PerformanceXpress

And the Winner for Best Animation in e-Learning is… Is Your e-Learning Focused on Results or Awards?
by Mark Lange

Would you like to have award-winning e-learning? Of course, most companies would agree. However, what makes it award winning? Would you rather have award-winning e-learning or e-learning that actually teaches?

What is Award-Winning e-Learning?
A growing trend in the e-learning industry is instructional designers, graphic designers, and developers who are more focused on winning awards for their work rather than whether the training effectively teaches the employees. Awards are given out by various associations and organizations for categories such as Best Use of Audio, Best Use of Video, Best Simulation, Best Animation, and Best Graphics. But, what does that mean to you?

It probably means you are overspending on high-end graphics, animations, simulations, and multimedia, or receiving training that may not achieve your training or business objectives. So, do award-winning courses actually teach? Maybe. Awards should be given for the Largest Increase in Performance, Highest Return on Investment, or Biggest Increase in Sales. Many associations and organizations claim their awards do just that. They claim they base their decisions on the outcomes and the effectiveness of the engagement technique. They may be telling the truth. But, then again, they may not.

Real-World Example
I had a recent interaction with a company about its e-learning initiatives. The manager was working with an outside vendor, but the vendor was not living up to the manager’s expectations. The client was unhappy because the vendor was missing deadlines and not communicating effectively. Although the project was not complete, the vendor suggested they submit the e-learning for an award because it was the best interactivity and engagement techniques they had ever developed. However, the manager wanted to concentrate on finishing the e-learning, not submit it for an award. Why did the vendor want to submit it for an award? The e-learning was not completed and it had not been rolled out to the employees. How did they know if the training was effective and meeting the client’s desired training and business objectives?

The answer is…they did not. By merely suggesting they submit the e-learning for an award, the vendor was validating the major shortcoming of awards. The vendor was more interested in what they could get out of it, not how it benefited the client.

Bells and whistles mean nothing in general. If there is no instructional intent behind the engagement technique, the resulting training will not teach. Why are bells and whistles included if they do not teach the employees? To win an award. Developing award-winning e-learning is not what it appears to be. Criteria should be focused on effectiveness and performance improvement, not aesthetics.

Measuring e-Learning Effectiveness
All companies should measure the effectiveness of their training programs, whether it is traditional classroom-based training or e-learning. Using Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation, you should determine:

Measuring e-learning effectiveness can be quick and easy or more complex, depending at what level you are measuring. However, all information is equally important.

Reactions and Learning
Measuring effectiveness at the Reactions and Learning levels can be done efficiently through web-based functionality. Data can be gathered from completing an evaluation or from pre-tests and post-tests. The data are then passed to a learning management system or database for analysis. To measure the effectiveness of e-learning at Levels I and II, you must:

Transfer and Results
Measuring effectiveness at the Transfer and Results levels is much more complex than conducting an evaluation or post-test. Baseline or benchmark data must be collected and analyzed. After completing the training, additional research must be conducted to collect additional data for comparison. To measure the effectiveness of the e-learning, you must:

Case Study: Transfer and Results
A large national retailer wanted its customer service employees to offer a new debt cancellation program. The program covered customers if they became ill or lost their job and were unable to make monthly payments on that retailer’s credit card. The customer service managers were unsatisfied with their revenue projection of $200,000 and suspected the employees were not offering the program during every customer interaction.

Prior to beginning the project, we visited stores as customers to determine the frequency at which the employees offered the program. Most employees did not offer the program. Many did not know about the product or the location of the program brochures.

We developed the e-learning to emphasize the program’s benefits and change the employees’ behavior of not offering the program during every customer interaction. We used scenario-based customer interactions within the e-learning, placing them in common “real-world” situations. Each scenario had multiple selections, and the learner was required to select all that applied. The selections were classified into two groups: What Should I Say? and What Should I Do? In every customer interaction, “Offer the debt cancellation program” was a correct selection under the What Should I Do? option.

After completing the training, we returned to the stores with corporate “secret shoppers” to collect follow-up data. The results:

Important Points You Must Consider
To develop effective and award-winning e-learning, consider these points:

Who ultimately wins from award-winning e-learning? The answer is…the employees. Their improved performance and the resulting business impact should be the measuring criteria, not the bells and whistles.

TrendSpotters: The Cognitive Task Analysis Model
by Carol Haig, CPT, and Roger Addison, CPT, EdD

This month we are pleased to share the highlights of a far-ranging conversation we had with Rob Foshay, CPT, PhD, and Member for Life of ISPI. Always a sought-after speaker at ISPI conferences and a respected author, he consults on learning and performance strategies, e-learning, and certification at The Foshay Group, based in Dallas, Texas. We are adding Rob’s Cognitive Task Analysis Model to the TrendSpotters Open Toolkit to show how a combination of Job Task Analysis and Cognitive Task Analysis can efficiently yield critical performance information of great value to client organizations.

Genesis of the Cognitive Task Analysis Model
As many HPT practitioners are aware, there is an entire family of models and tools for task analysis that continue to evolve. Rob developed the Cognitive Task Analysis Model to help his clients:

Model Description
Job Task Analysis (JTA) is done to discover the task or subtask structure of a job. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is done to discover the decision-making processes and mental models that are embedded in job tasks. This makes CTA an optional extension of JTA. A CTA conducted at a global marketing company, for example, might yield decision rules for how to extract recommendations from customer purchasing data.

	JTA	CTA
Focus of the analysis	Observable Behavior	Thought Processes and Knowledge
What is analyzed	Actions	Decisions
What is described	Conditions, Actions, Criteria	Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Decision Rules, Cognitive Strategies, Metacognition
Underlying knowledge analysis	KSAO: Knowledge, Skills, Aptitudes, Other	Mental Models

Both types of task analysis can be used for a variety of applications ranging from gap analysis, performance measurement, and career planning to designing compensation structures, certification processes, and selection systems. The difference is in the results produced.

Generally, JTA is based on what the analyst can see, a set of step-by-step procedures. CTA is based on heuristics—a problem-solving method for which no formula exists, which an exemplary performer invents to solve a novel problem. Examples of these problems are found in design, planning, management, technical problem solving and troubleshooting, and customer service—at every level of the organization.

How to Use This Model
To maximize the benefits of task analysis, start with the results and work backward, using both JTA and CTA. When you interview an exemplar, you will find that he or she gets results in two ways: step-by-step for the routine, known tasks and through an implicit decision-making process based on knowledge and experience. You will then have both the steps and the decision-making rules that your exemplar uses to make decisions.

Success Story
Some years ago, Rob was working with a large software company that was about to launch a communications system to compete with Lotus Notes. The challenge was to train a large, global field engineering force to install and troubleshoot the new system.

A JTA identified more than 300 potential error conditions. Every installation of the system was configured differently, and no one could draw all the permutations of all the needed flowcharts. In addition, management allotted just three days to convene and train all the field engineers, which was not nearly enough time.

By partnering with several expert engineers and using structured interviewing techniques to complete a CTA, Rob was able, in about four hours, to draw a mental model of the seven core inter-communicating modules common to all the system installations. Then the group provided samples from the possible error conditions and Rob used the mental model to correctly diagnose each one—without ever having seen the actual system, and with less technical training than the field engineers had. Although the group thought that Rob’s success came from his engineering experience (he has none), we can attribute it to his systems thinking skills.

Ultimately, the field engineers’ training plan consisted of a half-day to teach the mental model followed by a series of practice problems to gain skill in diagnosing the source of each one. Teaching the core commonalities enabled the engineers to successfully configure and troubleshoot at any installation.

Advice to Users of the CTA Model
JTA only provides half the story in a task analysis. In today’s organizations, employees are asked to make decisions, and it is the quality of those decisions that adds value for the organization. If you are responsible for the design and delivery of training in your organization, the CTA Model will change your priorities for training.

Link to the Performance Technology Landscape
The Cognitive Task Analysis Model supports these principles of Performance Technology:

Application Exercise
After you complete a JTA, interview an exemplary performer at each of the three organizational levels—performer (worker), process (work), organization, to find out how she or he makes decisions.

Remember that the Cognitive Task Analysis Model helps you when problems are not well defined and are the very opposite of the kinds of well-structured problems we typically solve every day. Happy sleuthing!

…that is the way in which famed psychologist William James described a newborn child’s perceptions of his or her new world. When I read the literature in our field, I get the feeling that James’ description might be fitting here as well.

Definitions swirl abound and are usually less-than-rigorous. No wonder clients and associates alike seem to find us less than understandable or even likely not to be effective. Here is an example of using the same term for different things:

In “Systems design: Responding to the limitations of strategic planning“ (Educational Technology, vol. 46, no. 8, pp. 7-10), Rowland (2006) says, “Strategic planning assumes that an organization is fundamentally sound and on course, and that relatively minor adjustments can assure continued success.” Really? This certainly does not include the literature on strategic planning that I am reading (and even writing and doing).

Other terms we use blur enough to make the eyes roll. Needs and wants are used interchangeably; no distinctions are made concerning possible levels of results (they all get called “outcomes” by most); and all planning is called strategic (and differences between strategic, tactical, and operational ignored). Some even note that needs assessment and evaluation are the same. These are just a few bits of usual conventional wisdom in our field and literature. While we are at it, we should all take a personal vow to speak to ends and consequences and not to means and resources.

But hope springs eternal, and perhaps now is the time in the maturation curve of performance accomplishment and performance improvement to see if we cannot get the “baby” to mature enough to pick out the differences between figure and ground and make important distinctions in our shared world.

A Possible Start to Common Understandings
In my recent ISPI and HRD Press jointly published book Change, Choices, and Consequences: A Guide to Mega Thinking and Planning, I try to rationally layout the basic frameworks, tools, and definitions so our field can agree in order to allow us to be successful in delivering useful performance and to communicate how we have measurably added value to all stakeholders.

Here is a sample (from Figure 4.1, Kaufman, 2006, Change, Choices, and Consequences, pp. 54-55) of comparing the way we might be successful at our profession as compared to conventional understandings:

This is a sharp contrast to the conventional “SMART” objectives, which are self-limiting in terms of the “A” being “achievable.” If we only set out to do what we absolutely know we can deliver, we will never push past the comfortable here-and-now.

So? I think we are ready to tidy up our profession and get rigorous as we move further away from Dick Clark’s allegation that there is a lot of snake oil out there. Shall we practice what we preach? In Change, Choices, and Consequences: A Guide to Strategic Thinking and Planning, I restate the case. We are dealing with people and their lives; they deserve no less than our being rigorous, precise, measurable, and accountable for what we do or do not deliver.

Combine your next professional development opportunity with some fun. From July 25-27, 2006, the city of Chicago, Illinois, will host baseball (White Sox vs. Minnesota Twins), ISPI, and you. Are you trying to achieve systematic, measurable, and reproducible performance improvement within your organization? Do you have all the tools to accomplish your performance improvement goals?

Optimize your organization’s investment in human capital and achieve systematic, measurable, and reproducible performance improvement by attending ISPI’s practical, hands-on, results-oriented Principles and Practices of Performance Improvement Institute.

Principles and Practices of Performance Improvement is the premier learning event for those ready to acquire the mindset and skills so critical in today’s business climate. Participants apply the skills of performance consulting and the techniques introduced in this educational program to diagnose performance improvement opportunities and prescribe strategies and tactics to address them.

So, what are you waiting for? Register today, come to Chicago in July, learn from experts in the field of performance improvement, and maybe take in a baseball game.

From the Board: Moving to Performance Beyond Borders
by Miki M. Lane, CPT, ISPI Director

The theme for ISPI’s 2007 International Performance Improvement Conference as set by President Clare Carey is Performance Beyond Borders. To set the stage, all of the “From the Board” articles in upcoming PerformanceXpress issues will have that or a related theme as their main topic. Having the honor of launching this series of articles, I would like to explore what performance beyond borders means to me as a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. Before 9/11, border crossings were fairly routine. Now, due to the layers of increased security, the crossings are time consuming and no longer routine.

Recently, I drove to St. Albans, Vermont, to open up our small summer camp (in Vermont that means very rustic cabin). The border at Highgate Springs in Vermont is huge, as it is the main interstate border crossing between Montreal and Burlington, Vermont. Out of the six possible checkpoints, only one was open; and although there were only 12 or so cars in front of us, it took over an hour to get through. When we reached the checkpoint, we spent more than 10 minutes with a very chatty guard, telling us how to import plants for our camp. There were now well over 25 cars behind us. I will be the first to admit that I do not know all the intricate procedures and policies for crossings, but I thought of it in relation to the concept of “performance beyond borders.” This clearly was a non-example of the concept and was more like an example of “borders without performance.” I wondered how many other borders without performance we face every day.

I can think of many that include banking, phone holds, doctors, government offices, license bureaus, and the list goes on and on. We are faced with non-performance in an increasingly number of situations. How many of us have called a help line for a problem with a product or service and have been put on old (that is not a typo, because by the time you get an answer, you are considerably older). As our world becomes flatter, we have the opportunity to face many more examples of borders without performance. Now, I do not want this article to end up being a rant because there are enough of those to go around. I rather see this as an opportunity, a call for us to leverage our HPT expertise to solve those escalating performance problems that cause borders without performance around the world. Sure, I would love to be working on solving major world problems, but that is not the arena in which I work. There are, however myriad everyday problems that would benefit from an application of HPT.

What are the problems or issues you face on a daily basis? How would you apply HPT to them? Send in your suggestions to april@ispi.org, and we will publish the most innovative, intriguing, provocative, or elegant ones in a future column. Let’s truly move from borders without performance to performance beyond borders.

The University of Southern California’s Educational Psychology & Technology Department is conducting a survey related to creating a distance learning master’s program. Please take three minutes to let them know what you think: www.vitalresearchsurveys.com/DL. Your input would be very much appreciated as USC designs the next generation of online master’s programs and certificates. The survey closes on June 30, 2006.

Is your summertime work a pain in the brain? Take a chill pill and join headstrong performance technologists to honor Headache Awareness Week (June 4-10), sponsored by the National Headache Foundation. Headaches can have a major work impact, as a 1998 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) press release revealed pain to cause “an annual cost of $65 billion lost in work productivity and 4 billion work days.” To learn how to treat workplace headaches, visit the U.K.’s NHSPlus network of occupational health department’s information on headaches & eyestrain. To relieve the stress, celebrate Recess at Work Day (June 15), Take your pet to work week (June 18-24), Take your dog to work day (June 23)—and train your puppy on performance improvement with Big Dog’s Performance Page, part of Don Clark’s (Edmond, Washington, USA) comprehensive and easy-to-navigate “Big Dog/Little Dog” resource site for Performance, Learning, Leadership, & Knowledge. And, to manage that work-life balance, join several U.S. state governors to acknowledge stay-at-home subject matter experts (worth about $131,000 a year) with Please Take My Children to Work Day (June 26). Meanwhile, I-SPY celebrates a birthday on World Juggling Day (June 17) and wishes you a good, healthy, and productive summer!

Any listing is for informational purposes and does not indicate an endorsement either by ISPI or myself. I hope you find these resources useful, and your feedback is greatly appreciated.

In mid-April, subscribers to Performance Improvement Quarterly reached in their mailbox to find the publication underwent a makeover. Thanks to ISPI’s co-publisher Florida State University, PIQ was re-designed to give the periodical a fresh feel. However, the transformation did not affect the quality of the content, compiled by co-editors Karen Medsker and Michael Cassidy.

As a scholarly forum for the Human Performance Technology (HPT) field, PIQ 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 quarterly values both methodological rigor and variety, and publishes scholarship related to:

Experience what Performance Improvement Quarterly has to offer. Enjoy the article below published in the first issue of 2006. Then, subscribe today! You won’t want to miss another issue.

Conducting Performance-Based Needs Assessments
Sound Assessments are the Foundation for Performance Improvement

Done correctly, a needs assessment can be a valuable tool that can pinpoint training and other performance improvement needs. Often, though, organizations rely on generating a list of high-level competencies of what’s required to do a job well as the basis for the needs assessment. The list of competencies is then compared to the training content to determine if the appropriate skills and knowledge are covered. While this approach is time-efficient, it fails to accomplish the main goal of the assessment: to overcome a specific performance problem or to realize an opportunity for performance improvement.

In our experience, competencies are simply too generic and high-level to serve as the basis for a needs assessment. These descriptions typically use fuzzy terms like “has strong leadership skills” or “is a good communicator” that can be interchangeable from one organization to the next, are not behaviorally-based (ask yourself, how would you know it if you saw it?), and aren’t derived from job performance requirements. Instead, we focus on the performance issue and follow five main steps that enable us to conduct needs assessments that lead to measurable business results.

Step 1: Identify and clearly state the issue or improvement opportunity, and the desired organizational outcome
It’s easy to assume that all key stakeholders know what the issue or opportunity is, but we find that there can be significant variations in peoples’ viewpoints. Many times, stakeholders have general expectations in their heads (such as “our supervisors need to be more professional”) that require us to drill down to specific behaviors. Performance issues or opportunities need to be clearly stated in terms of measurable behaviors, and agreed to by all the stakeholders.

Step 2: Determine the best way to collect the performance data
There are a variety of methods available for data collection, including interviews, observation, surveys, and other source documents. We select the best methods for the particular organization and situation. Whenever possible, we recommend conducting interviews because they enable us to ask follow-up questions and provide richer data. The key is to gather just enough data as is needed.

Gather information from a variety of sources, including managers, supervisors, star performers, and typical performers. Relying solely on the performers themselves can lead to major gaps because people can’t easily articulate why they do what they do, and they make assumptions about what they know versus what a newcomer to the job would know.

Step 3: Analyze the data
Once we have documented the data, we look for consistencies and inconsistencies within our findings, avoiding jumping to conclusions. We then identify the performance gaps by comparing what people are doing to what they should be doing.

Step 4: Conduct a cause analysis
Before we select solutions for closing the performance gap, we identify the causes for the gap. We consider whether the cause is due to a lack of skill or knowledge, or if there are motivational or other workplace obstacles to achieving desired performance.

Step 5: Recommend possible performance improvement solutions
Based on the causes for the performance gap, we identify appropriate solutions. We always keep in mind how the performance issue links back to organizational results and needs to ensure our proposed solutions are both realistic and relevant. Almost always, we recommend multiple solutions, because there are usually multiples causes for the performance gap.

Note: Reprinted with permission of CEP, The Center for Effective Performance. For more information, contact Paula Alsher at 770.458.4080 or palsher@cepworldwide.com.

At ISPI’s Annual Conference in Dallas this past April, the Marketing Communications Committee held a contest to see who had the best elevator speech. Before we give you the name of the winner of the $250 Discover Gift Card, let’s briefly explain what it’s all about.

The Marketing Communications Committee’s charter is to articulate the value proposition to market ISPI (and HPT) and its programs to targeted audiences. HPT is complex, but how do you make it simple enough to get the attention of a “C” level executive? That’s where the elevator speech comes in.

According to Wikipedia, an elevator speech is a brief overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The speech is so called because it can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (say, thirty seconds). The goal of this short statement is not to fully explain HPT, rather, to pique the executive’s attention to want to learn more. Perhaps you can step out of the elevator on the executive floor and provide more information, which you must be ready to deliver! Steven Hale wrote an article, The Evolution of the Elevator Speech, which may be of interest in the March 2002 issue of Performance Improvement.

We got a good start at the conference and plan to share more elevator statements in upcoming issues of PerformanceXpress. If you weren’t at the conference or were but still have an elevator speech to share, please e-mail it to Ken Steinman at ksteinman@laborready.com.

The winning elevator statement came from Marcey Uday-Riley, CPT, who shared: “I help organizations achieve their business objectives by helping them solve problems through the way they utilize their human assets.” Thanks to all who entered the contest, your speeches will be used in future articles and will definitely be put to good use. We hope this short article has piqued your interest! Please continue to share your elevator speeches. We won’t be giving out any more gift cards, but you’ll be helping your fellow HPTers push our cause forward!

Journey to the San Francisco Conference
by Monique Mueller, CPT, and Paul Cook, CPT, 2007 Conference Program Co-chairs

Our Conference Committee mirrors our conference theme, Performance Beyond Borders. We span half the globe and 12 hours’ time difference, have several nationalities and languages on board, represent different age groups, and have even two white males to boast with. If diversity is an asset, this mix bodes well.

Many people are involved in making this journey exciting and pleasurable: ISPI Headquarters, our connoisseurs—thanks to their professional experience; these people have to actually implement our ideas! The ISPI President and Board, encouraging and simultaneously guarding our Committee from our own enthusiasm; and many, many more old and new ISPI friends who contribute with action and advice.

Today, we proudly introduce the Track Chairs for San Francisco 2007: Barbara Gough, Belia Nel, Ireta Ekstrom, Jean Strosinski, Martha Jensen, Andreas Kuehn, Mariano Bernardez, and Scott Schaffer. Again, a diverse and international group of people; most important though, a team of seasoned HPT professionals and long-time ISPIers, who have served the Society in a variety of functions.

Track Chairs are in charge of overseeing the reviewing of proposals, helping presenters to fulfil ISPI’s standards of quality, and, thus, ensuring an inspiring and broad selection of conference presentations. Their job is essential to the Society’s and the conference’s aim, a noble and responsible role!

The conference focuses on finding common ground as well as challenging new insights in HPT by reaching out across cultures, languages, organizations, and professions. Crucial for success is your participation! By submitting a proposal, you share your unique expertise and we all gain knowledge and expand our perceptions. The Invitation to Present and application template for the 2007 International Performance Improvement Conference, Performance Beyond Borders, are now available. Proposal deadlines are as follows:

Every year people from all over the globe attend ISPI’s Annual Conference. The conference is held in English and proposals must be submitted in English. This may cause difficulties for people who are not native English speakers. We have, therefore, introduced a new feature: To assist potential presenters for whom English is a second language, ISPI is offering personal coaching and editing for the proposal writing process. If you need assistance, contact ISPI at conference@ispi.org.

No matter which spot on this planet you call home, if you are concerned with improving performance, plan your journey to your professional home: ISPI’s conference in San Francisco. You will learn about Human Performance Technology, you will share and discuss ideas and best practices, you will meet old friends and new colleagues, and you will have fun in one of the most beautiful cities on earth…and do not forget to put a flower in your hair!

The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) has three special honorary awards that recognize outstanding individuals and organizations for their significant contributions to Human Performance Technology and to the Society itself. The awards are the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, the Distinguished Service Award, and the Honorary Life Member Award. As done in the past, the membership is asked to submit names of qualified individuals for consideration for the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award and Distinguished Service Award. If you are interested in nominating an ISPI member, please email the following information to april@ispi.org:

This year’s recipients were Honorary Life Member: Judith Hale, Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award: Ruth C. Clark, and the Distinguished Service Award: Carol Haig. The deadline to receive nominations is August 18, 2006. For more detailed information on the guidelines used for selecting individuals to receive these awards, click here.

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 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.

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.

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!

Education and Career Resources
Online and in-person MA & Graduate Certificate Programs. Instructional Systems Development, Instructional Technology, and e-Learning at the University of Maryland , Baltimore County . GREs not required. Faculty are practitioners. Click here for more information.

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

R	Focus on Results: by targeting thought processes and knowledge
S	Take a System(s) viewpoint: as in Rob’s success story
V	Add Value: save time, save money, and provide significant breakthroughs (aha’s)
P	Establish Partnerships and work collaboratively: with expert performers

Traditional “Strategic” Planning	Mega Planning and Thinking Paradigm
1. Improve the present situation. Incremental changes to the present way of doing things.	1. Strategic thinking and planning involves the design and creation of a new paradigm. It involves new concepts, realistic new rules, new techniques, and new skills to be successful. It often requires leaving the comfortable behind.
2. Short-term profit or funding. Objectives project from next quarter to, at most, five years.	2. Long-term objectives that design a better world for both today’s and tomorrow’s citizens (make our world measurably better with no back-sliding and functional continual improvement) along with profit objectives are 5 to 100-plus years.
3. A focus on tactics and activities not clearly connected to measurable results. Wants are often confused with needs.	3. Focuses on designing future results in measurable terms before selecting relevant strategies and tactics. Results are long term and set and linked at three levels— Mega, Macro, and Micro.
4. Objectives define financial results only. Internal clients and future citizens are largely ignored. Positive societal impact is left to chance.	4. Objectives are designed for a balanced range of stakeholders: • Future citizens • Today’s clients • Internal clients Performance indicators are chosen to evaluate success and determine revisions and changes.
5. Social and environmental quality is not a formal or measurable issue in planning.	5. Societal value added, now and in the future, is the priority issue in planning.
6. “Needs” are defined as gaps in resources methods and means (e.g., we “need” more equipment, we “need” more computers).	6. Needs are defined as gaps between current and desired results. Requirements for more resources are quasi-needs and are only selected on the basis of the best ways and means for meeting the needs.
7. Level of planning focuses on immediate clients and major shareholders. Society and internal clients are not formally or rigorously considered.	7. Planning includes the integration and linking of three groups of clients: • Society now and in the future • Immediate external clients • Internal clients
8. Goals are more often general and vague and exclude measurable criteria.	8. Objectives are SMARTER*. They are written for results at three levels and include measurable criteria.
9. Visions are more often short term and pertain to the organization itself and not our shared society. Organizational missions are “fuzzy” and sound good but do not include the next generation of citizens. Societal value added is not an issue for the organization.	9. An ideal vision states in measurable terms the kind of world we want to cooperatively design for tomorrow’s child. The organizational mission defines the contribution the organization will make to the ideal vision in measurable terms. Visions are about societal value added—now and in the future—not about what an organization alone wants to accomplish.
10. No shared meaning of what an organization is or must deliver—usually treated as collection of unrelated parts.	10. Shared meaning on the elements common to all organizations, systemic mental models emphasize relationship between the parts.

PerformanceXpress

Genesis of the Cognitive Task Analysis Model
As many HPT practitioners are aware, there is an entire family of models and tools for task analysis that continue to evolve. Rob developed the Cognitive Task Analysis Model to help his clients:

Success Story
Some years ago, Rob was working with a large software company that was about to launch a communications system to compete with Lotus Notes. The challenge was to train a large, global field engineering force to install and troubleshoot the new system.

Link to the Performance Technology Landscape
The Cognitive Task Analysis Model supports these principles of Performance Technology:

PerformanceXpress

Genesis of the Cognitive Task Analysis Model As many HPT practitioners are aware, there is an entire family of models and tools for task analysis that continue to evolve. Rob developed the Cognitive Task Analysis Model to help his clients:

Success Story Some years ago, Rob was working with a large software company that was about to launch a communications system to compete with Lotus Notes. The challenge was to train a large, global field engineering force to install and troubleshoot the new system.

Link to the Performance Technology Landscape The Cognitive Task Analysis Model supports these principles of Performance Technology:

Genesis of the Cognitive Task Analysis Model
As many HPT practitioners are aware, there is an entire family of models and tools for task analysis that continue to evolve. Rob developed the Cognitive Task Analysis Model to help his clients:

Success Story
Some years ago, Rob was working with a large software company that was about to launch a communications system to compete with Lotus Notes. The challenge was to train a large, global field engineering force to install and troubleshoot the new system.

Link to the Performance Technology Landscape
The Cognitive Task Analysis Model supports these principles of Performance Technology: