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http://thesolopreneurlife.com/coaching-vs-consulting-vs-training-vs-freelancing/

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The Solopreneur Life | Passive Income | Home Business

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T his is a guest post written by small-business consultant Rob Place.

Client-focused (clifo) solopreneurs have to come to terms with one fundamental question when they start their business: how will I deliver my service to the client? Will I coach, consult, train, or freelance? This post looks at the revenue model for each, how to market each, and tips on which one to specialize in.

Overview of Each

Clifo solopreneurs leverage their skills to make money-be it through Web site design, copyrighting, blogging, business-plan writing, photography, accounting, etc.-and at some point when hanging their shingle, they have to decide how they'll deliver their expertise to their clients. Value can be delivered to clients through empowering (coaching), problem-solving (consulting), educating (training), or producing (freelancing).

Coaching enables clients to reach their own conclusions and create their own solution to their problem. This starts with the coach asking clients to state their goal. Once a goal is decided upon, a coach works with them over a specified time period-designing a process to work through, giving assignments, and holding them accountable to reach their goal.

Consulting is less about empowering clients to realize a solution and more about creating a solution. While coaches create processes to navigate a client to reach their own solution, consultants analyze the problem, advise a client on a how to solve the problem, and then implement the solution.

Training teaches clients how to do something. Each training session requires clients to be present, yet it requires little client interaction. (That's why you see so much training online where the trainers don't even interface with the trainees.) Trainers don't hold themselves accountable to client results, as it's more of a monologue than a dialog. The Trainer essentially says: "Here's the training. Good luck with the knowledge."

Freelancing is producing a deliverable in a specified time period to the client. The freelancer will work on it with limited interaction with the client and when finished, hand the deliverable to the client. While similar to consultants, freelancers don't diagnose and analyze an existing problem. The client simply wants something to be produced from nothing.

In terms of solving a client's problem, the easiest way to think of this is:

Coaching=Empowerment
Consulting=Problem-solving
Training=Instruction
Freelancing=Production

How Do They Work?

You can think of each delivery method in terms of the amount of client interaction and the extent of problem solving on behalf of the client. As you can see in the matrix below, trainers and coaches don't solve client problems, while freelancers and consultants do. Clients don't value the personal interaction with the freelancers and trainers, while consultants and coaches are paid for it.

With high client interaction yet a low expectation for problem-solving, coaches need to balance a nurturing and stern role in order for clients to get results. Like a psychologist, they need to be able to listen and then direct. They need to see the client's problem in context. If the client can't solve a problem (i.e. start a business), the coach will have to look beyond the immediate problem and look at related issues (i.e. look at more than just the business plan-maybe the client's home environment or history of finishing projects). Coaches have to be disciplined on the scope of their role in order for them to succeed. They are there to only help the client set a tenable goal and then facilitate the process of the client reaching the goal by breaking down the work into manageable steps. It is the enabler role, and ultimately, success lies with the client.

The consultant tends to be more analytical than the coach as s/he analyzes a problem plaguing the client (i.e. slow sales, disorganized recordkeeping, poor Web site conversions) and suggests the best course of action to resolve the problem. While there is high client interaction, consultants don't handhold and advise more than listen. Consultants are better equipped with analytical versus counseling skills. Consultants start a job by figuring out the client problem through a situational analysis. They will then write a proposal to the client, which, if agreed upon, indicates what implementation will be done. The consultant will then implement a solution to the problem, be it designing a better marketing campaign, developing a better record-keeping system, or a Web site that converts visitors better. The client is involved in the process due to the signoffs required for each step and the payment that takes the work to the next phase.

The trainer either teaches onsite or online in the form of a conference center event, an e-book, a video, or an online conference. Training can be for a DIY (do-it-yourselfer) or a business. The trainer's only aim is to deliver a prescription through instructions and anecdotes. The implementation is to be done by the client. Trainers spend much of their time developing curriculum, new systems to be used, and presentations to be given. The role of the client is simply to buy.

The freelancer is the quintessential solution guru. The freelancer doesn't analyze or train or coach, s/he just produces something of value. Like the trainer, the freelancer spends much time away from clients. The freelancer's worth is only as good as the product delivered.

Let's Play Web Developer (and Look At Each Delivery Method)

Let's look at how a Web developer, Wanda, would use her skills in each role.

As a coach, Wanda could make money helping DIY entrepreneurs build basic Web sites. She could start by helping them create a realistic goal of what their Web site would look like. Wanda probably has a standard Web site she plans to build. She gives the client easy homework assignments, breaking the process down into one-step tasks. If the student struggles, the coach will help them get over the hump by asking questions to figure out the best approach the client can take to complete the assignments. Once the client reaches the goal (the Web site is built), Wanda will be done with the client unless she has an advanced program to sell.

As a consultant, Wanda could work with a fellow Web developer to build out a certain part of the business. Maybe the Web developer is experiencing some glitches in his code. Wanda can analyze the problem, offer a solution, and implement it for the client.

As a trainer, Wanda could give a five-session course on how to build a Web site. Note that this is very similar to the coach role, but as a trainer, there is little client feedback, and she might not even be present. She might even record the training sessions so people can purchase the training videos and watch on demand. Please note that coaching and training are dovetail companions, as solopreneurs often offer training with their coaching, because coaching without training might not give a client enough knowledge to achieve his/her goal.

As a freelancer, Wanda could work with a startup business to build them a website. The client has little interest in knowing how to build one, but just wants it built. Wanda will be given a budget, images and content, and the basic design concept. Wanda will progress through a series of work development phases from conceptualization to design to coding-all leading to a finished product that is given to the client at the end of the job.

These are all very different businesses. But they all stem from one skill.

Economic Differences (Where's the Dough?)

Graphing the different roles reveals key differences that stem from potential revenue and time spent building a model.

You'll see that for three of the models (consulting, coaching, and freelancing), income begins to flatten out as the business is developed. This is from the natural bottleneck formed by the solopreneur's limited time to serve clients. Freelancing and coaching income flattens out quickly because it's is only earned when servicing a client-they can only serve so many clients in a day. Consulting income flattens out a bit, but consultants are able to deal with it better simply because their model allows them to obfuscate where they spend their time (I'll talk about this below). Training income never flattens out because once a training session is documented, it can serve as residual income (money that is made while you sleep).

The curvatures represent the learning curve. Note that the learning curve is easiest for the freelancer, who can start using his skills now; the hardest learning curve is for the trainer. To be effective when marketing, the trainer should have actual results of what they are advocating. Otherwise, it looks like work with no benefit.

Let's take each role separately:

Freelancers
Freelancing is competitive because the role is such a natural way to utilize one's skills. If I went to university to learn how to take pictures and I love to take pictures, I am most likely going to enter into a role where I can, yes, take pictures! Whether you design Web pages or write copy or write code, the path of greatest enjoyment and least resistance is to produce via freelancing rather than use the skill in one of the other capacities, which would require one extra step. That extra step would be knowing what complex problem to specialize in solving (via coaching), setting up a Training system, or building a coaching methodology. (And yes, there is money out there in photography coaching, consulting, and training. )

Coaches
Coaches are the most constrained by time, because they are being be paid for face time. For them to be successful, they have to steer clients into picking obtainable goals because referrals, testimonials, and goodwill will ultimately come through clients achieving their goals. Coaches can struggle to find clients because of the American culture of (Do-It-Yourselfers)-that is, the feeling that we exhibit weakness by asking someone to coach us through a problem. Coaches' income flattens out when their schedule is booked; the most successful ones charge high package/hourly fees to mitigate the shortcoming.

Consultants
Consultants can make a lot of money. If they have standardized a solution to solve a certain problem, they can handle many clients at once, raising their take-home pay. The high upside of consulting is from more lucrative clients and less competition than the uber-saturated freelance market. Additionally, the consultant can obfuscate the time and effort involved in the problem-solving and implementation process, whereby the client can't value the results on a per-time basis. In other words, the consultant will say she is going to analyze a problem and then implement a solution. The results are so good that the client might assume the consultant has spent 50 hours on it, when in reality, the consultant has only spent a few hours on it simply because she has done similar projects in the past and very little work needed to be done.

Trainers
Trainers traditionally were tied to time more than any of the other roles because they had to be in a physical room in front of a body of listeners. Well, technology eradicated that requirement. Now trainers write, audio record, and videotape training sessions and distribute them online. While big-name trainers are still filling conference halls at laughably high entrance fees, most trainers make money developing and mass-producing systems to teach DIY people a system so that they may solve their own problem.

Training has become an essential second role for many clifo solopreneurs. One training session can be documented once and sold repeatedly at little to no cost. Why not take past successes and make them anecdotal evidence of how your system works? While training can stand by itself, it is often utilized as an add-on to the other three or simply serving as residual income.

Many clifo solopreneurs use more than one of these, which is probably a good idea, especially if they can take past work and bundle it into passive-income training packages. These packages can be sold in the form of books/e-books, audio learning, and information products. However, it is problematic when you see under "My Services" on the business's homepage that coaching, consulting, and freelancing are all available. If we prescribe to the notion of differentiation and being a big fish in a small pond, each of these requires a certain level of expertise through standardization. You have to be careful to just list coaching without an in-depth coaching program developed. The same goes with consulting and specifying what problem you specialize in analyzing.

How to Market

The key to marketing is to keep it simple: look at the deliverables and work backwards.

The coach will rely heavily on client testimonials. These testimonials must illustrate two things: 1) how the coach helped the client obtain the desired goal, and 2) the actual process of working with the coach. These are both key competitive differentiators for the coach. A coach needs to show that goals are being met AND the process is what the target audience is looking for (i.e. comforting, challenging, funny, etc.)

The trainer needs to market his pedagogy. In Internet marketing you'll also see benefits, but BE CAREFUL stating what your training program can deliver as you have no control over how someone will use your knowledge. While it certainly makes it easier to sell benefits ("our course will make you rich" or "your Web site will convert 80% of visitors") than features ("we'll teach you how to do X, Y, and Z"), you run the risk of being labeled a fraud if you're over-promising. This is why you see so many training programs bundled with coaching, so the solopreneur can actually influence the outcome and THEN use a real testimonial to market.

The consultant will market his specialization of solving a certain kind of problem. You want to be sure to indicate what the general problem was and how you solved the problem. While many clients won't want you revealing their financial information, you can certainly do it in a conceptual way that doesn't reveal any corporate secrets. If your consulting is to increase performance, you can aggregate all your clients to show how you work has turned pumpkins into Cinderellas.

The freelancer will market the project outcomes (i.e. through a portfolio or list of outcomes you delivered). Your target audience cares less about the people skills and more about how you can produce something they really want.

Which One Should You Specialize In?

There isn't a clear-cut best option. It ultimately comes down to you, your competition, and your need for income now:

1. Competitive landscape. How are your competitors delivering their service? Is there an alternate way that hasn't been tried? For instance, if all your competition is battling for freelance scraps, why not give consulting or coaching a try?

2. Your interests, personality, and passion. What do you like the most: To create? To solve? To enable? To teach? Giving your interests the most weight is usually the recommended path.

3. Your financial urgency. Freelancing is the easiest to start, because the other roles require the extra step that goes beyond just utilizing the skill at hand. If you need income now, trying to start a coaching business would be a misguided move. And a profitable training program would be even more difficult to pull off.

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Coaching vs. Consulting vs. Training vs. Freelancing: Which One Is Best For You? - The Solopreneur Life | Passive Income | Home Business -

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This is a guest post written by small-business consultant Rob Place. Client-focused (clifo) solopreneurs have to come to terms with one fundamental question when they start their business: how will I deliver my service to the client? Will I coach, consult, train, or freelance? This post looks at the revenue model for each, how to ...

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Diane M. Gayeski, Ph.D.
OmniCom Associates
407 Coddington Road, Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 272-7700 voice and fax

This is a summary of a chapter published in the McGraw-Hill 1997 Training and Performance Sourcebook edited by Mel Silberman-- for individual use only, do not distribute. To order a copy of the boook, Call McGraw Hill at 1-800-2MCGRAW or fax 1-614-759-3644

About the author: Diane M. Gayeski, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized researcher, consultant, and speaker in the area of organizational communication and learning systems. Through her work as a Partner in OmniCom Associates, she has led over two hundred client projects, including those described here, involving the examination and adoption of new technologies, models, and organizational structures for training and performance improvement. The author of seven books, she also maintains an academic affiliation as Associate Professor of Corporate Communication at Ithaca College. Contact: 407 Coddington Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 — phone (607) 272-7700; e-mail gayeski@omnicomassociates.com

Overview:
Many organizations are looking for new approaches to training and other types of communication such as documentation, policies and procedures manuals, and news updates. This guide provides an overview of how and why organizations are "re-designing" their training departments, describes several short case studies, and offers some conceptual foundations and practical steps to move from traditional training approaches to a more contemporary performance improvement model.
Why are so many organizations looking to re-invent their training and communication systems?

Most training and communication systems in today's organizations were designed for old-fashioned top-down management. The traditional assumption was that there was "somebody" who had the information or knowledge to share, and it was the job of training and communication to somehow replicate that knowledge in the heads of employees. The philosophy, technology, environment, and information-dissemination practices in use today generally do not support collaboration, team work, or multi-way communication, which are the lifeblood of today's fast-paced and diverse organizations.

Training, information, and documentation have to happen more quickly than ever to be effective and relevant. Traditional design and development paradigms generally can't keep up with changes in policies and products.

Typical systems and practices often foster an "entitlement" attitude among employees... the assumption is that if something is important, the company will somehow create a course and tell employees to attend, rather than continuous learning being the responsibility of all organizational members.

Training and communication often don't have much credibility with management; there is little data to prove return-on-investment, and it is generally not tied to business strategy. Training courses, documentation, and manuals also are often viewed with skepticism by their audiences, who often find that the content is not current or supported by their supervisors.

Training vs. Performance Improvement
The core idea behind this movement is that training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps, and that trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communication technologies, environmental redesign, selection processes, and job aids.
Case studies (these are all examples of OmniCom Associates' client projects)
Here are some situations in which organizations decided they needed to re-redesign their training and communication systems. They are not atypical of many contemporary organizations.
· A manufacturer of forklift trucks was rapidly expanding its product line, and thus was also expanding the number and size of manuals for its technicians. Technicians in the field were carrying around some 1200 pounds of manuals (they needed to order larger trucks just to carry around the manuals, and often could not fit necessary parts on the trucks because the manuals took up so much room!). If technicians enrolled in each of the courses offered by headquarters that related to the product line, they would spend almost 1/3 of their first two years in the classroom rather than on the job. Despite this embarrassment of information riches, the performance of the technicians was steadily decreasing because the new computerized trucks were displaying unpredictable and complex faults that were covered neither in training nor the documentation. Technicians were not encouraged to use the help line: the only way they were able to call in was to borrow customer's phones, and even when they called in, the staff was generally unable to come up with an answer. Customers were becoming dissatisfied with truck reliability, and technicians were becoming increasingly frustrated which certainly helped neither the turnover rate nor customer confidence.

The solution to this dilemma was to completely abandon traditional notions that training and documentation could ever completely capture and disseminate all the information that technicians would ever need. The trucks were simply too complex to be able to teach and document everything, and there is no way that technicians could somehow memorize all the procedures and fault codes. In fact, the best information was being developed in the field itself, when complex problems were identified and somehow repaired. Unfortunately, this valuable information was never captured by the manufacturer, since technicians had no incentive to call in and explain how they figured something out. A new, interactive knowledge system was needed to replace the traditional top-down training and manuals.

The company is now building a World Wide Web site that will contain dynamic information that technicians can access in the field, via a laptop computer connected via a cellular phone and modem. The information will not only provide the latest information from the factory, but will capture important knowledge from the field. Technicians and dealerships will receive incentives for sharing knowledge, and will become a community of learners, along with the training, documentation, and engineering staffs. While training classes and manuals won't go away, they will be pared down to the basic concepts — while details of troubleshooting will increasingly be built into the trucks themselves and shared via the Web site.

· A large international bank found that tellers were actually performing worse after going through the basic teller training course than before it. They were apparently being loaded down with so much information that they literally "froze" when they returned to work and faced customers. This classroom training was not only ineffective, it was expensive and cumbersome: the bank's 34,000 person workforce spanned over 4,000 miles, from branches in major cities to remote locations with only one or two employees in part-time jobs. On top of rapidly changing policies and bank products, the bank was completely re-structuring its workforce in an initiative that would eventually eliminate tellers' jobs and upgrade them to customer service representative positions. Their new CEO launched initiatives to foster diversity, teamwork, and a customer orientation.

The training department realized that a re-design of not only teller training, but of their entire training philosophy was in order. They commissioned an analysis of their training methods and materials which resulted in a document defining new philosophies and practices for the training department that aligned them better with the bank's mission and values, and oriented it to performance improvement rather than teaching. The consulting team not only worked with the training department, but also involved the advertising and employee communication professionals who had done extensive research on developing a new corporate image, on implications of national and ethnic culture on communicating messages, and on customer expectations. These crucial inputs provided important links among the various communication-providers in the company. As a model of the new philosophy, the former training courses were replaced by a series of short magazine-like training modules, each of which contains opportunities to observe and participate in the actual work and to be mentored by the branch manager and experienced colleagues. "Feature stories" for these manuals were based on actual incidents contributed by tellers within the bank and highlighted teamwork and diversity. A number of job aids were developed to minimize dependence on memorization. This new approach has fostered not only better technical performance, but a new and more consistent culture within the bank.

· An insurance company was faced with having to continually update coverage manuals. The manuals had gotten so large that they could not figure a way to number the pages, and could not fit the manuals horizontally on the desks. Training had risen to 10 weeks in length before a customer service rep could ever perform any actual work, and often managers sent new employees back to training because their performance was not up to expectations. The training classes were so long that it was almost impossible to fill vacancies in a prompt fashion, and many individuals left the job even before they had gotten through basic training.

It was obvious that the training and documentation systems needed to be re-designed. If the manuals could be designed to be easier to use and more accurate, training would not need to be so lengthy. A first, rather obvious "fix", was to convert the print manuals to an online hypertext form which was easier to search and update. However, more fundamental changes in the concept of training and performance were necessary. First, the notion that employees had to be "fully trained" before doing any work was questioned and abandoned. Short coaching modules were developed that allowed trainees to go onto the floors and observe, and then practice, simple skills under the supervision of an experienced representative. Self-instructional modules allowed individuals to learn certain concepts at their own pace, and to review complex material once they were on the job. Even more fundamentally, the selection process for customer service representatives was analyzed and changed; skills that were easily taught, like typing, were given less weight than a candidate's ability and enjoyment of explaining complex material to customers. Recruiting and interviewing procedures were changed so that applicants got a better picture of the job requirements, and this resulted in better qualified employees who required less training and supervision. Once the manuals are totally converted to an on-line performance-based system, the training is expected to be reduced by almost half, resulting in significant savings as well as an improvement in trainee morale.

· Restaurant managers in a U.S. national chain reported that they were spending almost two hours a day responding just to e-mail updates and announcements — in an organization that demands a high level of contact with customers for its managers. The 3-day training course for wait staff had gotten so detailed that many servers left the job ever before they waited on a customer, thinking that they could never learn so complicated a job. Fewer employees were interested in management positions, because it meant having to spend 10 - 12 weeks away from home at company headquarters to go through management training.

This organization is in the process of creating communication guidelines to try to eliminate information overload and help individuals make better decisions about using various media such as memos, e-mail, and voice mail. The basic task requirements for servers and food preparers are being examined, such as the traditional requirement that they memorize a complex system of two-letter codes for all the menu items. Prototype electronic "knowledge banks" are being created that will allow trainers to download continuously updated manuals, and will enable managers to easily sort through and summarize daily news updates. A "pull" rather than "push" strategy for communication is being developed which will focus on enabling employees to maximize their time spent with customers rather than with new information.

· The training subsidiary of a European automobile and truck company faced declining requests from internal clients for training. In a period of about two years, their revenue had decreased some 30%, as customers looked for newer and faster solutions to their performance problems. Line managers in factories began to contract for training themselves instead of going through the subsidiary back at headquarters, or just dropped training altogether. In order to try to maintain their jobs and budgets, the training staff was increasingly recommending more expensive and elaborate courses to their clients, but this strategy backfired completely as they priced themselves out of the market.

In order to remain a relevant and competitive resource to their clients, they re-focused their service as "performance improvement consultation". They re-organized their staff to align them directly with business lines and content specialties, and added skill sets in performance analysis and in organizational communication support, such as meeting planning and presentation media and documentation. A major program of staff development was initiated, including bringing in industry experts as mentors and workshop leaders, and energetically participating in international associations in training and performance improvement, such as the International Society for Performance Improvement. They are now becoming the experts in knowledge acquisition and management for the company's entire international operations, and are enjoying renewed support from their clientele and management. Moreover, they have become leaders in Europe in fostering the performance technology approach.

· The staff development department for a regional healthcare system was so occupied doing time management and sexual harassment training that it had no time left to even consider courses on the new economic realities of managed care and capitation which were concepts necessary to the organization's survival. Not surprisingly, this department received little support from management, and became less and less involved in strategic decisions. Employee morale throughout the company was declining, both because of the uncertainty of the environment, but also because of a perceived lack of credibility of management messages and training.

To remain competitive, it was clear that the organization needed to foster continuous learning (not just about new medical technologies, but about management and economics), and to muster all the energy and enthusiasm available. The CEO formed a strategic planning team, including representatives from human resources, information technology, media production, staff development, corporate communications and finance, to develop a plan to implement concepts of the "learning organization" and of performance technology. After a four-month period of meetings, study, and mentoring by external consultants, they have received approval to re-organize themselves into a "human and organizational development" team that will provide integrated solutions to performance problems in the organization, to identify the skills that the company will need to survive in the new marketplace, and to implement individual development plans for all members of the organization, from groundskeepers to the executive team. However, staff reorganization and some new projects are only the surface changes that are occurring: a new philosophy of openness, valuing diverse opinions and approaches, acknowledgment of everyone as a learner and a mentor, and for celebrating mistakes as well as successes is being promoted. New infrastructures that will make it easier for employees to collaborate and to communicate with management are being implemented, and methods of performance appraisal and compensation are being redesigned.

Key Concepts
There are several key concepts that provide the framework for all of these new designs:

· integrating the various "islands of communication" (Gayeski, 1993) in the organization so that training, employee communications, external communications, human resources, and other key message sources all speak with "one voice" for the organization;

· improving the selection and integration of training and communication interventions so that clients, for example, aren't ordering a two-day course when a simple job aid or a redesign of incentive systems would be a better solution;

· developing methods to analyze return-on-investment for communication and learning projects, and making them part of the organization's strategic plan, rather than a form of "entertainment";

· building a fast, multi-way, collaborative information infrastructure that makes it easy to share, store, and index knowledge;

· forming a new image and structure for training — one that often integrates trainers with employee communications specialists, human resources professionals, media producers, and even advertising and marketing departments;

· ensuring that the basic philosophies and practices of training and communication are aligned with the organizational culture, goals, and values

How To Get Started
If you are interested in moving from training to performance improvement, here are some steps.
1. First, define the current gaps and opportunities that exist. Some of the symptoms of a training and communication system that don't work include the following; check off those that describe situations in your organization:

Courses and manuals are getting too long and are difficult to keep current

People complain of "information overload"

There is no return - on - investment data for training and communication projects

Communication and training aren't currently part of the organization's strategic plan

People feel that organizational information in training, manuals, policies, or employee communications is confusing or not credible

People don't act like learning and teaching is part of everybody's job

There are few standards for "exemplary" performance and analyses of the costs for not achieving exemplary performance for specific jobs

Training, technical publications, employee communications, information systems, and external communication and marketing do not work toothier regularly to focus and integrate core messages

Training & communication is "event" - based (like entertainment) rather than performance-based; they are measured by audience satisfaction

When managers notice substandard performance, they assume that training will fix it, and they "order" a course

Trainers and developers are rewarded for how much material they produce, rather than for how much time or money they save

2. If you notice that even one or two of these are true of your organization, immediately seek management support to examine and improve the system. Don't think that pointing out your own shortcomings will lead to criticism; experience shows that management is also aware of new trends in performance improvement and will be happy that you are looking for better methods. (Many training departments have been completely shut down and reorganized when their own staffs seemed unable to revamp their own approaches).
3. Get the support of at least three internal and three external colleagues. You need other employees to add perspectives and endorsement. You need at least one unbiased and well-credentialed expert to echo your views; this might just mean giving some key managers a great book to read or videotape to view, or it might help to bring in an expert to give an executive briefing. Finally, colleagues in similar organizational situations who have successfully adopted some new performance-based strategies will provide a sanity check and a morale boost. Join organizations such as the American Society for Training and Development, and the International Society for Performance Improvement (both have headquarters in the Washington, D.C. area). Their conferences and journals will provide ample stimulation and references.

4. Get management endorsement to form a study team or task group. This should be a cross-functional group with representatives from training, HR, employee communication, information systems, and media production. In many organizations, the marketing and advertising departments should also be included. This team should look at what each department is doing to promote performance improvement, and how the various teams could work together more closely. Establish a firm but simple charge and aggressive time schedule.

5. Execute a prototype intervention. Take a significant organizational performance gap, and with the team, develop an intervention that includes a wide range of coordinated performance improvement activities. Examples of this might be:

· a prototype Intranet (an internal world wide web server) that integrates a short training module, company news, and continuously updated news about your industry, linking all these facts and issues into a comprehensive context

· a new employee selection and orientation system for a certain job, including more appropriate ways to describe the job, interview and select applicants, give them an accurate picture of the job even before they accept it, and then provide a firm context of the organizational culture and mission

· a system to reduce waste, including some employee awareness, incentives, and training in the new ways to operate more efficiently

· a new computerized sales tool that includes presentation materials that can be customized, along with a coaching guide and product knowledge tutorials and quizzes

Evaluate the return-on investment of this prototype, and document what you learned that will help you create more powerful projects in the future. Don't be discouraged if this project takes a long time and leads to a lot of in-fighting and frustration. You will just be learning new skills and interacting with a new team. It's natural to get defensive and to stumble over new ground. Don't give up.
6. Spread the word of your study and prototype undertakings. Gradually make others aware of these new approaches by highlighting courses or professional meetings and by publicizing the success of your intervention. Consider writing up your case study and presenting it at a conference or publishing it in a trade journal.

7. Develop a new vocabulary. Change the name of your department, or at least your job title to remove "training". When you meet with clients and sponsors, talk about "interventions" or "projects" rather than "courses". Don't refuse to develop training; rather, suggest alternatives or additions.

8. Generate enthusiasm for a new way to do things. Dispel the fear that trainers will lose their jobs, or won't be able to function in new roles. Celebrate successes and accurately reflect how you stand with respect to benchmark departments or professionals outside your own organization.

9. Get the buy-in of at least one top executive. When she or he thinks the time is right, develop and present a white paper with your recommendations for organizational change.

Although these recommendations may sound ambitious, numerous trainers and consultants have applied just these steps to re-design and renew their training departments and individual careers. Although no two results are (or should be) the same, this process has been demonstrated to produce quick and dramatic improvements. As one professional who participated in a four-month intensive strategic planning committee and prototype intervention said, "there's no going back — I'll never do my job the same way again.".

Bibliography
Gayeski, D. and Williams, D.V. (1994). Tools for Reengineering Training. Ithaca, NY: OmniCom Associates. (607) 272-7700.
Gayeski, D. (1993) Corporate Communication Management: The Renaissance Communicator in Information-age Organizations. Woburn, MA: Focal Press. (800) 366-2665

Robinson, D.G. and Robinson, J.C. (1995). Performance Consulting: Moving Beyond Training. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (415) 288-0260

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Diane M. Gayeski, Ph.D. OmniCom Associates 407 Coddington Road, Ithaca, NY 14850(607) 272-7700 voice and fax This is a summary of a chapter published in the McGraw-Hill 1997 Training and Performance Sourcebook edited by Mel Silberman-- for individual use only, do not distribute.

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Time is limited during exam season, so this post is short and to the point. A key factor in passing exams is the ability to perform when you really need to, under stressful conditions. Students often over-look this aspect of academic success, devoting all of their energy into revising the ... Read More >>

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Blog | Paul Berry | Human Performance Scientist

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Time is limited during exam season, so this post is short and to the point. A key factor in passing exams is the ability to perform when you really need to, under stressful conditions. Students often over-look this aspect of academic success, devoting all of their energy into revising the ...

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Human Performance

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What is Human Performance Improvement?

The Human Performance Improvement process is very similar to Human Performance Technology. HPI provides you with a systematic process to follow on what can often be a not-so-systematic path.

In addition to identifying human performance gaps and their possible solutions, this standardized approach offers the ability to measure the success of your efforts and eliminate the guesswork that follows when a performance gap must be evaluated.

HPI is results-based and systematic. Rather than focusing on a 'wants-based' or 'needs-based' approach, HPI follows a 'results-based' approach to improving performance, distinguishing it from many HRD (human resource development) activities. The process is driven by a business need and a performance need, justified by the results of a cause analysis.

The Human Performance Improvement process is very similar to Human Performance Technology. HPI provides you with a systematic process to follow on what can often be a not-so-systematic path. In addition to identifying human performance gaps and their possible solutions, this standardized approach offers the ability to measure the success of your efforts and eliminate the guesswork that follows when a performance gap must be evaluated.

HPI is results-based and systematic. Rather than focusing on a 'wants-based' or 'needs-based' approach, HPI follows a 'results-based' approach to improving performance, distinguishing it from many HRD (human resource development) activities. The process is driven by a business need and a performance need, justified by the results of a cause analysis.

HPI for Your Business

The HPI process helps you to articulate your business goals, link these goals to human performance, diagnose the current state of performance in the organization, find the root causes for performance deficiencies, implement solutions, and evaluate the results of the interventions.

Being business focused means having a clear understanding what your organization's strategic priorities are and using those priorities to guide your management decisions.

The process of analyzing performance begins with a analyzing your business, which allows you to focus on the goals for your business.

While you may believe that your business goals are clear and understood by everyone within your business, this assumption is often wrong. If your business is typical, most of your employees will have difficulty stating what your business goals are and identifying how their work assignments affect those goals.

HPI Begins With Your Goals

A business-focused approach to applying HPI to your bottom line begins by identifying what the key business goals are for the client or organization. You business goals could include:

Goals for the entire organization,

Goals for a department within your organization,

Goals for a specific team or unit, or

Goals for a function.

In a large and complex organization, there are usually a variety of business goals at different levels of the organization.

Individual Performance and Business Goals

Performance by individual's results in output for your business or organization, but HPI begins at the end of the process, considering the business output or goals of the business, and then applying those goals backwards to the departments, teams, and individuals who will work towards satisfying those goals. The process of identifying your business goals is critical to applying HPI to your business.

Once you have identified your goals, it's important to verify that you have set a realistic target. Your business goals should be:

Quantitative, meaning you should have a definite understanding of when the goals have been met, and time limited, meaning that you have a definite schedule when you can ascertain whether the goal has been achieved.

Individual Performance and Business GoalsPerformance by individual's results in output for your business or organization, but HPI begins at the end of the process, considering the business output or goals of the business, and then applying those goals backwards to the departments, teams, and individuals who will work towards satisfying those goals. The process of identifying your business goals is critical to applying HPI to your business.Once you have identified your goals, it's important to verify that you have set a realistic target. Your business goals should be:Quantitative, meaning you should have a definite understanding of when the goals have been met, and Time limited, meaning that you have a definite schedule when you can ascertain whether the goal has been achieved.
Gap Analysis Aims At Improving Performance
The process of analyzing performance always begins with business analysis, which allows us to identify the gaps in performance. HPI takes into account the Influences that affect your business, the Tasks that form the daily workload in you business or departments, the Processes that are needed to deliver the Outcomes desired, and the final Goal that your business seeks to satisfy. The difference between the beginning point (current performance level) and the endpoint (desired performance level) is the performance gap.

Business Analysis

The first step in Gap Analysis is to determine your business goals and clarify the relationship of the goals to the performance your employees' performance. The HPI analysis must start by identifying the key business goals, and then consider the performance gaps that can be addressed to help your business work towards those goals.

Performance Analysis

Once you have determined what organizational goals are not being met because of a performance gap, you can take steps to close that gap. This will result in the desired performance state.

Working To Identify Performance Gaps

The gap analysis process is accomplished through discovery and inquiry:

Who is the customer, or who is affected

Identify business goals

Whose performance is the problem

What is the actually performance level

What is the desired performance level

Determine what performance is critical to achieve those goals,

Determine which performance outcomes have significant gaps,

Figuring out what has caused those gaps.

Prioritize Your Performance Gaps

Note that although you may have identified a performance gap, it doesn't mean it's worth closing that gap. The best value to your business is to focus on performance gaps that will make an impact in reaching your business goals.

The next step is to determine the priority of the gaps:

How important is the identified gap?

How often does the gap occur?

How costly will it be to resolve the gap?

Cause Analysis
Overcoming Assumptions
It is important to understand what your goals are, and to see how the steps you are undertaking will work to complete the goals. It is critical to suspend solutions until the true root cause(s) is identified. We do not presume that training is the solution for a given performance gap. Cause Analysis is used to determine why the performance gap exists, then we chose the most effective intervention.
Defining Cause Analysis
Cause analysis starts at the end of the business process, identifying the goals of your business and then identifying the contributions of the departments, units, and individuals that produce the outcomes that satisfy those goals.

Once the goals and outcomes have been identified, Cause Analysis considers the processes that produced the outcomes, the tasks that make up the processes, and finally the initial influences that affect the accomplishment of each task.

Causes of Performance Gaps

The cause behind a performance gap might be training, but often there are other causes:

A lack of knowledge or skill on the part of workers can often be corrected with some coaching, job instruction, a job aid or a support tool

A lack of resources to do the job (human, physical, financial)

Aproblem with the structure or process of the work flow

A need for more information - which might be in the form of just being able to access the information when needed, just when it is needed

A lack of leadership or a change in leadership

A lack of consequences or information regarding the consequences of poorly done work

Motives or expectations

Inadequate feedback

Lack of capacity by an individual to perform, due to poor hiring practices, selection practices or promotion policy.

Cause Analysis Tools

Observation is a powerful method of identifying key performance, because it enables you to see how one employee or department has better results than another employee or department. This is a similar process to identifying what the core competencies are within your business.

Other tools we use include:

Structured brainstorming

Fishbone diagrams

Five Whys

Surveys

Interviews and focus groups

Review of performance data and other data

Records review (e.g. performance appraisals, hiring process, maintenance records, etc.

Levels of Causes

Performance gaps can occur in three levels of the organization:

Organizational Level

Process Level

Job/Performer Level

Systems Thinking

One of the cornerstones of HPI is the concept of systems thinking. Organizations are complex systems! Taking a holistic view of the entire system is critical if performance improvement is to be achieved. Merely tweaking various parts of the system will yield only marginal or unsustainable results.

Geary Rummler and Alan Brache have defined the three levels of performance, along with the three factors that determine effectiveness at each level.

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The Engagement Effect: Human Performance Improvement

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The Human Performance Improvement process is very similar to Human Performance Technology. HPI provides you with a systematic process to follow on what can often be a not-so-systematic path. In addition to identifying human performance gaps and their possible solutions, this standardized approach offers the ability to measure the success of your efforts and eliminate the guesswork that follows when a performance gap must be evaluated.

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Bill Gross - A Devotion to New Ideas - Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (podcast)

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Bill Gross - A Devotion to New Ideas - Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (podcast)

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Bill Gross - A Devotion to New Ideas by Stanford eCorner

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Bill Gross thrives on turning innovative ideas into pioneering companies. He serves as founder and CEO of Idealab, which started over 75 companies since 1996. In this stimulating lecture, he shares how Idealab continues to bring incredible ideas to market, and his personal insights on starting and running successful organizations. Gross also describes the work of eSolar, a spin-off company of Idealab that works to make solar energy cost-competitive in the global marketplace.

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How Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are - TED Talk

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How Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are - TED Talk

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Your body language may shape who you are

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(NOTE: Some of the findings presented in this talk have been referenced in an ongoing debate among social scientists about robustness and reproducibility. Read “Corrections & Updates” below for more details as well as Amy Cuddy’s response.) Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy argues that “power posing” -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident -- can boost feelings of confidence, and might have an impact on our chances for success.