Hopefully last week’s blog piqued your interest in performance improvement. This week, I’ll offer some thoughts on how to build a sustainable performance partnering organization. Introducing performance partnering into organizations is not new. Jim and Dana Robinson of Partners in Change were doing it for years before I met them in 1995. In their experience, the leader of the initiative was paramount to their success. The all-important first step is to develop sponsorship within your organization, and that takes leadership and a vision. Performance Improvement crosses many corporate lines and your initiative can fail if you don’t have support in several areas. If you are initiating this effort from a training organization, that’s fine, but you need support and cooperation from other areas like Human Resources and/or Organizational Development for starters. 1. Develop sponsorship through leadership and a vision - The first thing many organizations think about is the skills development of the people who will become the Performance Partners. I strongly recommend that you get your sponsorship, leadership and vision in place before you spend time and money on skill development. If you are not the leader of your training or learning organization, that’s fine, too. But, you will need whoever that person is to be your sponsor and take a leadership position with you. Once you have a vision and committed leadership, you can begin to inspire the rest of your team. 2. Develop the skills of your potential Performance Partners - Books and workshops are a good start for skill development, but make sure the workshops don’t merely present content. The best way to truly learn performance partnering skills is through practice and feedback with role plays. I know this because this is how I learned the skill and it is how I teach it today. As your performance partners begin to apply their skills, I also recommend they work in pairs. It’s sort of a buddy team like scuba diving. One person can conduct a meeting while the other observes and takes notes. The observer can act as a coach and give feedback to the meeting leader based on the principles learned in the skills building workshop. Whatever skill building approach you use, make sure it has both proactive and reactive consulting components. Typically, your clients are not out there just waiting for you to walk into their offices and help them solve their business problems. You will have to proactively, over time, become a trusted partner relationship with your clients. Once you have built a trusted partner you will be able to influence solutions that may be beyond your current control. Learning a reactive approach, which Jim and Dana Robinson call the "reframing" meeting, will help you gain permission to gather more data when you suspect you are either not hearing the whole story or maybe being asked to solve a problem with training when training is not the answer. 3. Develop a trusted partner relationship with your clients - Developing a trusted partner relationship takes time. Many instructional designers may not have pictured themselves being relationship builders when they were in graduate school or when they accepted a position in training. Welcome to the real world; this is a relationship business. In reactive consulting, you will use a series of questions and your client’s own data to either confirm a training request or to discover new and better solutions. Reactive consulting is something you will do when your client approaches you and it requires a good bit of skill and patience. Proactive consulting is something that happens when there is no pressing deadline or stressful initiative on the table. It is something initiated by you, the performance partner. It is a series of informal meetings where you attempt to assess the nature of your client’s business and ask strategic questions to be better prepared when a new initiative does arise. It is through these proactive consulting meetings, scheduled by you on a regular basis, that you will achieve a trusted partner relationship with your clients. Next week I will list and discuss three more principles for building a sustainable performance consulting organization.   Part two of three

"GAPS Map" Workshop

Last week I listed the initial three steps for building a sustainable performance partnering organization. Here are the next three steps along with a list to summarize all six steps. The person who told me this story also told me that in her next job, where she was the director of training, she tried a different approach. She called her new approach "stealth consulting". She approached her new clients with her Director of Training business card and didn’t tell them she was here to help them solve their business problems. She asked strategic, open-ended questions about their business issues. She found out what their business goals were. She asked for time and permission to gather additional data and she completed her Gaps Maps. As she and her clients discovered a variety of solutions to improve performance and achieve business goals, she became the trusted partner. Rather than talking about becoming a performance consultant, she simply became one. 5. Manage the common problems of change and adoption - Moving from training to performance consulting is a change in the way your organization does business. Like any other change initiative, change has to be managed. Only you know whether the "stealth" approach or a more formal approach will work in your organization. The best way to approach this situation is to do a gap analysis of your own company. One of my favorite clients, used to say, "Every organization has a culture, whether it is intentional or not." Since you are making an intentional change in culture by introducing performance consulting, you need to identify the gap between how your organization functions today and how you want it to function after the change initiative, especially with regard to human performance. Once you have identified this gap, you can begin to design programs to facilitate the change. 6. Document results and success to build a sustainable program - Perhaps the biggest challenge in any organizational change is making that change sustainable. Most of us are familiar with organizations who like to introduce the flavor of the quarter. It is important to manage change by not allowing too much change, and when you do bring on a new effort, stick with it. The best way to ensure sustainability is to make sure you share your positive results. You will make some mistakes and you will have some successes. When you do have successes, and you will have early successes, showcase that client and the work you have done together. Most importantly, take time to measure your results so you can showcase your success. No sales presentation in the world can top the value of positive results, or as Mark Twain put it, "Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." Finally, let your clients take credit for the good results you have produced together. This may be a bit difficult for you to do, but it is the best way to build a sustainable performance partnering program in your organization. Here are the six principles for your review:  1. Develop sponsorship through leadership and a vision  2. Develop the skills of your potential Performance Partners  3. Develop a trusted partner relationship with your clients  4. Introduce the program into your corporate culture      5. Manage the common problems of change and adoption  6. Document results and success to build a sustainable program Please contact me by email at dick.handshaw@handshaw.com if you have questions or write a comment below. Click on the Workshops tab to see the workshops that Handshaw, Inc. offers to help you with your Performance Partnering Program. Part three of three

I really do enjoy my trips out to ASTD and ISPI chapters. Last week I ended my year with two really good ones. First, thank you to ASTD Birmingham for their hospitality on Monday, December the 3rd. I had an enjoyable lunch meeting with them for what I think was a very good turnout for their chapter in a combined November/December meeting date. I used to do a lot of business in Birmingham and always enjoyed visiting that city. I hope you give me more reasons to return soon.I flew to Memphis on Thursday to attend and speak at a one day conference on December 7th in honor of ASTD’s National Learning Week. With one hundred people registered for the event, it was a huge success. The event featured four keynote speakers, good coffee and great food. I especially enjoyed the speakers dinner on Thursday evening at Corky’s Barbecue. Thanks for that one. There are a lot of great companies headquartered in Memphis to help support a vibrant and exciting ASTD chapter. Since we do have clients there, I know I will see you again soon. In 2012 I had the opportunity to speak to nine ASTD chapters, three ISPI chapters and I did one webinar for the eLearning Guild. I also presented at the 2012 Training Conference and at the 2012 ISPI International conference. It has been a very good year for me and for all of us at Handshaw, Inc. There is one common theme to my travel to professional associations and all of my colleagues’ interactions with our clients. That common theme is how much we learn from all of you. We do listen to you and we do value the improvements that all of you make in our company. We have grown and evolved in many ways over the past 27 years of serving the learning and performance improvement profession. We wouldn’t be able to do that without our clients and all the professionals who take part in professional associations. However you chose to celebrate the holidays, may you have a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 

I’ve never been very good at making New Year’s resolutions, but here is something fairly simple. Let’s just try to do better in 2013… There is no doubt we have all seen tough economic times. Many people are still looking for employment and I hope this year they find it. Those of us who have jobs in learning and performance improvement have to pledge to do better this year. We must accept the responsibility to move beyond being order takers for training programs, and pledge ourselves to be solution finders. We need to look beyond the mere request and make an effort to link training goals to business goals. Once we identify the right reasons to develop learning, then push beyond "check-in-the-box" programs that present information without providing practice and feedback or measurement of results. Let’s pledge to ask for the time and the resources to develop learning that will make a measurable difference and achieve real business outcomes. We all know we can’t make everything we do fit these criteria, we have to pick our battles. When you find that client who is willing to work with you, give him or her your very best. No more excuses about the economy or the lack of time.  Let’s just do better…

April 8, 2013Greater Atlanta ASTD"Performance Partnering: Reframing Training Requests" 5:00-8:00 PM at The Home Depot Store Support Center See the Events page for more information.

Finally, it’s the day of the big training launch. You’ve used every bit of adult learning theory, creative talent, and design experience to create a training program that will knock it out of the park. You did a thorough analysis, followed ADDIE to the letter, and tested and verified that your training is going to meet every objective the business leader set out at the beginning of the project. But, from your seat in the back of the room your excitement quickly turns to dread as you realize the students simply aren’t connecting with the material like you thought they would. You did EVERYTHING right! What happened?! The problem is that you let the business leader set your program objectives. Gasp! "But isn’t that their job?" you ask. Well, in theory, yes. The business leader’s job is to identify the problem, do a root cause analysis, and come to you with a full understanding of how providing training to their employees can contribute to the solution. But let’s face it, all too often that’s not what happens.  Learning to Influence Without Authority What often happens is the business leader has a performance issue with their staff and wants to train them to do a better job. But what if training isn’t the answer? What does an Instructional Designer do then? It’s not your job to tell the business leader how to run their department, right? Instructional Designers should be designing to solve a business problem, and in order to get the heart of that problem they must also sometimes act as a Performance Consultant. A successful training program is one that changes behavior, imparts knowledge and skills, and meets a business need. If you’re designing to the wrong objectives, your training will fail, ADDIE notwithstanding. So give yourself permission to design successful training. Many Instructional Designers are intimidated at the thought of pushing back on the business leader’s training solution. At many companies, it’s not appropriate to tell a business leader how to run the business. When the success of your training is on the line, you can’t wait for permission to speak up. Use your knowledge of analysis to get into the business area and verify that the business leader’s assumptions about the solution are correct.  Identify the pain points and if you find issues that training won’t fix such as broken processes, document them.  You can document the issues and let the business leader decide how to resolve them, or suggest resolutions yourself. And now comes the hard part. You’re "just" an Instructional Designer. How do you get the business leader to listen to you?   Influencing without authority is a skill that you can develop just as you developed your instructional design skills. The business leader thinks they want training. But what they really want is for you to solve the performance problem they’re having with their staff. Clearly articulate the pain that they’re feeling and follow it up with a solution that provides the desired end result. They need to understand immediately that your solution will free them from the pain of the performance problem. If you like that "light bulb" moment when the students get the concept you’re teaching them, you’ll love it when the business leader realizes you have found out how to make the pain go away. You can read more of Kelly’s work at EffectiveTrainingDesign.com and RedFeatherNetworking.com

It’s time to go back to one of my favorite training conferences, Training 2013 Conference & Expo, in Orlando Florida. If you haven’t registered or just want to see what it is all about, go to www.trainingconference.com . I will be presenting a Hands-On Clinic on Performance Partnering: Proactive and Reactive Performance Consulting, February 20th, 12:15 to 3:15 PM. During the session I will present my eight principles for Proactive client meetings, which includes the skills required to develop a consultative relationship with key clients and leaders in the organization.  I will also present the eight principles for Reactive client meetings, which focuses on how to reframe a client request in a way that will yield better results for both you and the client. These principles will be supported by videos to demonstrate how to use them and then I will let the audience take over with live role plays. The interactions during the live role plays are always a surprise and a learning experience for everyone, so be sure and stop by to see what happens. See for yourself how well the principles work on the first try after very little instruction.  Hear feedback from your colleagues.  Then, imagine how well they can work once you have had a chance to practice them for a while. These are the same principles that the Instructional Designers and Performance Consultants of Handshaw, Inc. use when working with our clients to manage relationships, improve processes and/or develop learning solutions for our clients. If you are attending Training 2013 and looking to improve how you and/or your department engage with clients, stop by my session.  Pick up some new tactics and engage in interactive learning.  I invite you to take a sneak peek of the role play demonstrations by clicking here or the Resources link on the Home page. If you would just like to know more about Performance Partnering and how it can change your business, take a look at the workshop description on this site or send me an email.  I’ll be happy discuss it with you in detail.  Looking forward to Training 2013! p.s. If you need some new reading material on Performance Partnering, click here for my recently published article in Training Magazine.  Thanks!

Training Magazine continues to attract more attendees to their excellent conference. Attendance this year was 2,000, which is back to 2008 levels. The Monday evening Gala for the Top 125 draws a well-dressed crowd for the annual awards event. The attendees for this event were anxious to see if they went up a few numbers while some may have slipped a few numbers in the ranking. Regardless of the outcome, they were all smiles for the banquet and entertainment. The Training 2013 staff is always creative and not afraid to take a few risks with their selection of keynote speakers. The result is definitely not your basic keynote, but always something out of the ordinary and thought provoking. I’ve enjoyed every one for the last few years. This conference doesn’t have conference tracks, but every time slot is filled with a variety of topics from performance improvement to technology and leadership topics. I was impressed with the sessions I attended as well as the usual list of the big name speakers who always like to come to this conference.   It is still my favorite.

There is a recurring industry theme that I suspect may come across as a little threatening for training departments and trainers.  That recurring theme is that we should do less training.  I understand why this may be worrisome when you first think of it.  If I’m in the business of developing and/or facilitating training, it does not sound like the best career move to tell my manager that we need to do less training.  I recently attended Roger Addison’s excellent evening meeting and one day workshop for ISPI Charlotte.  There was one phrase though that I heard Roger use over and over again as I listened to him.  In response to many questions, his answer began with "Yes… and…" Let’s apply this to the question in my title. Is performance improvement a threat to training departments?  Yes, it could be a threat, especially if we do nothing to replace the training that we don’t provide.  Now here’s the good part, doing less training could be the best thing we can do to increase our value to our organization and our clients.  Instead of just taking an order for more training, which costs our organization money, we might take additional time to find out what the real business goal is, and what kinds of training or performance improvement activities would impact the achievement of that goal in a positive way. A fair question might be, "What does that look like and how long does that take?"  It’s hard for me to speak from personal experience, but I actually had a corporate job once.  It was back in 1979, right after graduate school, and I just started asking questions about our first training request like I was taught to do by my professors.  My boss told me he felt more like a detective than someone who provided training.  Interestingly, Roger used that same word, "detective" to describe what we do.  Along with that, another theme I heard was to be "observant". If you are a trainer who is somewhat intimidated by the prospect of doing less training, or using some of the complicated performance improvement models out there, relax.  Roger is definitely one of the most successful performance consultants out there and he just keeps it simple and practical.  It is my belief though, that if you are in the learning and performance business—and that includes trainers—performance consulting is something you can’t ignore. Consider that a better value proposition for your organization might not be "doing more with less", but doing less training better.  Even more importantly, we can use training where training will solve a performance problem and apply other solutions where training is not the best solution or the only solution.  The next time you get a training request, you can tell your client, "Yes we can do training, and…"