A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models for Building a High-Performance Culture (paperback)

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.