PerformanceXpress

Model the Customer Process
by Paul Harmon

At the recent Gartner BPM conference, we had several discussions with individuals who were looking for ways to engage senior management. We shared an idea we have been developing with Roger Burlton for our BPTrends Associates BPM Curriculum and got a very positive response.

The idea is very simple—instead of starting by modeling your company’s processes, begin by modeling your company’s customer processes. In essence, every customer goes through a series of steps when he or she interacts with your organization. From the customer’s perspective, it really doesn’t make any difference what goes on inside your organization. All the customer cares about is what they have to do to get the product or service they want. Put a little differently, a customer can compare the process of interacting with your organization with the process of interacting with your competitor’s organization and, other things being equal, your customer will probably choose the organization with the simplest and most efficient process.

Customer process modeling has been around for awhile, even if it hasn’t been discussed in exactly the terms we are discussing it here. The classic Rummler-Brache swimlane diagrams always reserved the top swimlane for the customer. IBM liked this emphasis so much that when it borrowed the idea for its own BP methodology, LOVEM, it named the approach Line of Vision Enterprise Modeling based on the fact that one could glance across the top of the diagram and immediately see all of the ways the customer interacted with the organization. Figure 1 illustrates just such a diagram.

Figure 1. A swimlane diagram showing customer activities in the top lane.

Figure 1 makes it abundantly clear that the customer, in this case, might have three interactions with the company, interacting in the process with two different groups within the organization. The first two interactions are with the portal, at least as far as the customer is concerned, and the third is with shipping.

Of course, we really haven’t modeled the customer process in any detail. We haven’t considered what kinds of problems the customer has when he or she tries to get information from the portal, what happens when things really go wrong and shipping delivers the wrong product, or what happens when the product requires service. It’s easy to see that we could quickly add quite a few more customer activities to the customer process.

If you are a BPM group and only seeking to start management thinking about what goes on when a customer interacts with your company, you might want to simply ignore all of the lanes except the top one—the customer process. In other words, you might simply treat the company as a black box into which the customer makes inputs and receives outputs. Figure 2 shows how we might model the customer process. We’ve only started to make notes on the customer experience below the line.

Figure 2. The customer process.

We might leave out the decision points to simplify the diagram. Our goal, in creating the customer process diagram, is to create something that will serve to generate a discussion with senior managers. We ignore the specific departments or company processes involved because we want to keep the discussion focused on the customer.

We’ve kept the model shown in Figure 2 relatively simple and assumed a company dealing with individual customers. It can get a lot more complex, very quickly, if your company sells to other companies, has complex credit requirements and offers various configurations, discounts, delivery, and service options. In these cases, creating the customer process model can be quite a challenge.

Imagine we create a customer process model and do some research so we know it is a reasonably accurate description of what actually happens. And, suppose it is obvious to everyone that the customer process is rather complex. We might very well ask our senior management team to spend some time discussing how to simplify the customer process. Again, to keep things objective, don’t discuss what goes on inside the company—focus on the customer. If some manager objects, remind him or her that the customer doesn’t care why you do things the way you do—he or she only cares about what he or she has to go through to satisfy his or her need, just as your company doesn’t care what your suppliers have to go through to get parts to your door. If you are in a highly competitive situation—and who isn’t these days—you might try modeling the customer’s interaction with, not only, your company, but with one or two of your leading competitors.

The point of this suggestion, however, is to focus senior management on what the total customer experience is actually like. It’s to avoid some of the inter-departmental rivalries—at least for awhile—and to focus on the customer experience. We are all customers and even senior managers know what it’s like to be frustrated when you are trying to get an upgrade to your software or have a question about a product you recently purchased. It’s not too hard to engage them in an effort to simplify and improve the quality of the customer process. The problem gets a bit nastier when you start looking at the internal processes that are causing a poor customer experience. Now, you begin to hear about all the internal operational efficiencies and policies that require the company to treat the customer in ways that reduce the pleasure or efficiency of the customer’s interaction with your company. Hopefully, by the time this discussion gets hot, you will have laid some groundwork and gained some support for some changes inside the organization to improve the customer experience.

The classic process problem most companies face is sub-optimization. For various reasons, individual departments do things that make their job easier, at the expense of other departments. Thus, even though department C needs items as quickly as possible, department B organizes its deliveries in batch, waiting until it has accumulated a set of items because it is more cost-effective for department B. Any process analyst that has worked on organizational problems knows that handoffs between functional, departmental silos is one of the major sources of problems—and the major reason that the value chain, as a whole, doesn’t operate as efficiently as it might.

Another source of sub-optimization occurs when the company optimizes its internal processes at the expense of the customer. In essence, companies use automatic answering systems because they save money, even though customers consistently report that they hate dealing with automated answering systems. It was interesting to hear, at the Gartner BPM Conference, that Gartner has detected a significant trend toward companies removing automated answering systems and rehiring people to answer phones. Obviously, every company wants to be as productive as possible, but if the productivity comes at the expense of sales—as it does when customers shift to another supplier because they like the service better—then the improved productivity is a kind of delusion.

If you’ve never tried modeling your customer processes, we recommend you consider it. It represents a fresh approach to explaining the value of process modeling to senior executives, and just might gain you the interest and support you are looking for to initiate that next big process redesign project.

Note: Reprinted with permission of BPTrends. Business Process Trends Advisor, Volume 5, Number 6, March 27, 2007, www.bptrends.com.

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TrendSpotters: The GAP-ACT Model
by Carol Haig, CPT, and Roger Addison, CPT, EdD

This month we are pleased to welcome Fred Nickols, CPT, to our guest roster. Fred (nickols@att.net) has been affiliated with ISPI since 1968. His professional background includes a career in the U.S. Navy, a career in consulting, and two executive-level positions with former clients. Today, Fred is a writer-consultant with numerous articles (www.skullworks.com) available to interested colleagues. He has a particular interest in perceptual control theory (PCT), which asserts that the function of behavior is the control of perception. Fred shares his GAP-ACT Model with us and adds it to the TrendSpotters Open Toolkit.

Genesis of This Model
Fred developed the GAP-ACT Model because he found the generally available models of human behavior and performance to be lacking dimensions to explain the influences of individual purpose and control. Perceptual control theory provides the perspective he was seeking. The GAP-ACT Model is the result.

Model Description
The GAP-ACT Model is based on the premise that people are living control systems. They strive to control various aspects of their environment, and they vary their behavior to achieve and maintain goals that are important to them. Let’s start with a standard premise: The difference between current performance and desired performance is a gap.

In the GAP-ACT Model, the current state of the target variable is defined by the performer’s perceptions of that target. Desired performance is reached because the performer:

• Has a goal for the target that defines the conditions the goal must satisfy
• Compares his or her perceptions of the target with the goal to identify any discrepancies
• Adjusts his or her actions to align the target with the goal, offsetting the impact of other conditions on the target
• Determines an intervention to eliminate the discrepancy between perception and goal (closes the gap)

In addition:

• The dotted line stands for feedback from perception to target.
• The circles help define the separate and overlapping nature of the person and the environment.

How to Use the Model
The GAP-ACT Model is most useful during the analysis of a performance improvement issue. Fred finds it an excellent mental model when used as a checklist. You might, for example, match the variables in the model with the situation you are analyzing and look at the interplay between them to help clarify the dynamics. You could even draw the model, adding the variables for your situation to better see the interactions or to explain them to your client or others on your team.

Success Story
Fred shares this success story to further explain the GAP-ACT Model. As an internal consultant, he was asked to look into a reject rate that was “too high” and make recommendations for lowering it. The target was a registration form with a 60-70% reject rate. Applicants completed and submitted the form to register for a written test required for employment. About half the rejected forms were returned to applicants because of invalid or missing institutional codes. The remaining rejected forms were carelessly filled out.

The goals of the applicants were to register for, take, and pass the test so as to obtain employment. The perceptions of the company were that the rejected registration forms were full of errors. The perception of the applicants was that the returned forms were the first indication that something was wrong with them. After determining that the applicants had the basic ability to fill out the registration form, and that they had no way to tell if the form was correct or not, Fred focused on the instructions for form completion and the list of institutional codes provided to applicants.

He discovered three factors that affected the likelihood that the applicants would complete the target form correctly:

• The instructions were incomplete and vague; applicants could not tell if they had completed the form correctly.
• Applicants were not told what would happen if their forms were incomplete or incorrect; they were unlikely, then, to have a goal of complete and correct forms.
• The codes for institutions were organized in numerical order but applicants needed an alphabetical list of institutions so they could select the correct code; this was a complicating condition.

The action was the resulting intervention that eliminated the discrepancy between the current and desired results by providing revised instructions, a clear statement of consequences for failure to complete the form properly, and an alphabetized institutional code list. Subsequently, the reject rate dropped to 9%.

Advice to Users of the GAP-ACT Model
Perceptions of performance vary depending upon who looks at the performance. For example, there is the manager’s view of an employee’s work and the employee’s view. This model can help you to capture input from both sources and identify conflict between the two views.

You might also like to learn more about perceptual control theory. Try these books: Making Sense of Behavior, by William T. Powers, and Introduction to Modern Psychology: The Control-Theory View, by William T. Powers and Richard J. Robertson.

Links to the Performance Technology Landscape
The GAP-ACT Model supports these principles of performance technology:

Application Exercise
Fred suggests revisiting a past project—one that went well and produced the desired results—or one that was not as successful. Identify the GAP-ACT Model elements to determine what you may have missed or accomplished more effectively.

Click here for a short article that further explains the GAP-ACT Model. Visit www.skullworks.com and search in the Training and Human Performance section for additional articles.

To review past contributions to the TrendSpotters Open Toolkit and find all the models and tools featured in this column, click here.

You may contact Carol Haig at carolhaig@earthlink.net or at http://home.mindspring.com/~carolhaig; and you may contact Roger Addison at roger@ispi.org.

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Lessons Learned: Peer to Peer 2007
Capacity Building in Arizona-Based One-Stop Career Centers
by Sheila E. Murphy and Margaret Trujillo

Peer to Peer 2007 is the most recent phase of a three-year implementation of a capacity-building initiative by workforce development professionals within eight Arizona counties. This formalized, grassroots-developed initiative has focused on process-sharing and has emerged as a viable mechanism for engendering the sharing of practices used to deliver services to employer and job-seeking clients.

The process provides practitioners training in site visitation and in the application of a common instrument for structuring observation. Site observers then proceed to visit one or more One-Stop centers in other counties or cities. A debriefing session follows visits by a number of observers to specified sites. The session allows site visitors to share their views of optimal practices experienced in a particular One-Stop setting, with the twofold goal of identifying replicable processes and noting opportunities for performance improvement.

Phase II of the Peer Professional Development process was initially structured around formalizing implementation of best or promising practices adopted from One-Stop career centers within Arizona. During this second phase of the process, the leaders of Maricopa County Workforce Connections, the sponsoring organization, sought to raise the level of awareness and quality of implementation associated with the Peer Professional Development process to a higher level. Phase II has emphasized individual and team accountability for:

• Performance improvement
• Process adaptation and integration into new settings

Peer to Peer 2007 has generated the following lessons relative to professional development:

Lesson #1: Needs of the local customer base define workforce development. The Peer Professional Development process and its current phase, Peer to Peer 2007, bring to life the core meaning of this service-based profession. The real and vital needs of employer and job-seeker clients remain the total focus of this interagency professional development initiative. Participating workforce development professionals share with their peers both successful and unsuccessful applications of organizational capacity to support problem solving in the marketplace. This grassroots approach to performance improvement has been met with enthusiasm that has characterized the implementation of the process to date and attests to the validity of the need for interagency sharing of both challenges and successes in serving employers and job-seeking clients.

Lesson #2: System structure is relevant to process implementation. Processes that work well in a given local One-Stop may operate with less apparent success in another setting. For example, the presence of a military base that functions as the core of a community accommodates a close relationship between the One-Stop Career Center and military staffing functions. In two of the participating counties in Arizona’s peer-based initiative, the One-Stop that operates in association with a private nonprofit organization has established processes for frequent communication and sharing of job listings and job requirements. Both the rural location and the organizational structure of both One-Stops facilitates a more seamless relationship between military staff and the One-Stop than would be probable in a One-Stop configured differently and located within a major metropolitan area.

Lesson #3: Resource disparities are a fact of life in local workforce development services. A major One-Stop located in one of the large metropolitan areas of the state maintains the newest available equipment to assist individuals having sight and hearing challenges. Although staff members at One-Stop centers statewide aspire to having the latest equipment for these purposes, such availability is restricted to those well-funded organizations that can serve communities having extremely large populations.

Lesson #4: Sustaining inter-organizational professional development necessitates a project champion and a point person to coordinate continuation. The Peer to Peer 2007 initiative has involved considerable interagency planning, beginning with a pilot implementation by two primary sponsoring agencies: Yuma Private Industry Council and Maricopa Workforce Connections. Leadership representing the two organizations have functioned in the role of project champion, generating cooperative participation from sister agencies in the field and alternately funding the project from year to year. Maricopa Workforce Connections provided a project manager to work directly with an external consultant to ensure contact and scheduling of participation for site visitations and for preliminary and follow-up workshops.

Lesson #5: Streamlining and simplification of customer service processes is vital to the success of a multi-agency professional development initiative. Streamlining customer service often requires professionals within the One-Stop to work harder in support roles to make the customer experience both easy and natural to follow. One of the large metropolitan area One-Stops has committed to service principles of immediacy. This agency has crafted a flowchart that specifies who does what by when, for the purpose of making service the priority. New employees are trained to respond to the customer quickly and efficiently, making ease of use and completeness of service the major criteria.

Lesson #6: The success of professional development processes depends upon ease of use and integration into job performance. Professional development for workforce development professionals mirrors the very process of delivering service to employers and job-seeker clients alike. The profession of workforce development is rigorous. This field requires its members to maintain solid, up-to-the-minute particulars concerning current legislation and the authorization of services to adults, youth, displaced workers, and others. It is important that professional development efforts designed to serve this population provide immediately evident awareness, information, and mechanisms that measurably enhance the ability of these professionals to perform their responsibilities. As an example, a rurally located One-Stop career center participating in Peer to Peer 2007 has established a knowledge transfer initiative, designed to raise the level of knowledge, skill, and ability of mid-level management within the organization to that of the trio of senior leaders at the top of the company. The initiative was launched for the purpose of ensuring coverage of skills in anticipation of the forthcoming retirement of two members of the leadership team. The professional development effort was structured around a collaborative analysis of the tasks included in each of the senior- and mid-level management positions. A parallel capacity analysis was developed, for the purpose of identifying gaps in the organization’s leadership capabilities. Upon identifying and validating proficiencies, individual capacity, and gaps, the organization established an individualized knowledge management system. That system facilitated the highly focused professional development initiative designed to transfer critical skills from the senior leadership tier of the organization to individuals occupying positions in the mid-level tier.

Lesson #7: Innovation histories have the potential to crystallize key learning points concerning workforce development. Sharing the progression toward refined processes can yield valuable lessons for One-Stop professionals seeking to enhance the effectiveness of their centers. As an example, one county workforce development organization discussed its progression toward the delivery of comprehensive pre-opening services to new local business. The agency chronicled its transition from furnishing free to fee-based services to a wide range of retail organizations seeking to relocate in a growing community. Another example involved the development of the One-Stop career center in a small community in which every one of the functions housed within the One-Stop was covered through a dedicated cross-training initiative. All staff within the center are presently able to serve both walk-in clients and long-term service recipients, such as large local business enterprises.

Process as Solution
Workforce development professionals throughout Arizona have demonstrated resilience and commitment to serve an expanding base of employer and job-seeker clients amid shrinking resources and rising customer expectations. In such an environment, a systematic and structured approach to offering exposure to new ideas becomes a necessity. Such procedures lead to the maintenance of an appropriately high “innovation quotient” on the part of organizations dedicated to workforce development. Peer to Peer 2007 represents a strong, viable, and innovative stimulus for keeping professionals within the field current and actively sharing new and emerging methods of addressing challenges in the dynamic workforce arena.

Dr. Sheila E. Murphy is President of Sheila Murphy Associates, a Phoenix-based consulting firm. She may be reached at shemurph@cox.net. Margaret Trujillo is Interim Assistant Director of Maricopa County Workforce Development Division.

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Visualize the Shiny Bronze Awards Plaque

Imagine walking into your organization’s lobby with a prospective client and pointing out the ISPI International Awards of Excellence plaque. The client is impressed and asks a few questions about the project and how to get the award. You sense the prospective client is impressed. You will be able to leverage the client’s interest in the award during the project and set up the project so that it is award ready. What a dream! What if it were reality?

Are you creating or doing a project that is amazing, or do readers of your recent book tell you it is stellar? Did you write a dissertation that has received rave reviews from your doctoral committee? 

Consider this: Your chapter is working like a well-oiled machine, the chapter Board puts their heart into the chapter, and meeting attendance is soaring. Then, consider how nice an ISPI awards plaque would look on your registration table.

One last vision, imagine walking up the stage steps at the Awards Banquet held during ISPI’s yearly conference, in front of everyone important to ISPI, to receive the award. The stage lights are on you. Savor the moment; it is the capstone of hard work, vision, commitment to doing things right, leadership, and stamina. You will be among other very special people. The photographer will take pictures for your chapter website and organizational public relations. In fact, you have just become part of the elite “club” of ISPI Awards of Excellence winners. Now your efforts will remain on the ISPI website for years to come. You can use the ISPI awards hyperlink on your resume. 

To be honest, you have put a lot of energy into the project, recent book, dissertation, or chapter. Now, you will be carefully completing the application. If you are thinking of applying, click here. Read stories of past award winners; then read the appropriate application. If you have any questions, you may send an email to awards@ispi.org. For example, if you are a first time award applicant, you may believe a mentor would help. If so, notify awards@ispi.org to be assigned an experienced award winner or expert in the area you are applying for. Get started now. The deadline for award submissions is October 29, 2007.

Looking forward to receiving your awards submission and getting to see your wonderful work!

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From the Board:
Learning to Partner in the Valley of the Sun
by Timm Esque, CPT, ISPI Director

For that large group of ISPIers who focus on improving performance in organizations, one of the signs of success is having the opportunity to partner with C-level business executives. Typically those who have created this opportunity are either situated in the upper echelons of their organization (another sign of success); or they are in a rather elite class of external consultants—a class I think many of us aspire to reach at some point in our career. I should clarify that there are a rather large number of consultants with access to C-level business executives, but a relatively small number coming from our perspective of human performance technology.

I bring this up because a disproportionate number of presenters at the upcoming Achieving Business Results through Performance Improvement Fall Conference in Phoenix (actually North Scottsdale), Arizona, are those who have achieved this level of success. If you have not made your plans already, you might still consider taking advantage of this opportunity to rub shoulders and compare notes with several ISPIers who have a history of “Achieving Business Results through Performance Improvement.”

How do we make ourselves more visible and more respected by the people at the top of the organization? This is a question numerous ISPIers have asked in the past and one that the Management of Organizational Performance (MOP) ProComm is in the process of exploring. In a previous PerformanceXpress article, Lory Lanese and I described some data we collected from C- and GM-level executives about where they go to get advice about managing and improving the performance of their organizations. From our limited sample, the short answer was they trust very few people for this advice: their direct reports, sometimes a mentor, and occasionally an external guru. The ProComm has set a goal for itself for this year to create a forum where business executives discuss the management of organizational performance with each other. The hope is that by facilitating and observing these executives discussing their challenges in their own terms, we might learn a little bit more about partnering with executives to improve human performance. 

In the meantime, one good way to gain insights into partnering with executives would be to come to Phoenix and learn from those who have already done it. A glance at the program on the ISPI website will reveal the names of a number of familiar ISPIers who are in that elite class I referred to earlier. Some names may be less familiar but clearly have some great lessons to share about partnering with executives. The keynote speaker Cedric T. Coco, CPT, just to name one, is general manager of Engineering Excellence at Microsoft Corporation where he “drives engineering standards and practices used to create Microsoft products and provide customers with consistent, high-quality software and services.” Here is someone who clearly has a “seat at the table.”

If you have not attended one of ISPI’s Fall Conferences yet, you are in for a treat. These conferences are on a smaller scale so it is almost difficult not to meet most of the other attendees and presenters. The format supports having those one-on-one follow-up discussions that can be a little challenging at larger conferences. Presentations are in either a symposium or clinic format. Symposia last three hours and are typically designed not just for show-and-tell but for some real interaction among the participants. The intention of this format is not only to share knowledge and know-how from presenter to participant, but to generate new knowledge and know-how. The clinics are more like traditional presentations but with the addition of a coached application component, so you know you will leave having not only heard, but practiced something new. If you are able to come, be sure to check out the pre-conference workshop and Institute offerings as well. 

Of course, learning to achieve business results through performance improvement and to partner with business executives is not the only reason to come to the Valley of the Sun (where I call home). By the end of September, there is still plenty of sun to soak up, but the mornings and evenings are cooling off. This makes it pleasant for an early or late round of golf or a stroll through the world-class art galleries and the brand-new and “tres chic” shopping and restaurants at the Scottsdale Riverwalk in Central Scottsdale. If you can take a little more time, Scottsdale is two hours from beautiful Sedona (red rock country) and just four hours to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Although if you are going to the canyon, I would recommend you go the extra couple hours to the much less crowded North Rim or the brand-new Grand Canyon West Skywalk.

These are the reasons that I personally am very much looking forward to this year’s Fall Conference. I hope to be seeing you here in sunny Arizona come the end of September. For more information on the upcoming conference, visit www.ispi.org/Fall2007.

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Remembering Gabriel D. Ofiesh:
An ISPI Pioneer and Founding Member

Gabriel D. Ofiesh, 88, a retired Air Force colonel who was later a professor of educational technology at Catholic, American, and Howard universities, died August 2. He lived in Arlington.

Dr. Ofiesh made significant advances in the field of individualized instruction, with an emphasis on using computers and other forms of technology in education. He was the author of many publications on the subject, including a textbook, “Programmed Instruction: A Guide for Management."

Dr. Ofiesh was born in Beirut and came to the United States when he was 2. He grew up in New Kensington, PA, and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. He later received a master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University and did graduate work at Purdue University and the University of Michigan. He received a doctorate in education from the University of Denver in the late 1940s.

He entered the Army Air Forces in 1942 and was a navigator during World War II. Later, when he was in the Air Force, he served as a psychological warfare officer and intelligence officer.

He was a psychology professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy from its inception in 1955 until 1960. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of colonel in 1965 and received the Legion of Merit for his contributions to military educational and training programs.

Dr. Ofiesh settled in Alexandria in 1963 before moving to Arlington in 1969. He worked as a consultant for a variety of federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Defense Systems Management College, the U.S. Postal Service and National Park Service. In conjunction with the Department of Labor, he helped design the methodology for vocational training programs used in Saudi Arabia.

In the 1970s, Dr. Ofiesh joined the faculty of Catholic University, where he was director of the Center for Educational Technology. He taught for several years at American University before becoming a member of the Howard University faculty, teaching educational technology. He retired in the late 1980s.

He was the founding president of the National Society for Programmed Instruction. He received many awards for contributions to instructional technology.

Since he retired, Dr. Ofiesh had been a member of several Arlington book clubs. For most of his life, he paid little attention to sports, but in his 80s he became a rabid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A son, Victor Ofiesh, died in 2005. Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Bess Ofiesh of Arlington; four children, David Ofiesh of Arlington, Gabriel D. Ofiesh II of Charlottesville, Philip Ofiesh of Falls Church and Rebecca Ofiesh of Kansas City, Mo.; two brothers; three sisters; and nine grandchildren.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com, August 16, 2007.

ISPI’s Moment of Reflection

I taught two courses for Gabe at Catholic University, summer of 1968. Good man. He was truly the Drum Major of the NSPI parade. —Geary Rummler

Gabe was a friend and colleague I’ll never forget. I never tire to telling the story about the trunk of his car, which was filled with at least 15 or 20 briefcases—one for each project or course! I taught some of the first Information Mapping courses for him at Catholic. Wonderful man. —Bob Horn

I have never met a man with such a push for the future as Gabe Ofiesh.  When I first became involved with hypertext and early online technology in the 80s, Gabe was on the phone with me almost weekly for periods of time, or so it seemed, asking me things, telling me the latest updates, turning me on to new people to contact, urging action to help make programmed learning and new technologies more mainstream, etc. I remember him as a sort of incredibly short, very round, always-enthusiastic, fireball who always seemed interested in pushing the envelope. What a great contributor! —Carl Binder

I never met Gabe Ofiesh, I’m sorry to say, but I certainly heard the stories! Lots of stories! Also saw the effects of the things he did to and for the then-NSPI.  A real dynamo, by all accounts, and made a real difference in everything he set his mind to. —Eileen Mager

CPT News from Around the World

Please join me in congratulating ISPI’s newest CPTs:

• Paul Barsnica
• Edith Bell
• Dale Brethower
• Kenneth Ellis
• Reid Finch
• Fred Forck       
• Dana Maughan
• Arthur Ottney
• Dawn Papaila
• Susan D. Russell
• Wayne Stahl

Special Work by CPTs
Mary Broad, CPT, and Diane Harris, CPT, RN, MS CHRD, are doing a project in Canada sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOH LTC) for community support service agencies within the Central West region. Diane, the primary consultant, “gets” transfer issues, according to Mary, the “Transfer Queen” of our profession. The Ministry wants to prevent the waste of training funds where there is little hope for improvement at the point of client care. 

The many small agencies that apply for funding provide a variety of services to elderly clients living independently (at varying levels of success) in the community. These agencies operate on shoestrings, with none of the technological, analytical, or performance support resources that major organizations like Walgreens (see the August issue of PX) can summon. Diane has been working with the Central West project team to create a performance improvement framework for sustainable learning and development. The framework provides a systematic process for agencies to examine how well their current practices compare to best practices and analyze reasons why staff are not performing at their best; reasons that are likely beyond the control of the staff. Diane has also designed, with the team, a funding application process that required a rudimentary performance analysis from applicants to provide some evidence that training is an appropriate solution to their performance problems. She has also worked with applying agencies, to help them understand the basic concepts of performance analysis and to include these appropriately in their applications for funding.

Mary’s role has been to provide several daylong workshops in the Toronto area, to managers and staff members of these agencies. Her purpose has been to present, repeat, and expand on the concepts previously introduced by Diane, and to support the initial practice by agency managers and staff in using basic performance analysis concepts (primarily a la Rummler). A major goal is to wean them away from the automatic reliance on training as the solution to everything.

The feedback from participants has been most satisfying. Many are amazed to find a way of looking at performance problems that gives some ideas of how to resolve them, to get the results they are looking for. They have told us that the performance improvement approach is not an add-on to their busy health care lives, but rather “it just makes sense.” The whole project is still in the early stages, and Diane has been providing ongoing coaching for agencies whose applications were funded to help them with implementation and measurement issues (among others). To ensure sustainability, Diane has trained 14 coaches across the Central West region who will support the community agencies as they weave performance improvement into the day-to-day practices of their organizations.

So what is Mary and Diane’s approach to assignments such as these? Their basic message has three major components. First, help managers and workers and “trainers” to learn Rummler’s model of six factors that support performance (clear performance specifications, necessary workplace resources, consequences and incentives, feedback, individual capabilities, and necessary knowledge and skills). They want to convince these clients that all staff members need to learn these concepts so they have a common vision, common language, and common approach to improving performance.

Then Mary and Diane analyze a typical performance problem in the five-stage PI process: 1) desired and actual organizational results and related desired and actual performance in observable and measurable terms, 2) root cause analysis primarily at the individual worker level (with brief looks at work process and organizational levels), 3) intervention selection, 4) implementation of interventions, and 5) evaluation of outcomes based on preset measurable criteria.

Finally, they take a look at the organization as a complex system and identify who the important stakeholders are: primarily the management chain, the workers, and the range of performance consultants (designers, instructors, evaluators) who should definitely be involved. They also suggest a look at additional stakeholders (internal or external suppliers and customers, subject matter experts, coworkers, regulators, union officials, community groups, etc.) who may be important as well. Key stakeholders should be involved throughout the whole PI process, learning the factors that support performance and contributing to one or several of the PI process stages.

Diane comments, “It is so amazing to me that the adoption of the performance improvement approach has exponentially increased collaboration across the Central West region, their awareness of the complex system affecting performance, and provided skills and knowledge on how to address performance issues.”

And what does Mary say about all this? “It is a constant revelation to me that almost, inevitably, no one in an organization has a clue about the complex system affecting performance, or the interaction among key stakeholders that must take place to improve performance, or how to conceptualize and measure actual and desired performance.” 

To learn more, you may contact Mary Broad at marybroad@earthlink.net, and Diane Harris at dharris@dianeharris.ca.   

Mary is the author of Beyond Transfer of Training: Engaging Systems to Improve Performance (Pfeiffer, 2005) and co-author of the almost-classic Transfer of Training: Action-Packed Strategies to Ensure High Payoff from Training Investments (Addison-Wesley, 1992). You can purchase her recent book through ISPI’s website.

To find out what other CPTs are doing, check out the other articles in this issue such as the one by Roger Chevalier, CPT, PhD.

Your Story
If you have a story to tell that you think others would value, send it to judy@ispi.org.

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Performance Technology Makeovers
Finding HPT in New Places
by Colleen Cunningham

In the fall 2006 semester, graduate students in Allison Rossett’s Performance Technology class at San Diego State University created short papers called PT Makeovers. This is one of those papers.

The Current Product
The existing learning product is a self-paced, computer-based tutorial on the importance of reading to children. I chose this topic because my sister does not read to my nieces. She isn’t the only parent who doesn’t. The purpose of the existing product was to present the why, when, where, and how of reading to children.

The structure of the product is similar to Robert Gagné’s (1985) Nine Events of Instruction. First, it entices the learners with introductory screens (Figure 1) to raise awareness and to motivate them to read to their children.

Figure 1a and 1b. Introductory screens.

The tutorial progresses to inform the learner of the objectives and presents the material (Figure 2). The tutorial incorporates graphics with animation and text to illustrate points (Figure 3). After completing the sections on why, where, and when to read to children, the learner is able to choose which age category or categories to complete for how to read to his or her children. After completing an age category and its associated practice, learners may choose to move to another age category or to the resource screen (Figure 4). Learners practice between each section. Each practice is accompanied by customized feedback for correct and incorrect responses. To conclude the tutorial, learners must complete a summative evaluation by answering three questions.

Figure 2. Objectives.	Figure 3. Animation with text.	Figure 4. Learner’s choice.

The PT Makeover
Although my tutorial is good, it could be better. The first step is to integrate the tutorial as an asset in a larger solution system. B.J. Fogg (2003) coined the term captology as the use of Computers as Persuasive Technology; the proposed solution system takes advantage of the power of the computer and the Internet by using captology to persuade parents to read to their children (Fernandez, 2004).

Most parents want to help their children succeed in the world. There is a large body of research on the actions parents can take from conception to high school to help their children achieve this leg up in the world. One crucial skill is language. Parents who read to their children are helping their children develop language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Although many parents see the importance in reading to their children, there are barriers that prevent them from doing so. This solution system seeks to help parents identify their unique barriers, establish goals, track their progress, and provide one-stop shopping for resources and experts.

This redesign begins at the start with a survey to evaluate the parent’s:

• level of value in reading to his or her children
• level of confidence
• barriers
• strengths and weakness
• desired outcomes

Each user will be asked to set goals for reading to his or her child and perform scheduled self-assessments to evaluate their growing skills and performance (Adams, 2004). In addition, the system will use nagware, email, and text messages, to nudge and (it is hoped) motivate parents with reminders, tips, and testimonials from kids, parents, and experts.

However, the remainder of the solution system will vary for each user. Each parent will receive a customized solution system for his or her needs based upon his or her responses to the survey. It could include watching vodcasts of model performers in action, listening to what the experts have to say, taking tutorials on different skills and knowledge, listening to testimonials, e-coaching from an expert, a discussion board for synchronous and asynchronous communication with other parents, or printable job aids.

Let’s take a look at a rapid prototype of where the parent would start his or her adventure. Figure 5 is a road map of the website with a description of each option; users would arrive at this page after an introduction to the site. 

Figure 5. Road map with description of opportunities.

Conclusion
This approach prescribes a solution to help parents read to their children. The system integrates captology using podcasts and vodcasts, email nagware, and synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to become involved in a community of parents and experts, and printable planner and sidekick job aids designed to support their performance and goals. The possibilities for PT interventions are endless for this important topic.

References
Adams, C.J. (2004). Self-assessment as a performance improvement intervention. In A. Rossett (Ed.), Performance Improvement Emporium. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/pie

Dwyer, J. (2004). E-coaching. In A. Rossett (Ed.), Performance Improvement Emporium. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/pie/

Fernandez, A. (2004). Captology. In A. Rossett (Ed.), Performance Improvement Emporium. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/pie

Fogg, B.J. (2003). Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive technologies). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Gagné, R.M. (1985). The conditions of learning (5th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Marino, G. (2004). E-coaching: Connecting learners to solutions. In A. Rossett (Ed.), Performance Improvement Emporium. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/pie

Rossett, A., & Schafer, L. (2007). Job aids and performance support: Moving from knowledge in the classroom to knowledge everywhere. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. www.colletandschafer.com/perfsupp

Colleen Cunningham just graduated from San Diego State University with a master’s in Educational Technology. She is eager to begin her HPT career and may be reached at colleen.mary.cunningham@gmail.com.

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New Orleans: Jazz, Great Food, Great Fun, and ISPI

Before “lean”, Six Sigma, knowledge management, or one-minute cures, our presenters were breaking new ground in the principles and practices of performance technology. Participants will work with proven tools and techniques and learn new approaches to enhance value for both the organization and the client.

	Geary Rummler’s Introduction to Serious Performance Consulting will take you beyond job-level performance improvement for individual workers to an exploration of the process and organizational levels of performance improvement where HPT practitioners can make a lasting contribution to their organizations.
	Margo Murray’s Managing Mentoring Processes for Measured Results will provide guidelines and practice in the front-end strategies, needs/readiness assessment, and back end evaluation, and continuous improvement, to create sustainable mentoring processes.
	No matter what your role in any organization, Carl Binder’s Six Boxes™ Performance Improvement and Introduction to FluencyBuilding™—a combination of practical, results-driven methodologies—will give you new perspectives, insights, research-based tools, and quick start methods for immediate application.
	Donald Tosti’s Organizational Performance: Focus on Results will draw on the years of research and development within HPT to introduce a common framework which facilitates the understanding of the relationships between HPT and virtually all other forms of organizational consulting.

These workshops are limited in size to ensure participants receive individual attention from presenters and quality time to interact with other attendees. Each attendee will have the opportunity to participate in a pre- and post-workshop conference call. Upon completion of the program, you will receive a Certificate of Completion. In addition, you can earn up to 12 CPT points toward re-certification. For more information, visit www.ispi.org/ProSeries.

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Korean Conference Delegation Visits the U.S. Coast Guard
by Roger Chevalier, CPT

Directly following the 2007 Performance Improvement Conference in San Francisco, a Korean delegation of 38 representatives of universities, industry, the Korean Coast Guard, and the Korean Management Association visited the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Petaluma, California. They were accompanied by Kinam Sung, ISPI’s Asian marketing representative, Roger Chevalier, CPT, and Carl Binder, CPT.

Upon arrival, they enjoyed breakfast and briefings on the U.S. Coast Guard and the training center by the commanding officer, Captain Brian Marvin, and the training division chief, Commander Greg Sundgaard. They then took a tour of the training center and visited a Coast Guard helicopter that landed at the training center.

General Director Jo In-Hyun of the Korean Coast Guard was very impressed with the briefings and the tour that he and the others were given. His comments reflected the opinion of the entire delegation regarding the very motivated and enthusiastic staff.

Mr. Won-Kyu Sung, executive vice president of LG Academy, and Mr. Chung-Seok Lee, international cooperation division manager for the Korean Management Association, were similarly impressed with the personnel and facilities.

Many from the delegation took time to play golf and visit the beautiful Sonoma County redwoods and coast. Roger Addison, CPT, and Belia Nel, CPT, joined the group for their final evening together for dinner and karaoke. The visit was a great learning opportunity for all who participated.

Roger Chevalier is an independent consultant who works with clients as they move toward greater use of performance technology throughout their organizations. He is the former ISPI director of certification and is the author of A Manager’s Guide to Improving Workplace Performance. To learn more, visit www.aboutiwp.com.

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Project Proven Tools and Techniques for ISD:
Teams for Curriculum Architecture ISD Efforts
by Guy W. Wallace, CPT, Representative of the Instructional Systems ProComm

The ninth topic that we are covering in this 12-part series is Teams for Curriculum Architecture ISD Efforts. The team structure I am presenting fits my ISD model-set—a three-level model of ISD processes. This month we cover those teams involved in level 1—the curriculum architecture level of ISD.

CA Project Steering Team
The role of the CA project steering team is to own the project and make key decisions at various project milestones and review points. The specific responsibilities of the project steering team are to:

• Review and critique and revise the project plan
• Select candidate members for the analysis and design teams
• Review and critique the analysis report data and preliminary recommendations
• Review and critique the CAD documentation
• Review and critique the implementation plan

CA Analysis Team
The role of the analysis team is to provide real-world input to the analysis process regarding the target audience’s expected performance and the enabling knowledge and skills required.

The analysis team should be composed of master performers, staff experts, and individuals with specialized knowledge selected and recruited by the project steering team members. The specific responsibilities of the CA analysis team are to:

• Provide input in the analysis meetings regarding the mission(s), areas of performance, key outputs and metrics, and tasks and roles and responsibilities of ideal performance; plus a gap analysis
• Provide input regarding the enabling knowledge and skills
  
  

CA Design Team
The role of the design team is to provide input and feedback during the design activities of the CA outputs.

The design team should participate in a structured process to begin the work of developing the T&D module specifications and T&D event specifications and sequencing them on a T&D path for each primary target audience. One to three design team members should be recruited from the analysis team. The specific responsibilities of the design team members are to:

• Establish curriculum design criteria
• Define the individual T&D modules
• Assign each T&D module to a module inventory framework tier level
• Cluster T&D modules into T&D events
• Establish prerequisite relationships for the individual T&D modules and events
• Define the T&D path(s) for the primary target audience(s)

CA Implementation Planning Team
The CA implementation planning team should participate in a structured process to begin the work of developing:

• The priorities for addressing all of the gaps in the curriculum architecture design
• The estimated costs for development or acquisition for each of the priorities

CA ISD Team
The role of the CA ISD team is to conduct the ISD work of the project. This team will be composed of personnel from the T& D/Learning/KMS staff. The ISD team roles include:

• ISD project manager
• ISD analyst
• Curriculum architecture designer

These roles were covered in my August article.

Summary
The team structure I have presented fits my three-level ISD processes model. Yours may vary!

Next month: Teams for ADDIE-level ISD Efforts

Note: An expanded version of this article and the prior articles of this series may be found in the documents area of the IS ProComm. Click here to visit the website.

Guy W. Wallace, CPT, has been an external ISD and HPT consultant since 1982, is the president of EPPIC Inc., has been a member of ISPI since 1979, is a past president of ISPI, is the author of lean-ISD, and is a recipient of an ISPI 2002 Award of Excellence. He may be reached via guy.wallace@eppic.biz, and related resources may be obtained at his website, www.eppic.biz, including his three most recent books available as free PDFs: lean-ISD, T&D Systems View, and new in 2007, Management Areas of Performance.

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Listed below are the most recent Job Postings that have been added to ISPI’s newly designed Job Bank, click here to view all jobs.

Rummler-Brache Group
Senior Vice President, Process Improvement
Job Location United States-Texas
Job Type Permanent, Full-Time

Kaiser Permanente
Curriculum Manager—Pricing
Job Location United States-California-Oakland
Job Type Permanent, Full-Time

Brainhunter Staffing
Director of Talent—Market/Recruiting
Job Location Canada-Alberta-Calgary
Job Type Permanent, Full-Time

Verkamp-Joyce Associates, Inc.
Instructional Designer/Manager
Job Location United States-North Carolina
Job Type Permanent, Full-Time
Number of Positions Open: 2

Comcast
Senior Director, Customer Service Learning and Development
Job Location United States-Pennsylvania
Job Type Permanent, Full-Time

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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.

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, simply click here.

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Newsletter Submission Guidelines

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

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

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

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About PerformanceXpress

Feel free to forward ISPI’s PerformanceXpress newsletter to your colleagues or anyone you think may benefit from the information. If you are reading someone else’s PerformanceXpress, send your complete contact information to april@ispi.org, and you will be added to the PerformanceXpress emailing list.

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 Associate Executive Director, at april@ispi.org.

ISPI
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Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA
Phone: 301.587.8570
Fax: 301.587.8573
info@ispi.org
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