Rothwell W.J. - Beyond Training and Development[c] The Groundbreaking Classic on Human Performance Enhancement (2004)(2-e)(en)
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ingly difficult to move beyond training. Efforts must first be made to establish support at level 5. From there a move beyond training should be possible.
Corporate culture also provides a yardstick for measuring support. Understood to mean the ‘‘basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic ‘taken-for- granted’ fashion an organization’s view of itself and its environment,’’7 culture is important because ‘‘people are animals suspended in webs of significance they themselves have spun, and culture can be understood to be those webs.’’8 Culture may pose a barrier to change. Assess how supportive of change the organization’s culture will be by asking experienced training and development professionals—and other seasoned veterans of the organization—about efforts by the training department to take innovative action in the past. Stories are often the best indicators of culture, and seeking information about past efforts to introduce innovation may provide valuable clues about what to do—and what to avoid—when transforming a training department into a human performance enhancement department. Soliciting stories may provide a means to conduct a culture audit.9
The training department’s track record may also provide valuable clues about how easy—or how difficult—it will be to move beyond training. If the department has a history of promising more than it could deliver—or of being set up for failure by ill-conceived management schemes—then the department and its members will lack credibility. That will impede the transformation process, making it more difficult to convince others that training and development professionals can handle an expanded role.
How Can Support Be Built?
Several strategies may be used to build support for broadening the training department’s role to include HPE.
One strategy is for the training department to create a sterling track record of accomplishment in its traditional role. Training and development professionals focus attention on problems that are the most pressing to the organization, marshal considerable efforts to solve the problems, and then use the enhanced credibility stemming from these successful efforts to launch into HPE.
Another strategy is to start small, with a pilot project, and to move beyond training in one critically important business area. Advocates of change can then follow through on the learners’ jobs to improve human performance holistically, gain allies among key decision makers in this process to give the pilot project high visibility, and use the results as a launching pad for an expanded role.
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A third strategy is to hitchhike on other continuous improvement efforts. Change advocates can volunteer the training department to help in these initiatives if possible (and if the training department is not otherwise invited to be involved). If the department makes a solid contribution to the effort, it can then use that experience to persuade decision makers that it can assume a broader range of duties, including internal consulting.
Above all, change advocates must take steps to overcome the barriers identified during the process of assessing support.
Creating a Flexible Road Map for Change
Once change agents and training and development professionals have made a convincing case for change, established awareness of a new role for the training department, and assessed and established support, they should then create a flexible road map to guide the transition from traditional training to HPE. To do so, they should consider these questions:
Why should the change occur? How can the results be justified in measurable, bottom-line terms? Use results of previous benchmarking ef- forts—or small-scale pilot efforts in the organization, if possible—to demonstrate that the benefits of transforming the training department outweigh the cost and time involved. Be prepared to share anecdotal evidence in the absence of convincing financial benefits. However, recall that, according to Thomas Gilbert, the performance improvement potential (PIP) for improvement efforts can be calculated by computing the difference in the value of outputs between exemplars and all other performers.34 In other words, identify the highest performing worker in an area, decide how much his or her output is worth, calculate the difference between what he or she produces and what others produce, and then forecast the benefits of enhancing the performance of all other workers in the area so that the value of their performance equals that of the best performer. Use that figure as a persuasive point to help make the case for transforming the training department into an HPE department. Involve key operating managers and top managers in this process, if possible, so that they will share ownership in the results.
Who should be involved? Should the process begin with one change agent, or should it begin with a group of change agents and gradually
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spread out to include a centralized training department, decentralized training departments positioned within operating units, and training and development services provided to customers, suppliers, or distributors? Who should be involved in crafting the flexible action plan to ensure ownership and support?
What should be the mission, goals, and objectives of the human performance enhancement department? Reconsider the mission, goals, and objectives of the training department. Why should an HPE department exist? Whose needs should it serve primarily? Secondarily? What general results should the function seek to achieve, and how can those results be measured?
When should the changes occur? Making transformational change on an organizational scale is extraordinarily difficult to do in a short time. As a result, it makes sense to establish milestones—that is, specific times by which demonstrable results will have been achieved. These milestones should be expressed in measurable terms—for example, ‘‘By December 1, the training department will have changed its name to the human performance enhancement department.’’ Link milestones to measurable objectives to be achieved by the HPE function, if possible.
Where should the changes occur? This question overlaps conceptually with the question of who should be involved in the change effort. In fact, decisions about who should be involved, what results should be achieved, and when they should be achieved will influence the answer to this question. Should efforts to transform the training department into an HPE department begin in greenfield operations (new location startups) where the corporate culture is not so deeply ingrained? Should they begin in the United States or in other locales, depending on the organization’s scope of operations? Where will it be possible to achieve the greatest success most quickly? The answer to the last question may provide valuable clues about where to start.
How much will the changes cost? Transforming the training department to an HPE function will not be free. It can be expensive. Examples of expenses include the financial value of:
1.The change agent’s time in facilitating the change (such as salary, benefits, and costs incurred while gathering evidence, lining up a change champion, making the case for change to training staff, making the
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case for change to other stakeholders, and participating in planning the change).
2.The change champion’s time.
3.Staff salaries, benefit expenses, and other costs incurred while staff members are being convinced of the need for the change, are collecting evidence of the need for change, are assessing and building support, are involved in preparing a flexible action plan, and are being trained or developed for an expanded role as HPE specialists.
Approaches to Flexible Planning
How can the preceding questions be answered? One approach, of course, is to form an action learning team that includes training and development professionals, key customers, suppliers, distributors, and other stakeholders of the training department.
Another approach is to hold a management retreat or a series of employee meetings focused around transforming the training department into an HPE function. The change agent and the change champion may serve as facilitators, or an external consultant who is knowledgeable about HPE may be hired. Participants should include members of the training department, representatives of key groups that depend on training department products and services, and others who support the development of a flexible action plan leading to the transformation of the training department into an HPE department. Participants should carefully develop a flexible action plan to present to top management (see Exhibit 3-5).
Building Competencies Is Key to the Change Effort
A critical element of transforming a training department into an HPE department is building the competencies of training and development professionals so that they can assume more challenging roles. One good way to begin this process is to develop an organization-specific competency model for HPE.
Building a Competency Model
There are different ways to build an organization-specific competency model for HPE. One approach is to use an existing team of training and development professionals or form a new one to review existing HPE competency models
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Exhibit 3-5. A worksheet to guide flexible planning.
Directions: For each question appearing in the left column, provide an answer in the space at the right. Use this worksheet in the planning process, giving training staff members, key customers of the training function, and others an opportunity to complete it. Then use their responses in finalizing a plan or in developing a well-crafted proposal for top management consideration.
Questions |
Answers |
Why should the training department take a new, more holistic approach to enhancing human performance? (What business issues may warrant such an expanded role?)
Who should be involved? (In changing the training department into a human performance enhancement function, who should participate in the process?)
What should be the mission, goals, and objectives of the human performance enhancement function?
When should the changes occur? (What results should be achieved over time?)
Where should the changes occur? (Are some locales or business units more likely than others to achieve quick, highly visible success?)
How much will the change cost? (What expenses will be incurred in the process? What benefits may result from the transformation?)
and adapt them to the organization’s unique requirements and expectations. Examples of such models were described at the end of Chapter 2. While the results of this approach are not likely to be rigorous, they will be fast.
Another approach is to use Rapid Results Assessment (RRA). To begin RRA, inform training and development professionals and other stakeholders about HPE (generally) and about HPE competencies. Do that by circulating articles or by providing information about HPE through other means. Then select a group of between eight and thirteen exemplary training and development professionals from the organization and a few of their exemplary supervisors and invite them to attend a focus group meeting lasting between one and two days.
Begin the meeting by explaining to the participants why they were chosen to participate and what they are to do in the meeting. Appoint a facilitator to guide the process, name two or three additional participants to help the facilitator, and arrange the participants in U-shaped seating. Then ask them to reflect
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on what they read about HPE before the meeting and have them call out activities that they believe would be part of the role of an HPE specialist. Record each activity on a separate 81/2-by-11-inch sheet of paper, and post all the sheets on the wall in front of the participants. Allow them to continue listing activities until they run out of ideas. Then take a break.
During the break, the facilitator and his or her confederates should develop between four and twelve descriptive categories of activities on the left side of the wall and then rearrange all the activity sheets across the wall opposite the categories to which they are best suited. Participants should then be called back from break and asked to verify the categories. (They can change the names of the categories, add to them, subtract from them, or make other modifications.) Once the categories are verified, the facilitator should ask participants to reexamine each activity listed in the first round. They can add, subtract, modify, or combine information. This process, while time-consuming, encourages the participants to reach consensus on the role activities for HPE specialists in their organization. It is a future-oriented and thought-provoking activity that crystallizes a detailed vision of what the future should be like.
A final product of the meeting will be a matrix of work activities unique to the organization for HPE specialists. The matrix can be removed from the wall and typed on one sheet. This matrix, which provides a more concrete description of work activities than most job descriptions offer, can become the basis for a detailed, organization-specific competency model of what HPE professionals should do. Additional steps, perhaps conducted by survey, can lead to the identification of underlying HPE competencies, work outputs, job performance standards, selection criteria, and performance appraisal criteria. Of course, electronic means may be substituted for face-to-face approaches.
Conducting an Overall Staff Assessment
Once the organization has established a competency model for HPE, it becomes necessary to assess how well the training and development staff is collectively prepared to meet the new role expectations. In a small organization or in a small training department, it should be possible to construct a total staff assessment on one sheet of paper or on a single computer screen, with competencies/work activities/steps in HPE arranged along the left column, names of staff members arranged along the top, and ratings supplied by the training director and by training and development professionals in each cell of the staff assessment chart (see Exhibit 3-6 for a simple example). The staff assessment can be used to
Exhibit 3-6. A simple example of a format for an overall staff assessment.
Directions: List HPE competencies for the organization in the left column. List the names of training and development professionals along the top. Then, in each cell opposite each competency and under each name, rate the training and development professional’s level of expertise as follows: 3 Exemplary; 2 Adequate; 1 Needs training and development in this area; 0 Not applicable.
Competencies for HPE in |
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the Organization |
Names and Competency Ratings of Training and Development Professionals in the Organization |
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identify common training needs shared by the training staff, and this information can in turn become the basis for a large-scale developmental effort to build HPE competencies in line with new work expectations.
Conducting Individualized Assessments
In large organizations it is rarely possible to conduct an overall staff assessment on a single sheet of paper; individualized assessments should be conducted by developing an individualized assessment instrument to be completed by both training and development professional and his or her immediate supervisor. Colleagues, such as organizational subordinates, peers in other areas of the organization, and external customers or family members, can also be asked to complete the same assessment. The scores are then averaged and used to identify individual training needs linked to HPE work requirements. This individualized information may be fed upward so that it can be used to construct a comprehensive total staff assessment and development plan.
Developing Staff Development and Individualized
Development Plans
The results of the assessment process can be used to identify areas in which training and development on HPE are needed. The HPE model should inform efforts to build the competencies of training and development professionals.
Eventually, the same approach may be extended to include all executives, managers, supervisors, or employees in the organization. After all, performance enhancement competencies can be important for everyone—not just for train- ers-turned-HPE specialists.
Communicating the Need for Change
Key to launching an HPE intervention is to build a compelling business case for change. That is often best done by the senior-most official of the organizational unit that seeks to change. A communication strategy must be established during every step of the change effort to remind people why the intervention has been undertaken, what results are being garnered from it, and why continued participation and effort is essential.
Hence, it is important to pose such question as these:
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1.Why is the change effort being undertaken?
2.Who needs to be communicated with during the effort?
3.What methods should be used to communicate?
4.What are the goals of the communication effort, and how can those goals be achieved in the simplest (and least expensive) way possible?
Training People to Think Like HPE Professionals
Do not assume that people just naturally know how to think like HPE professionals. Some training may be needed. And, indeed, a particularly helpful strategy is to train such key stakeholders as executives, managers, supervisors, union leaders, and participants in the performance improvement intervention in a model of HPE. It is thus useful to train them in all steps of the HPE model. That includes how to:
Distinguish symptoms from root causes.
Describe conditions systematically.
Select and clarify criteria.
Identify metrics by which to assess gaps.
Determine importance.
Determine root causes.
Assess the feasibility (costs and benefits) of possible HPE interventions.
Select the most feasible HPE intervention.
Plan for communicating about the change effort, building a compelling business case.
Establish an implementation plan for the HPE intervention.
Consider possible negative side effects of implementation so as to avert them.
Evaluate intervention results before, during, and after the intervention.
Such training may be provided by on-site, online, or blended instruction.
P A R T T W O
T R O U B L E S H O O T I N G
H U M A N P E R F O R M A N C E P R O B L E M S A N D
A N A L Y Z I N G H U M A N
P E R F O R M A N C E
I M P R O V E M E N T
O P P O R T U N I T I E S