To Help Their Enterprise To Stop Wasting Money on L&D 

Because sometimes it’s a waste.

THE Book

If the Root Cause of someone/ some group’s Performance Improvement Opportunity isn’t a Knowledge or Skill deficit … then there is a need to look elsewhere.

Where? My model for that…

And … the Performance Improvement Opportunity … a.k.a.: Problem … as in Problem Solving … and sometimes The Problem is a future Risk to Be Avoided or a future Reward to be Achieved … besides the issue/problem that has already “hit” – so to speak.

It’s not usually simple.

But if it is – grab that low hanging fruit and then move on to bigger fish to fry … so to speak.

My Story About This Book

From an earlier post … about me back in 1979…

In my first job in ISD right out of college, Kansas University, at the Training Services Department of Wickes Lumber in Saginaw Michigan I went to work alongside Geary Rummler’s brother-in-law, and two people who had worked with Geary’s brother, Rick (at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Detroit). They had me read Tom Gilbert’s “Human Competence” – but before that, they had me read “Analyzing Performance Problems.”

I was so impressed with this book, and the kind of work I was getting into, that I bought 4 copies of that book and sent them to my best friends from college, who responded with that day’s equivalent of “What the Heck?”

Here is a post from back in 2008 on this – here.

The Book’s Flow Chart

Other Similar Flow Charts To Review

Tom Gilbert and Geary Rummler had a similar flowchart…

So did Harless…

And the Robinsons’…

I have my own as well.

The Ultimate Impact to My ISD and PI Methods – IMO

In both the Project Planning & Kick-Off and Analysis phases – in both my ISD methods and in my PI methods – reflect this/anticipate this … issue … that it might not be K/Ss at the root.

ISD – Instructional Systems Design 

PI – Performance Improvement 

Start with Authentic Performance Requirements

And not educated guesses.

Chunk the Areas of Performance with minimal gaps and overlaps.

Then Look at Each Chunk – AoP.

Check out the 7th and 8th columns (out of 9).

Understand and/or remove the barriers – or teach the strategies and tactics of your current Master Performers in how to anticipate/monitor and avoid in the first place … and what to do if the issue was unavoidable. That’s just real. That’s just authentic.

To Me – It’s All About a Performance Focus – and a Mature Focus In Doing That

And not on the shiny technology … an enabler at the 3rd tier at best … in my view.

Where is your Current State? Per groups of Processes as I’ve laid out in T&D Systems View…

Then for the Newbie … Read … Whatever Is of Particular Need in Their Current/Next Assignment

Make it Most Relevant.

Or … Why Bother?

More From Me on Analysis

Modeling Mastery Performance and Systematically Deriving the Enablers for Performance Improvement – by Guy W. Wallace, CPT – Chapter 11 of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology – 3rd Edition – 2006.  This methodology was first published in this 1984 article in ISPI’s (then NSPI’s) PIJ in November 1984.

TBA IMO – To Be Avoided IMO 

Becoming so Customer Responsive that we give them exactly what they ask for … and not what they really need.

Being a Good Steward of Shareholder Equity means doing the latter and not the former.

That’s tricky too.

Here is what I learned from Joe Harless about this…

Joe Harless Taught Me – And Others – To Never Say No

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