Imagine your best possible organization: a place where people strive for continuous improvement, communicate clearly and honestly, freely share information, respect their colleagues and leaders, make a difference -- and achieve truly extraordinary levels of performance, even in tough times. Using this book’s powerful Work/Life Approach, you can build that organization. World-renowned performance consultants Dr. Gene Fusch and Richard Gillespie offer a step-by-step blueprint for developing a true performance culture, where people bring a relentless focus and selfless collaboration to bear on the organization’s most fundamental goals. A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis walks through every step of the process: analyzing business problems, identifying performance gaps, selecting the best interventions, measuring results, and more. You’ll learn how to integrate your organization’s goals with the beliefs and needs of your people; foster unity without conformity, and diversity without division; how to overcome the fear and distrust that makes organizations dysfunctional; and how to build an organization where everyone really takes ownership of their “fraction of the action.” Along the way, they present 50 dynamic models that tightly connect theory to real-world business practice, are ROI-driven, are fully measurable, and can be utilized by all leaders and practitioners in HR, organizational development, and training. With their guidance, you can choose and execute the performance initiatives that deliver the greatest positive impact on culture, business metrics, and the lives of all your people.
Table of Contents:
Preface xiv
Chapter 1 Creating a Living Endowment for Ensuring Performance 1
Organizational Performance 4
Performance Analysis 6
Gap/Cause Analysis 11
Intervention Strategy 15
Design an Evaluation Plan to Measure End Results and Your Return on Investment 20
Design, Develop, and Deploy the Intervention 24
Measure End Results and Calculate Return on Investment 25
Conduct a Performance Analysis 25
Summary 26
Chapter 2 Starting with the Desired End Results 29
Principles of the Work/Life Approach 31
Organizational Bill of Rights 32
Understanding and Clarifying What People Were Hired to Do 33
Understanding and Clarifying the Expected End Results of People’s Work 34
Understanding and Clarifying How the Expected Results Are Measured 34
Understanding and Clarifying the Needed Knowledge, Experience, and Skills to Perform Well on the Job 35
Understanding and Clarifying the Resources Needed: Financial, Physical, and Time 37
Understanding and Clarifying to Provide and Receive Regular Feedback 37
Understanding and Clarifying What Is Required to Be Paid for Performance 41
The Celestial Approach to Managing 43
Communication and the Flow of Work 44
Additional Thoughts to Help You Realize Your Desired End Results 45
Batting Averages 46
Tell and Persuade 46
Focus on the Work 50
Summary 50
Chapter 3 Focusing on the Work 53
Organizational Mission 53
Vision 54
Acquiring Wealth 56
Stakeholders 56
Values 57
Growth 59
Social Responsibility 59
Longevity 60
Our People 60
Mission Statement 61
Focus on the Work 61
Summary 65
Chapter 4 Increasing the Flow of Useful Information 67
Sharing Ideas 67
Useful Information 69
Levels of Information 71
Shelf Life of Useful Information 72
Communicating Useful Information 73
Respectful Communication 75
Summary 76
Chapter 5 Getting Others to Own Their “Fraction of the Action” 77
Sapiential Authority 77
Understanding, Acceptance, and Support (UAS) 83
Understanding 83
Acceptance 86
Support 86
Arc of Distortion 88
Summary 90
Chapter 6 Valuing Behavior: Increasing Trust and the Bottom Line 93
Valuing Behavior 96
Stress Reduction 100
Validations 102
The Whole Person Model 105
Summary 106
Chapter 7 Owning the Present Condition Helps Define the Future Condition 109
Managing System Overview 110
Strategic Arena 110
Planning 111
Organizing 112
Directing 112
Leading 113
Controlling 113
Iterative 114
Operational Arena 114
Quality Management 115
Mosaic 118
Summary 121
Chapter 8 Fifty Years of Problem Solving: A Magnificent Obsession 123
Prioritizing and Time Management 124
The Basics of Solving Problems and Making Decisions 129
Problem Solving: Analyzing the Situation, Expectations, and Actions 131
Decision Making 133
Summary 135
Chapter 9 Why Play the Blame Game? 137
Self Assessment and Analyzing the Situation 138
Summary 144
Chapter 10 Fostering Change to Enhance End Results 147
Change Management 148
Resistance to Change 150
Memories 153
Habits 154
Labeling 156
Beliefs 157
Vision 157
Summary 160
Appendix A Measuring End Results: The Return-on-Investment Plan 163
Step 1: Collect, Evaluate, and Isolate Data on the Effects of the Intervention 167
Participants’ Post-Initiative Questionnaires 171
Step 2: Convert the Effects of Performance Intervention into a Monetary Value 175
Direct Observation 175
Interviews with Participants, Coworkers, and Supervisors 176
Interviews with Participants’ Customers, Vendors, and Supply Chain as Appropriate 177
Focus Groups Can Add to the Synergy of a Group’s Output 177
Measuring a Change in Production 177
Reduction in Customer Complaints, Customer Callbacks, and so on as Applicable 178
Reduction in the Amount of Time Needed to Perform a Task 179
Reduction in Scrap/Waste 179
Step 3: Calculate the Total Cost of a Performance Intervention 180
Step 4: Calculate the Net Benefit of a Performance Intervention 184
Step 5: Calculate the ROI 184
Summary 185
Appendix B The Authors and Their Perspectives 187
About the Authors 188
Gene E. Fusch, PhD 188
Richard C. Gillespie 189
References 191
Index 195
About the Author :
Dr. Gene E. Fusch is a faculty member at Walden University and Northcentral University in the doctoral program in business administration. A Certified Performance Technologist, he works with organizations to help them improve performance and realize their desired end results. His clients have included Alcoa-Intalco Works, ARCO, AT&T Cable Systems, Boeing, BP, Georgia Pacific, the Washington State Department of Transportation, US West, and Yahoo!. His career has spanned both education and business, from organizational leadership to advanced technologies and aerospace.
Richard C. Gillespie is President of Work/Life Systems International and Chief Operations Officer for Salty’s Waterfront Seafood Restaurants. A renowned organizational leadership and management consultant, he spent many years at IBM in roles ranging from quality engineer to corporate internal consultant. He participated in the original initiative that established IBM’s corporate organizational development function.
