JULY 2015
Volume 14, Number 3
CONTACT HSA

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PUBLICATIONS

For more information on our best-selling, award-winning books, click HERE.

Need help with HPT terminology? Click HERE for The HSA Lexicon.

Click HERE to read our published articles.

ASK HAROLD

Click HERE to read the latest Ask Harold question and Harold's response or ask a question of your own!

UPCOMING EVENTS

July 20-21, 2015
ATD Telling Ain't Training Event, Vancouver, Canada

August 24-25, 2015
ATD Telling Ain't Training Event, Chicago, IL

September 29-30, 2015
ATD Training Ain't Performance Event, New York, NY

November 2-3, 2015
ATD Telling Ain't Training Event, New Orleans, LA

For details about these events, click HERE

To learn more about engaging Harold Stolovitch to speak at your organization, click HERE

CPT DESIGNATION

Harold Stolovitch and Erica Keeps are Certified Performance Technologists (CPT). The CPT designation is awarded by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) to experienced practitioners in the field of organizational performance improvement, whose work meets both the performance-based Standards of Performance Technology and application requirements. For more information, visit www.ispi.org.

Training Ain't Performance

No matter how much training you throw at a problem that isn't the result of a skill or knowledge deficiency, the problem won't go away. Even appropriate, excellent training, poorly implemented or without a support strategy, will probably not result in improved performance. This issue of our enewsletter focuses on what many have called, "the other half of the story" - the very large and significant non-training portion. As the titles of two of our books state very forcefully, Telling Ain't Training AND Training Ain't Performance.

We hope you enjoy and find useful the excerpt we have included from our book, Beyond Training Ain't Performance Fieldbook, as well as two articles on Performance entitled "Awareness Does Not Equal Performance" and "A Leisurely Approach to Performance".

If you are inspired or curious to learn more, join us in New York City on September 29 and 30, 2015 for a special ATD Training Ain't Performance event.

Success to you in every endeavor!

Erica and Harold

     IN THIS ISSUE

Training Ain't Performance
By Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps

Yes. This is the title to one of our books. Beyond the title, however, resides a lot of science and sadness. Hardly anyone whom we speak to in organizations believes that training alone is the surest way to achieve worthwhile behavior changes and outcomes. Almost everyone in the learning and development world knows, through experience, that acquisition of skills and knowledge is rarely sufficient to attain sought-after results. Yet amazingly, we still find little evidence that this knowledge gets translated into systemic, performance improvement initiatives. Somehow, the training default solution gets triggered as convention, convenience and organizational criteria kick in. Who can argue that training is not good? Boxes need to get checked off. Form over function is a powerful approach for triggering entrenched organizational practices.

What follows is an excerpt from our book, Beyond Training Ain't Performance Fieldbook. It speaks to this issue.

It Ain't Always Easy

Why is it so difficult to make happen what we know to be right? CONTINUE READING TO FIND OUT

Oldie but Goodie
By Harold Stolovitch

Since this issue of HSA e-Xpress focuses on what makes for achieving valued performance, we cannot leave out some of the important, wise principles Thomas Gilbert, the father of Human Performance Technology, taught us. Here is an article I wrote a few years back to refresh our memories about Gilbert's Leisurely Theorems. It originally appeared in the June 2010 issue of Talent Management Magazine.


A Leisurely Approach to Performance

The extraordinary athletic triumphs I witnessed during the last Olympics triggered in me reflections about human performance. Medalists' accomplishments often appeared effortless, leading to reminiscences of conversations with the late Thomas Gilbert, generally considered the father of Human Performance Technology, and the "Leisurely Theorems" he espoused in his classic Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance (1978; 1996). Provocative and profound, they offer wisdom and guidance to performance professionals. They also resonate well with the incredible Olympic performances I had observed.

First Leisurely Theorem

Paraphrasing Gilbert, worthy performance is a function of the ratio of valuable accomplishment to costly behavior. Value is derived from accomplishment not behavior (which is always a cost). Working hard and long, being knowledgeable and highly motivated without, minimally, equal accomplishment, is, in Gilbert's terms, unworthy performance. The focus, as Peter Drucker has suggested, must be on doing the right thing. Doing things right is a waste of time, money, effort or any other resources if you do not achieve valued results. CONTINUE READING

Awareness Does Not Equal Performance
By Harold Stolovitch

This article was originally published in the November 2010 edition of Talent Management Magazine

I have had some fierce encounters over awareness programs, campaigns and training. My position is that "awareness" efforts, as stand-alone initiatives, are a futile waste of money. This stance has caused me to endure emotional confrontations with safety directors, sales VPs, diversity managers, harassment professionals and even security folk. "You must make people aware!" they assert, bristling with passion. "It's the only way to get things to change."

My retort to this is a blunt, "Nonsense." MY RATIONALE IS...

Training Ain't Performance and Beyond Training Ain't Performance Fieldbook

Training Ain't Performance is an award-winning book that makes the principles, concepts and procedures easily accessible to trainers, instructional designers, experienced performance support professionals and performance consultants. Beyond Training Ain't Performance Fieldbook provides tools and templates to assist individuals and teams in transitioning to a performance orientation. Together, these two books provide a curriculum for performance improvement. Both books are available through ATD Press.

If you attend the special ATD Training Ain't Performance event on September 29 and 30, 2015 in New York City, you will receive copies of both books, which are included in the registration fee.

Learn more about our ATD Press books and events


     ABOUT US

At HSA LEARNING & PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS LLC, we've seen a lot over the years.  We know the business of learning.  We know the role human performance plays in business success.  We know how to uncover and address needs, then create appropriate solutions.  We pride ourselves on helping organizations achieve high levels of performance - and success.  HSA is a leader in workplace learning and performance improvement.  Our proven learning and performance solutions have helped maximize employee performance at hundreds of organizations throughout the world.  Our principals, Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps, share a common passion - developing people. Together they have devoted a combined total of over 80 years to make workplace learning and performance both enjoyable and effective. Their dedication to improving workplace learning and performance is reflected in the workshops they run internationally on training delivery, instructional design and performance consulting. Together, they are co-editors of the first two editions of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology and co-authors of the best-selling, award-winning series of books Telling Ain't Training - Updated, Expanded and Enhanced, Training Ain't Performance, Beyond Telling Ain't Training Fieldbook and Beyond Training Ain't Performance Fieldbook published by ATD Press. They are also co-authors of the Wiley/Pfeiffer Learning & Performance Toolkit Series.  To learn more, click HERE.


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© 2015 Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps