Achieve More – Improve Human Performance

The use of frameworks, processes and proven methodologies is critical to achieving reproducible organizational performance improvement. Being able to help people implement these in a practical way is perhaps the most vital step in realizing sustainable results.

In a recent Fast Company article on the state of the new economy the potential of human performance was described:

Consider … the scope of individual opportunity. After decades of thinking that “business” was synonymous with “the corporation” and that workers were anonymous cogs in a giant machine, we have come to understand that the new unit of analysis for creating value, making change, and producing results is the unit of one. Never before in the history of business has each person mattered more – as a talented performer, as a leader in an organization, as a consumer in the market, as a creator in the world of enterprise. ( Fast Company, What is the State of the New Economy? September 2001, p. 103)

At Focused Management Inc. we’ve developed, implemented and proven ways of helping people at all levels in the organization deliver the practical results of business improvement initiatives. Our Human Performance Practice (HPP) is focused on making transformation real for people, tapping into their potential and helping them work through the challenges of changing what and how they deliver results. We work on making the complex clear and the complicated simple.

Our expertise in human performance improvement is an integrated part of our view of business performance. Focused Management Inc.’s Performance Architecture provides a comprehensive way of understanding the interconnection between business improvement processes and methodologies, information technology and human performance and how they work together to help transform your business’ performance. FMI is able to effectively integrate your business’ financial, structural, process, systems, human and knowledge management challenges and issues into a single, easily understood context. The Performance Architecture can help senior managers get their arms around strategic and tactical problem resolution, as well as improvement opportunities, in order to create constructive transformation and to ensure that it takes hold.

Whatever aspect of performance we are helping you with, at Focused Management’s core is our ability to quickly drive out an operating picture of any organization, using a distinctive set of time- and cost-efficient tools and techniques with proven effectiveness in performance management. We are client-issue-centred and results focused. Our competitive advantage is our ability and genuine desire to transfer our technology to our clients.

§          Focused Management Inc. HPP Services

Our experience in using and implementing methodologies such as process improvement, activity-based costing, value-based management, balanced scorecards, etc. is that people often need to change the context in which they view their job, change what and how they deliver as a result of their job and learn new capabilities (often some critical ones they’ll use regardless of the job they hold). 

Most people want to deliver great performance, they want to do a good job. What they need is a clear picture of what success needs to look like and support in weeding through the infinite choices and an abundance of data available in order to make the right decisions. However, what often comes out of business improvement initiatives is more chaos for people, not a clearer picture and the help they need to bring it to life. Many of these initiatives are truncated before the outputs are made practical for everyone in the organization which ultimately means that business results are sub optimized at best, perhaps even worsened.

Focused Management’s HPP services are designed to address these challenges.

1.       Development and Use of Performance Contracts:

In itself the Performance Contract is a tool designed to clearly describe three elements of a person’s job – the outputs, the measures and the practices they need to excel. People use it to:

-         contract with their leader and agree on consequences;

-         seek feedback from others;

-         manage their information and interface needs;

-         measure and improve performance.

These contracts make the complex clear by drawing on existing job, procedural, process, measurement and best practice data and boiling it down to what is needed to excel. The emphasis is on creating a clear enough picture for people and then move quickly into helping them develop the capability to use the tool and improve it’s content through experience.

Our methodology for developing Performance Contracts is as important as our process for coaching leaders and individuals in how to use them to achieve results. We have success stories in transferring our capabilities and helping leaders successfully achieve and sustain business improvement results.

How we can help you start achieving performance results using Performance Contracts:

q          Complete a Human Performance Assessment to help you understand what’s working and what’s not in how people deliver results

§         Develop an action plan to prioritize and integrate all change initiatives

§         Conduct workshops in leading human performance improvement

q          Help you develop and implement  Performance Contracts by participating in current business improvement projects which will impact human performance needs (ie. process reengineering, structural changes, system changes, etc.)

§         Start with a small group to learn and capture quick wins

§         Begin working with groups impacted by current initiatives

q          Work with an internal operational or human resource groups to develop the capability to create and implement Performance Contracts

2.       Leverage The Use Of Training To Improve Performance:

Changes in business processes, tools, technology, practices and systems often involve learning new capabilities. Research in training effectiveness consistently indicates that regardless of the quality of training content and facilitation, on average only 10 to 20 percent of training transfers to the job so that performance is changed and enhanced. Our proven processes and tools for performance-based learning will leverage these results to 80 to 90 percent transfer with measurable results that are tied to business goals.

Our process for performance-based learning and accompanying tools can be readily used or adapted to suite your needs. We have extensive experience with classroom, intranet/internet, self-guided and peer coaching learning programs. Many of the same approaches and frameworks to human performance used in Performance Contracts are applied to leverage training results. Both leaders and learners will develop capabilities in becoming self-directed learners and dealing with the changes brought about by ceaseless change in the work environment.

We have supported businesses in learning projects involving a single significant training event to the processes and systems needed to manage large scale progression programs. Much of our work has involved the development and use of peer learning coach systems which have resulted in further leveraging performance results.

How we can help you start achieving performance-based learning results:

q          Complete a Training Results Assessment for a current training initiative and/or your training processes to help you understand what’s working and what’s not

§         Develop an action plan to prioritize and integrate training initiatives

§         Conduct workshops in transitioning to performance-based learning

q          Jump into a training initiative underway and improve results immediately by helping you capture quick wins without causing rework

q          Help you tailor a new training initiative by participating in current business improvement projects which will impact human performance needs (ie. process reengineering, structural changes, system changes, etc.)

q          Work with your training group and/or a group of internal coaches to help them develop performance-based learning capabilities

 Contact us at FMI@focusedmanagement.com to learn more about improving Human Performance and how Focused Management can help you achieve greater results out of your processes and people.