

Evaluation inquiry is focused on the entire learning-performance process. The ultimate goal is the development of the organization’s “learning capability”: its capacity to manage learning resources and leverage them into continuously improved performance.

The performance improvement process has learning at its heart. Evaluation of training, when embedded in a coherent and constructive strategic framework, is a powerful tool for organizational learning and capability building. It is consistent with the concept of shared ownership and a method for achieving and strengthening the partnership of L&D professionals with the other key players in performance improvement.

It shows stakeholders what value they gained or lost from training when it worked, why it did or didn’t work, what needs to be done to make it work better, and what value they would get from successful training. It can get the change ball rolling toward developing the learning-savvy organization that is capable of turning its learning investments into valuable performance and business improvement.

Note: This article is an excerpt from Robert Brinkerhoff’s forthcoming book Telling Training’s Story (Berrett-Koehler, release date: March 2006).

References
Brinkerhoff, R.O. (in press). Telling training’s story. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Brinkerhoff, R.O., & Apking, A. (2001). High impact learning. New York: Perseus.

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, EdD, has been a faculty member at Western Michigan University since 1978. He is an internationally recognized expert in evaluation and training effectiveness, and author of 13 books on training effectiveness and measurement. Robert has been a consultant to dozens of major companies and organizations in the United States, South Africa, Russia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. His clients include American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Anglo-American Corporation (Johannesburg), the Federal Aviation Administration, Compaq, Canadian Tire, EDS, QUALCOMM, the U.S. Postal Service, and the World Bank. Robert may be reached at robert.brinkerhoff@wmich.edu.

I-Spy-ku: Unleash Your Inner Mentor
by Todd Packer

ISPI Travels to Egypt for IFTDO Conference

In November, members of ISPI participated in the 2005 International Federation for Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO) Conference in Cairo, Egypt, hosted by Team International. The Conference was designed to address the need for continuous improvement and search for excellence in the area of training and human resources development (HRD). About 500 Human Resources, HRD, and Performance Improvement professionals attended the event. Several ISPI members were selected to give presentations. Roger Addison, CPT, spoke about Performance Architecture: From Analysis to Design. Margo Murray, CPT, presented a paper on Facilitated Mentoring: A Strategy for Leverage in Leadership Development. Carol Panza, CPT, and Christine Marsh, CPT, spoke about The Balancing Act: Having a Real Impact on Performance Results. Abdel Bari Durra presented Knowledge Management: The Absent Dimension in the Management of Arab Universities. And Donald Steiner, CPT, talked about Dimensions of Culture as Factors in Coaching: A Human Communication Approach.

Sphinx and pyramid on the Giza Plateau, south of Cairo, Egypt.

In addition, Carol Panza, CPT, was elected to the IFTDO Board and Roger Addison was named IFTDO President-Elect. He will take office as IFTDO President in August during the 2006 Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Rick Battaglia, ISPI Executive Director and CEO, and Tayo Rotimi will remain on the IFTDO Conference Board. In 2007, ISPI will host the IFTDO Conference in San Francisco, California.

Get Ready…Set…Vote! Getting to Know the Board Candidates

In just a few weeks, ISPI will hold its annual Board of Directors election electronically, and active members will vote for candidates online. Because your link to the “voting booth” will be sent via email, it is important that ISPI has your most current email address on file. To review your record, visit www.ispi.org and click on Login. Or, you may call us at 301-587-8570.

As announced in the December 2005 issue of PerformanceXpress, the following individuals were selected by the Nominations Committee to run for the 2006-2008 ISPI Board of Directors (listed in random order):

For President-elect:

Carol Panza, CPT
Jeanne Farrington, CPT

For Director:

Miki Lane, CPT
Jean Strosinski, CPT
John Amarant, CPT
Jim Fuller, CPT
Darlene Van Tiem, CPT
Ed Schneider, CPT

Click here to read the Candidate Statements and learn more about their skills, qualifications, and goals for the Society.

Survey Participation Request: Benefits of the Certified Performance Technologist Designation

The purpose of this survey is to explore the potential benefits of the Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) certification as perceived by certified and non-certified professionals in the field of Human Performance Technology.

Varying opinions exist about the value of certifications in general. Much is written about the perceptions of industry, employers, and organizations regarding certification; however, little empirical data exists about the value of certification as perceived by certification candidates and
recipients. Your input on this survey will provide much-needed insight about the potential benefits of certification from an individual perspective.

There are five sections to the survey, and the entire survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Be assured that your responses are completely confidential. Your response is requested by no later than January 30, 2006. If you have questions regarding this project or are interested in the survey results, please send an email to Kate Kuettel at certification_survey@hotmail.com.

Thank you for your time in supporting this research effort. Click here to begin the survey.

Are You Recognized for Your Work? Submit it to ISPI!

We received a few manuscripts from readers of PX last month, but we know there are more quality manuscripts looking for a home. You do good work every day with great results. Submit your accomplishments and research to one of ISPI’s prestigious journals and get the recognition you deserve, and share your findings and ideas with your peers.

Performance Improvement (PI) journal publishes articles about all types of interventions and all phases of the Human Performance Technology (HPT) process, as well as hands-on HPT experiences, including:

Models
Interventions
“How-to” guides
Ready-to-use job aids
Research articles

PI also publishes updates on trends, reviews, and field viewpoints. The common theme of articles is performance improvement practice or technique that is supported by research or germane theory.

To submit an article, download and read the Author Guidelines, then email your article as an attachment to the Editor, Holly Burkett, at pijeditor@ispi.org. PI is a benefit of ISPI membership, but if you are not a member you can still subscribe. If you are interested in joining ISPI, please click here.

Performance Improvement Quarterly (PIQ) is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research, theory, and literature reviews relevant to improving the performance of individuals, groups, and organizations. As a scholarly forum for the HPT field, the journal seeks to integrate and expand the methods, processes, and findings across multiple disciplines as they relate to solving problems and realizing opportunities in human performance. HPT work focuses on valued, measured results; considers the larger system context of people’s performance; and provides valid and reliable measures of effectiveness. The journal values both methodological rigor and variety, and publishes scholarship related to:

Process improvement
Organizational design and alignment
Analysis, evaluation, and measurement
Performance management
Instructional systems
Management of organizational performance

To submit an article, download and read the Author Guidelines, then email your article as an attachment to the ISPI Publications Office at pubs@ispi.org. A subscription to PIQ costs only $40 for ISPI members, so be sure to take advantage of this valuable resource. If you are not a member, but interested in joining ISPI, please click here.

As you know from reading this online newsletter every month, PerformanceXpress (PX) publishes exciting feature articles highlighting current developments and ideas in the field of performance improvement, as well as regular columns written by dedicated professionals spotting trends, presenting HPT case studies, and delving into behavioral science. And, that is just the beginning. What contributions and ideas do you have to add to PX? “I wish I had thought of that” articles, practical application articles, articles about the application of HPT, or success stories? Read the Newsletter Submission Guidelines and send us your work today!

Performance Marketplace

Performance Marketplace is a convenient way to exchange information of interest to the performance improvement community. Take a few moments each month to scan the listings for important new events, publications, services, and employment opportunities. To post information for our readers, contact ISPI Director of Marketing, Keith Pew at keithp@ispi.org or 301.587.8570.

Books and Reports
New release co-published with ISPI! Mary Broad’s Beyond Transfer of Training is an essential guide that offers a solid foundation and the tools needed to help key stakeholders in complex organizations achieve the desired workforce performance and organizational results.

Pre-order your copy of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology, 3rd Ed. today and save 20% (Promotional Code: W66YE). The new edition takes a fresh look at the principles, practices, and potential of HPT in the workplace. Release date: April 2006.

Conferences, Seminars, and Workshops
Add performance and pizzazz to your training. Whether it’s a 45-minute presentation or a week-long workshop, Thiagi can make your training come alive with interactive experiential activities. Nobody does instructional design faster, cheaper, and better than Thiagi. Visit http://thiagi.com/game-design-services.html.

Have you subscribed to Darryl L. Sink & Associates, Inc’s Learning and Performance “TIPS” bimonthly e-newsletter at www.dsink.com? The Learning and Performance Conference returns on June 20-22, 2006, in Monterey, CA with The Thiagi Group. Mark it now on your new 2006 calendar!

ISPI offers a two-day workshop focused on using the Standards of Performance Technology as preparation for applying for the CPT designation. CPT application fees are included in the price of the workshop. For more information, please contact us at certification@ispi.org.

Don’t miss ISPI’s Workshops for the Performance Professional! Peer-to-peer, two-day workshops: Geary Rummler’s Introduction to Serious Performance Consulting; Judith Hale’s Implementation: Assuring the Adoption; and Robert Brinkerhoff’s Evaluation of Training: Making Sense of the Morass and Building Sensible, Practical, and Useful Approaches.

Education and Career Resources
ISPI Online CareerSite is your source for performance improvement employment. Search listings and manage your resume and job applications online.

Magazines, Newsletters, and Journals
The International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO) is a professional journal, published quarterly to provide reflection and critical analysis of coaching in organizations. The journal offers research and experiential learning from experienced practitioners representing various coaching schools and methodologies.

Performance Improvement journal is ISPI’s premier HPT publication, reporting on the latest applications, trends, and ideas in the field. A subscription to PI is a benefit of membership, and non-members can subscribe for only $69 in the United States ($119 international).

Performance Improvement Quarterly, co-published by ISPI and FSU, is a peer-reviewed journal created to stimulate professional discussion in the field and to advance the discipline of HPT through literature reviews, experimental studies with a scholarly base, and case studies. Subscribe today!

ISPI Membership: Join or Renew Today!

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:

In addition to the article, please include a short bio (2-3 lines) and a contact e-mail 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.

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.

ISPI
1400 Spring Street, Suite 260
Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA
Phone: 1.301.587.8570
Fax: 1.301.587.8573
info@ispi.org
http://www.ispi.org

PerformanceXpress

Two Pathways from Research to Practice

Reference Campbell, D.T., & Stanley, J.C. (2005). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

References Brinkerhoff, R.O. (in press). Telling training’s story. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Reference
Campbell, D.T., & Stanley, J.C. (2005). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

References
Brinkerhoff, R.O. (in press). Telling training’s story. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.