Chapter 3

Working Within the Performance System

What Is a System?

We often think of a system as a way of doing things. Although that is one way of defining the term, it's not particularly helpful in the human performance improvement environment. Essentially, a system is a set of elements that interact with one another within a defined set of boundaries (often referred to as an environment) to produce a result or an output of some kind.

Here's an example: an auto engine. It has pistons, a crankshaft, various belts, and a host of diverse parts. Each element operates according to its own set of rules. But the parts also interact with one another in very different ways to produce a common result: forward or backward motion of the vehicle.

Other examples include the digestive system; a transportation system; and an orchestra comprising a musical score, a conductor, musicians, instruments, and many other elements all interacting to produce beautiful music.

Here's a quick way to see if you grasp the concept of system. Check off the items below that form a system:

  a. a nail

  b. a banquet

  c. a water heater

  d. a stone

  e. a farm

  f. a training session

If you checked off b, c, e, and f, you've got it! A nail and a stone are single elements. Certainly the others easily meet the system criteria.

Why is this important? Because improving human performance in the workplace usually requires a systemic way of looking at things. It is rare that you can achieve performance success through a single intervention. A banquet is the gathering of a large number of elements—food, utensils, menus, and decorative items. A chef preparing the banquet must think holistically, globally…systemically…if he or she is to bring it harmoniously together.

One of the rules in systems thinking is that a single element either lacking or incompatible with the other elements or the desired common result/output can decrease the efficiency and effectiveness of the end result, or even destroy it. Imagine a stew made with all the best ingredients from an excellent recipe, but either lacking salt or having too much of it. The overall result—the taste—is diminished or even destroyed.

What Is a Human Performance System?

A human performance system is composed of a large number of elements. These include the performers, managers, tasks, tools, business objectives, physical resources, work environment, culture…we could go on forever. In essence, a human performance system consists of all those individual elements that interact to produce “worthy” (worthwhile, valuable) accomplishments. Eliminate an element or introduce a discordant one and you can foul up the system and its results or outputs. Maintain a harmony of elements and you've got a winning formula.

Revisiting the Organizational Human Performance System

In Chapter 3 of Training Ain't Performance(pp. 27-34), we introduced a somewhat simplified representation of a human performance system within an organization. We present it again here in Figure 3-1. We could have labeled this figure “Human Performance Improvement Country.” Let's rapidly review key points of this performance portrait:

1.  Each of the boxes and ovals represent important elements of an organizational human performance system. Notice that you have subsystems, such as the external and internal environments. We haven't shown how, within these subsystems, the various elements interact (for example, opportunities with pressures, events, and resources in the external environment) because that is not our prime focus. We've left them as independent elements that contribute to formulating business goals and objectives. Change one of these elements and the business goals and objectives can be dramatically altered.

Figure 3-1. An Organizational Human Performance System

2.  The arrows suggest how the elements flow, interact, and affect other elements (for example, the behaviors of performers in the organization affect their accomplishments).

3.  The entire set of elements and interactions combine to produce a common result or output: the attainment of business goals and objectives.

So this is the sandbox in which you are required to play. You have to be able to

Yes, that's your job. Furthermore, you can do it. To prove this to you, we offer a case. Please keep Figure 3-1 in front of you as you work through the case. We'll give you instructions, feedback, and a checklist that you can reuse in the real world.

An Activity for You

Here is a situation facing you: The client has called you in to help her clean things up. You are a professional in what was formerly the Training Group, but has recently been renamed Workplace Learning and Performance (WLP).

In your head a clear message of the WLP group keeps repeating itself: “Think and act systemically.” Use Figure 3-1 and the following instructions to guide you in helping Samantha.

1.  Begin with the external environmental elements. In the checklist below, check off those that are relevant to this case:

Opportunities	A potentially big market exists out there   Integrated services are in demand   High-quality integrated services at a lower cost than individual services offer clients a cost saving   Sales people need training
Pressures	The market only wants single solutions   There is probably a lot of competition for this evolving market   Clients don't care about a wide choice of coverage and pricing options   In a complex world, if the message isn't clean, clear, and comprehensible to the customer, you will lose his or her attention
Events	The market is evolving rapidly   Companies are not buying services   Clients are focusing on hardware   The market for high-end integrated services has expanded significantly
Resources	There are not enough PC service sales reps   There are many marketing and reference materials   There is not enough training   There are not enough potential customers

You have not been given a great deal of information in the case, so you have to make inferences. Here is how we would have responded concerning opportunities:

Opportunities

A potentially big market exists out there   Integrated services are in demand   High-quality integrated services at a lower cost than individual services offer clients a cost saving   Sales people need training

The first three items come from the case—there is a growing market and the company has set a 30 percent increase goal. Cost savings are always of interest to clients. However, sales people who need training present only an internal opportunity for a department looking to add to its training volume. It is not an external environment opportunity.

Concerning external pressure, here's what we inferred:

Pressures

The market only wants single solutions   There is probably a lot of competition for this evolving market   Clients don't care about a wide choice of coverage and pricing options   In a complex world, if the message isn't clean, clear, and comprehensible to the customer, you will lose his or her attention

If a market expands, competition—especially in the technology arena—is a given. Also, confusion in highly complex matters can easily occur. If the message isn't clear, customers tune out. Nothing in the case suggests the other two items. On the contrary, selection and price are extremely important to customers.

With respect to events, here are our selections:

Events

The market is evolving rapidly   Companies are not buying services   Clients are focusing on hardware   The market for high-end integrated services has expanded significantly

The case refers to the rapid evolution of the market and the potential created by high-end services expansion. There are no indications of a lack of companies buying services or of their focusing on hardware.

Concerning resources, none of the selections should be checked off. Nothing in the case indicates any lack of resources. Samantha believes training is lacking, but again this is an internal matter.

2.  Based on what you have learned about Samantha's team and what they have been trying to accomplish, check off among the following items the business goals they are trying to meet:

You probably selected “Increase market share significantly” and “Establish HTC as an industry-leading provider.” These are true business goals so be sure to keep your eye on them. “Develop trained sales reps for HAIS” may be a potential means for attaining business goals, but it is not a goal in and of itself.

3.  Now we turn to human performance requirements. What is it that must get done? Check your answer/s here:

We know you kept your eye on what is absolutely required: “Sell HAIS packages”—lots of them. That is the requirement. The others are activities that might be useful, but not required.

4.  The human performance requirements generate PC sales rep behaviors and accomplishments. Which ones in each column here do you consider essential? Check them off.

Behavior	Accomplishment
Define in personally meaningful terms what HAIS offers my customers   Identify customers for whom HAIS is an appropriate match   Develop a proposal that makes HAIS attractive to the customer   Position HAIS very competitively for the customer   Close the HAIS sale to the advantage of the customer, HTC, and me	Personally clear benefit message I can present convincingly to my customers   List of high-potential HAIS customers   A selling proposal highlighting customer benefits that are meaningful to them at an attractive price   HAIS positioned as best in market for the customer   A profitable sale for the customer, HTC, and me

We cheated a bit here. You should have checked off all of the items. These appear to form a winning set of behaviors and accomplishments.

5.  As good as the behaviors and accomplishments sound, you still have to monitor accomplishments to verify how well they are working. Which of the following indicate how well (or poorly) things are going, from a performance perspective.

You should have checked off the following indicators:

  Our PC high-end integrated services share is steadily increasing.

  We are beating the competition in high-end PC integrated services threefold.

  The proportion of service revenues from HAIS is increasing, compared with revenues from hardware sales.

  Our PC service sales reps sell individual rather than integrated high-end services 70 percent of the time.

6.  From the four checked-off indicators in number 5, which ones suggest we are aligned with the business goals and objectives? Place a Y (for yes) beside your choice/s.

This is pretty obvious. We're sure you placed a Y beside all except “Our PC service sales reps sell individual rather than integrated high-end services 70 percent of the time.” What is going on here?

7.  If the indicators are all showing alignment with business goals and objectives, then you have achieved performance success. Bravo! If, despite all efforts, however, something still isn't working (for example, individual versus integrated sales) then you will have to dig deeper to uncover root causes. Here are some possibilities:

You can probably find other reasons. What this suggests is that you have to analyze more deeply. Fortunately, the next chapter helps you out with this.

Summing Up the Activity

We took you through the “Dismal Sales at HTC” case for two reasons. The first reason was to make the organizational human performance system illustrated in Figure 3-1 clearer and more concrete for you. This is your country—where you live and work. You can take any case from your own work environment and examine it by means of this model. Doing so helps you identify all the critical elements and begin to see what has to be done to achieve performance success.

The second reason was to give you more practice in applying the model as you focus on desired performance outcomes (by aligning behaviors and accomplishments with business goals and objectives).

You should be more confident about what your territory and your mission are, having done the “Harry's Diner” case in Training Ain't Performance(pp. 31-34) and the “Dismal Sales at HTC” here. This leads us to suggest an activity for your workplace learning and performance colleagues.

An Activity for Your WLP Team

Depending on the experience level of your team and the willingness of its members to evolve into true performance consultants, select either the “Harry's Diner” case from Training Ain't Performance or the “Dismal Sales at HTC” case you just completed and have the team work through it. Start by presenting the organizational human performance system, step by step. Then turn everyone loose on the selected case. Discuss each step to clarify major points or resolve disagreements.

At the conclusion of the case, debrief the team. Here are some useful questions to discuss:

An excellent follow-up to this activity would be to select a real case from your work context and examine it in light of your case experience and discussion.

An Organizational Human Performance System Checklist

To close out this discussion of where we operate as performance professionals, here is a checklist (Worksheet 3-1) that may help you and your team stay focused. The checklist leaves space to note what you should do to be systemic and systematic in your work. Use the checklist either when a request for assistance comes to you or when you observe things “not working.”

The Language Spoken in Human Performance Improvement Country

Chapter 2 of Training Ain't Performance(pp. 6-10) presented some key terms as a basic performance vocabulary. These terms of the trade included behavior, accomplishment, performance, worth, value, worthy performance, valued accomplishment, and worth analysis. Perhaps a brief review of this fundamental vocabulary is in order. Match each term in the left-hand column below with its appropriate definition in the right-hand column. Place the number of the selected definition next to the term.

Worksheet 3-1: An Organizational Human Performance System Checklist

Term

Definition

______  Accomplishment ______  Behavior ______  Performance ______  Value ______  Valued accomplishment ______  Worth ______  Worth analysis ______  Worthy performance

1.  A ratio of value compared with cost 2.  The right price; what is expected for payment made 3.  The outcome of a behavior 4.  The combination of behaviors and accomplishments is worth far more than the cost 5.  Something a person does; an action in response to a stimulus 6.  Both the actions of a person or people and the results of the action 7.  An analytical procedure to calculate the financial benefit for closing a gap between desired and current states 8.  The result is viewed as desirable by all stakeholders

Here are the correct matches:

If you got all eight correct, you're definitely speaking the performance language. If you made errors, please review pp. 6-10 in Training Ain't Performance.

You now have a basic vocabulary. Advancing in Performance Country requires a more extensive mastery of the language. That's why we have included a rather extensive glossary of human performance improvement terms (Appendix A). Skip to it now. You may be surprised at some of the terms and their meanings. Check out blended solutions, competency, learning, and structured on-the-job training for starters. The more fluent you are in speaking the language of performance and using precise terminology, the more professionally at ease you and your colleagues will become as workplace learning and performance consultants.

Chapter Summary

In this chapter you covered a lot of territory:

What a long journey this chapter has taken you on. Take a breath, relax, and then let's plunge ahead to Chapter 4 and a variety of performance improvement models.