Rothwell W.J. - Beyond Training and Development[c] The Groundbreaking Classic on Human Performance Enhancement (2004)(2-e)(en)

they make performance less efficient and effective. HPE specialists can flowchart and verify work processes and facilitate discussions with supervisors or team members to identify creative ways to streamline work flow by eliminating bottlenecks.

Assess present competency levels. HPE specialists should be able to examine the competency levels of the workers.

Assess workforce supply. HPE specialists can assess—or coordinate assessments of—the existing workforce supply in light of workforce needs, taking inventory of the organization’s existing human storehouse of talent.

address ideals or norms rather than actualities or realities. Envisioning what should be happening can be future-oriented, as is environmental scanning. Change rarely occurs unless people are dissatisfied with present conditions, can conceptualize ideal alternatives, and are motivated to change.

This chapter focuses on the second step in the new model to guide HPE: envisioning what should be happening. The chapter reviews information sources that provide clues about what should be happening, methods that may be used to collect information about what should be happening, and competencies that are required of HPE specialists enacting the visionary role.

What Does It Mean to Envision What Should Be Happening?

Envisioning what should be happening means establishing a vision of desired results. The vision established becomes a norm, a prescribed standard or an ideal, a desired end-state. When envisioning what should be happening, HPE professionals and/or other stakeholders delineate the conditions and the results they most want; they describe what performance will look like when the organization is optimally serving its customers and other stakeholders, is optimally organized internally to promote a high-performance work organization, and is optimally positioned to encourage efficient and effective work and workers. As with analyzing what is happening, however, this step frequently appears to be easier to do than it turns out to be.

What Are the Roles of the HPE Consultant and Their Clients in Envisioning What Should Be Happening?

HPE consultants enacting the role of management consultants will undertake their own investigation to identify the appropriate criteria against which to judge an existing situation or existing symptom of another problem. But HPE consultants preferring to enact the role of process consultants will guide a client group through the discovery of their own relevant criteria. The difference, like in assessing what is happening, is profound. The efficiency (and speed) of acting as management consultants will be greater. After all, HPE consultants—as individ- uals—can probably move faster in identifying criteria than can a group of client group members, who may require guidance in discovering criteria and researching them. However, the effectiveness of acting as process consultants will proba-

Exhibit 5-1. Assessing the clarity of a vision.

Directions: Use this activity to assess the clarity of a vision and to pinpoint areas for improvement. For each item in the left column, circle a code in the center. Administer the instrument separately to a group, such as a top management team or an employee-standing team. Ask each person to rate the team’s collective vision. When the participants finish, ask them to turn in the instrument. Compile the results, and feed them back to them. Then ask the team to pinpoint areas for improvement and agree on what should be done to achieve a clearer vision of what should be happening in the organization or team.

Rate the Clarity of the Vision

of an average but experienced worker producing at an average pace. That definition stems from the view, as noted in a classic source on job analysis, that ‘‘establishing the standard or allowed time for a given unit of work is based on the amount of time required by a qualified worker, using a standard method and working at a standard work pace, to perform a specified task.’’2 A job performance standard thus represents a floor of (minimum for) acceptable performance. It differs from a vision or a goal or an objective, which represent desired performance targets.

Standards are useful because they are benchmarks of output. Departures from reasonable standards signal that something has gone awry and that corrective action is needed. Achievements beyond standard may signal that workers deserve rewards, since they have performed better than expected.

Performance problems often stem from problems with job performance standards. Perhaps standards have never been established, and as a result workers do not know how to measure the acceptability of their output levels. Perhaps standards have never been communicated, so workers do not know that measures exist against which to compare their performance. Perhaps standards are

Exhibit 5-2. Formulating a vision.

Directions: Ask the members of a team or group to assemble and work on answering each question appearing in the left column. They may write their responses in the space at the right. Allow between thirty and sixty minutes for this process. Then discuss the results with the team.

What is the purpose of the team? the organization?

What forces exert the most influence on the team? the organization? why?

What are our core values? What should they be?

What do we want to do best? Why?

What do we want to accomplish? Why?

What do we want to change? Why?

What could we do to work together more effectively?

What will the final, most desired, situation look like? Can you describe it in detail?

set at levels that workers consider to be unfair, and workers view achievement of them as onerous.

Standards are established in many ways. Standards established scientifically are based on rigorous approaches such as time and motion studies or work analysis. Standards established experientially are based on past practice. Standards established authoritatively are based on management, union, or collective bargaining mandates. Standards established participatively are established cooperatively between workers or team members and management representatives.

Any or all of these approaches may be used to establish job performance standards, but the basic approach is the same whether standards are centered on

the organizational environment, the work environment, the work, or workers. To establish standards, HPE specialists should work with other stakeholders to:

Identify the mission of the organizational unit, job category, or individual that will be the focus of the standard-setting effort.

Identify the outputs (final results or accomplishments).

Identify subaccomplishments or tasks (what has to be done to achieve the final results).

Define performance requirements.

Determine measurements for each performance requirement.

Determine standards for each requirement.3

HPE specialists can use the assessment form in Exhibit 5-3 to determine how well standards have been established and communicated in their organizations. They may also use the worksheet in Exhibit 5-4 to establish standards when they are lacking.

What Is a Work Expectation?

A work expectation closely resembles a job performance standard, but there is an important difference. Whereas a job performance standard often represents a minimally acceptable output, a work expectation represents an average or desired output. Some managers do not feel that companies should establish minimum output levels, even when they represent the output of average but experienced workers producing at an average pace. They prefer to avoid the

Exhibit 5-3. Assessing the clarity of job performance standards.

Directions: This activity is geared to HPE specialists. Pick a job, job category, or team. Then rate the clarity of job performance standards established for the job, job category, or team on the basis of the statements in the left column. Conduct the rating by circling an item in the center opposite each statement. Finally, write comments or notes for improvement in the space at the right.

Exhibit 5-6. A worksheet for identifying human performance criteria.

Directions: Take a moment to clarify what should be happening in your organization. In the left column you will find words or phrases about important elements in any organization. In the center space, write statements to describe what should be happening in your organization in each area. In the space at the right, indicate how you can measure each criterion.

Leadership

Organizational structure (reporting relationships)

Incentives and rewards

Feedback to workers on how well they are performing on a daily basis

Training Information/Communication

itself to measurement. It is also timebound.5 Goals are typically developed directly from an organization’s mission or purpose statement, and objectives are derived from those goals.6 Goals and objectives may also be used to clarify desired interactions with the organizational environment or to express desired performance targets for the work environment, the work, or workers.

Human beings, it seems, are by nature goal-oriented creatures. They strive to achieve an idealized vision of the future. Often they do that by establishing goals to guide them. As path-goal theory suggests,7 human performance can be improved when people know what goals they should achieve and are confident that they know how to achieve them. HPE specialists and stakeholders can contribute to enhancing human performance by clarifying and communicating goals and objectives. The worksheet in Exhibit 5-7 can be used to formulate goals and objectives when they have not been clearly established and communicated.

What Is a ‘‘Best Practice’’?

Many organizations have set off in search of best practices through internal and external benchmarking. Their aim is to find what the Japanese call dantotsu, the best of the best. By definition, ‘‘benchmarking is the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance.’’8 A best practice is an exemplar, a practice worthy of emulation because it represents the best approach. Best practices also represent, of course, possible ways of viewing what should be happening in an organization’s interactions with its environment, inside the organization, in the work, or with the workers.