Businesses must be committed to improving the overall performance of the organization in order to survive today’s economy. In many industries, there are negligible differences in the products of competing organizations. In many instances, the only differentiation is the level of service and performance of a company. To improve performance of an organization, businesses must improve the performance of the individuals that make up the organization.

My brother, Ed, is the head basketball coach at a local high school. Recently, I attended a one of their basketball games. Ed’s team jumped out to a 10 point lead early. However, in the third quarter, the lead was squandered to a two point lead. Did the players suddenly forget how to play basketball? Should they go through a remedial basketball course? Is retraining the answer? Of course not. And neither should training always be the first intervention when performance slips in the workplace either.

Again, is training always the answer? No, it is not, but performance issues are almost always addressed by remedial training. Why does this happen? I would argue that we tend to follow the “we’ve always done it that way” paradigm. Additionally, it’s easy to shift blame away from ourselves when the issue is a “training problem”. Using the “training issue” designation puts the onus for correction on someone else.

The old saying that “to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail” is true. If a hammer is the only tool in your toolbox, you can’t fix everything. Sometimes, you need a crescent wrench or a screwdriver. If training is the only intervention in your “Performance Toolbox”, you will not be able to correct all performance issues. So, what should we do?

In the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton closed his shutters on a bright, sunny day. He cut a small hole in one of the shutters and placed a prism in the sunlight coming through. As Newton admired the colors radiating out of the prism, he realized that the white light of the sunshine was actually made up of a combination of all the other colors of the rainbow. That’s how it is with performance. A wide variety of things go into high performance – motivation, training, education, development, to name a few.

The traditional view of corporate training is not enough to create and maintain a high-performance organization. Training, learning, and development must be more closely aligned to achieving the goals and vision of the organization.

So, the answer is a paradigm shift from a Corporate Training model to the implementation of a formal Human Performance Improvement (HPI) program. HPI is differentiated from other schools of thought in the following ways:

1. HPI is Results-Based, not Wants- Based or Needs- Based.

A Wants- Based approach focuses on what the customer wants, but not necessarily the intervention that will improve performance. An example of a Wants- Based process is when a manager looks around and says, “You know, I think we need some customer service training for this department”. The problem with this approach is that it is a blanket approach.

A Needs- Based approach focuses on interventions designed to correct a gap in performance, but only the group that demonstrates the performance gap are asked to participate. An example of this process would be a manager that says, “My cashiers are not performing up to standards. Let’s give them customer service training”. The problem with this approach is that it starts with an assumption without ever identifying the real issue.

On the other hand, a Results-Based approach is driven by a business need and a performance need. Additionally, it is determined by an in-depth Cause Analysis to determine the root cause of the performance issue. The big advantage of this approach is that it is tied to the vision of the organization and is specific to the root cause of the performance issue.

2. HPI focuses on outcomes, NOT behavior.

While HPI looks at behavior as part of the analysis, the focus is on the end-result. Outcomes are much easier to observe and measure since many behaviors are overt and not easily demonstrated.

Additionally, this focus on outcomes assures that the entire organizational team shares the same vision, goals, and objectives. This focus allows the organization to assure that the team members have all that they need to succeed.

3. HPI takes a systems view.

Organizations are systems. A change in one part of the system will have an impact on other parts of the system. HPI considers the larger work environment and the effects of interventions across the entire organization. .

4. HPI is a systematic approach.

Analysis occurs in the beginning of the project. Needs or opportunity analysis is about examining the current situation at any level or levels to identify the external and internal pressures affecting it. This process will determine the deficiencies or performance gaps that are to be remedied. The output is a statement describing the current state, the projected future state, and the rationale or business case for action or non-action. Constant evaluation occurs throughout each step of the process. The last step in the process is to evaluate the effectiveness by asking, “Is there a desired change and is that change lasting?”

5. HPI adds value to any organization.

As is good business practice, an integral part of any HPI project is to measure the Return on Investment (ROI). If the approach does not bring value to the business, there is no need to do it.

In Part 2 of this article, I will outline the formal HPI process.

As I discussed in Part 1 of this article, the traditional Corporate Training model does not go far enough to improve the performance of the organization. Training, education, and development should be a tool in the “Performance Improvement” toolbox. In order to set your business apart from your competitors, you need to take the organization’s performance to a higher level by implementation of a formal Human Performance Improvement (HPI) program.

First, I think a definition is needed. HPI is a systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and then evaluating the results to determine a return on investment (ROI).

The HPI process begins with a careful and in-depth analysis of the vision of the business unit called the Business Analysis. The Business Analysis helps to identify the vision and mission of the business unit or project. The Business Analysis also helps to determine how specific and measurable the goals are. Once the Business Analysis is completed, the goals and objectives are developed and communicated to all of the team members.

Next, there is a comparison of the present and the desired levels of individual and organizational performance to identify the performance gap. A Performance Analysis clarifies the problem or performance gap by focusing on three (3) areas: the desired performance state, the actual performance state, and the gap between the two. The purpose of the Performance Analysis is not to point out problems, but rather to identify factors in the work environment that support performance improvement.

After the performance gap has been determined, a cause analysis is then performed to determine what impact the processes (work environment, information,resources, and incentives) and the people (motives, individual capacity, and skills) are having on performance.

Once the performance gap and the causes have been determined, the appropriate interventions are designed and developed. The Intervention is the action taken to correct the Performance Gap. There are multiple interventions that can be utilized to help improve performance on a single project. Most improvement plans will consist of multiple intervention types.

There are three (3) primary types of interventions:

• Motivational-Based Interventions

These are the most commonly required interventions, since the primary cause of low performance is a lack of motivation or desire. Frequently used Motivational-Based interventions include coaching / feedback, recognition programs, and incentive / reward programs.

• Process-Based Interventions

Process-Based intervention looks at the entire work environment. Items that are considered include the work environment itself (i.e., equipment, resources, etc.), work-flow redesign, and improved processes / policies and procedures.

• Knowledge-Based Interventions

Knowledge-Based interventions include training, education, and development. These are the most widely misused interventions, since most performance can be more efficiently improved through motivation and process improvement.

Once the interventions are selected and developed, the interventions are implemented. Since this is usually represents a new way of doing things, the change process must be properly managed to increase the chance of success, and to reduce the stress of implementation.

Finally, each phase of the process is evaluated. Initially, Formative evaluation looks at the entire process to identify what could have been done better. The Summative evaluation focuses on the immediate response of employees and their ability and willingness to do the desired behaviors. The final evaluation, or Confirmative evaluations, measures the long-term effects of the intervention. Overall, the evaluations are centered on the improvement of business outcomes(such as quality, productivity, sales, customer retention, profitability, and market share) as well as determining the ROI for the intervention.

By implementing a formal HPI program, an organization can help to efficiently improve the performance of the human resources of the business. This increased performance will help to create a strong competitive advantage. Try it and see.