Specifying a Human Performance Technology Knowledgebase

The mission of human performance technologists, to assure high levels of human performance in organizations, is well established, and usually accomplished through design and implementation of two major products: performance systems and instructional systems. The speed of change in the environments in which HPT is practiced, however, requires frequent analysis of what knowledge and skills are required of HP technologists in pursuit of this goal. This article works backward from results and the products that obtained them, to identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that form the critical human performance technology knowledgebase. The author uses an example from our “universal” neighborhood to illustrate seven basic categories of variables influencing organizational performance, and provides examples and non examples of five essential principles of psychology that can help guide HPT practitioners' efforts to design and implement effective systems.     

Process Mapping: Tools,Techniques, & Critical Success Factors

Process mapping is both an analytical tool and a process intervention that performance technologists can use to improve human performance by reducing error variance. In contrast to reengineering, process mapping is used for both incremental and radical change. The benefits of process mapping include simplified work flow, reduced cycle time, lowered costs, and improved job satisfaction. Process mapping involves constructing a macro‐map, identifying and prioritizing bottlenecks in the existing process, constructing a micro‐map to identify the root causes of the bottlenecks, and iterative redesign. Several critical success factors include organizational readiness, time commitment by participants, and the availability of a qualified facilitator. HPT practitioners add value to organizations by providing unique competence in task and needs analysis. To succeed in process mapping, however, the HPT professional must also possess sophisticated skills in facilitation as well as business knowledge, self‐confidence, and interpersonal skills for interacting with senior management.     

Why Doers Do—Part 1: Internal Elements of Human Performance

The externality‐tangibility (E‐T) model of human performance is a human performance technology (HPT) model that categorizes nine all‐inclusive elements of HPT into families of elements that can be external or internal to a performer and tangible or intangible. This first installment of three looks at the internal factors: talents and skills or knowledge.     

A Call to Action: Gain a Seat at Decision Tables

No matter how much HPT practitioners improve human performance, we are not granted enough invitations to serve as tactical and strategic decision makers. Many “earning” decision makers such as financial experts regard HPT professionals as no more than operational‐level learning professionals. Therefore, HPT practitioners cannot rely on current decision makers to initiate a call for increased respect for the HPT industry. However, there is a contingent of HPT practitioners known as business‐entity performance technologists (BEP Techs) who serve as HPT activists by obtaining influential roles in decision processes. Their goals are to influence decision makers, become decision makers, support decision makers, and challenge decision makers from other industries to respect HPT practitioners as more than just learning professionals. To do this, they focus more on the improvement of business‐entity performance than on human performance. They seek to obtain respect for the HPT industry as both learning and earning professionals.     

M.A.S.S.: A Model for Producing Transfer

Transfer is the application in the workplace of the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in training. With transfer, trainers hope to link training to increased job performance. However, training alone will not produce transfer. To affect job performance as a result of training, trainers must intentionally promote transfer using a variety of strategies based on known principles of human performance technology. The MASS model, presented in this paper, brings together four of these principles. According to the MASS model, trainers who promote transfer (and who thereby become performance technologists) 1) Motivate trainees to learn and use the training material; 2) increase trainees' Awareness of when to use new skills and ideas; 3) enable trainees to master and to apply Skills; and 4) give trainees psychological and physical Support on the job. When performance technologists follow the MASS model, they can expect to produce trainees who apply at work what they have been taught in training. Use of the model is illustrated with two examples.     

绩效技术的系统观：朗姆勒的理论与实践

系统观是绩效技术整个知识体系的指导原则,系统观也是绩效改进方案在组织中成功实施的关键。绩效技术专家朗姆勒博士正是这样一位秉持系统观,对组织的系统进行层层透视的杰出贡献者。文章在分析了系统观对于绩效技术领域的意义的基础上,分别从朗姆勒的理论和实践两方面介绍他对于绩效技术领域的突出贡献,以期能给与在绩效技术之路上探索的教育技术界同仁些许启发。     

Improving Retail Sales Performance by Integrating HPT with Marketing Strategies

In order to accomplish organizational goals within constraints, marketers need to develop and implement marketing strategies effectively and efficiently. Trainers equipped with human performance technology (HPT) skills and knowledge may contribute substantially to strategy development and implementation and eventually contribute to organizational success. In this article, we demonstrate how HPT improved retail sales performance in an organization in the Chinese telecom industry. The outcomes highlight the benefits of integrating HPT with marketing strategies and the importance of forming partnerships between training staff and marketing professionals.     

Potential knowledge management contributions to human performance technology research and practice

This article considers three aspects of the knowledge management (KM) literature that have the potential to enhance human performance technology (HPT) research and practice. First, we believe the recent attempt by economists to describe and quantify intellectual capital can help HPT to better evaluate and defend organizational expenditures/investments for performance improvement initiatives. Second, the emerging KM literature explores the linkages between information, learning and performance, provides a common point of intersection for our fields, and can enhance our analysis and implementation of information (as opposed to training) solutions as well as inform and expand our conceptual and theoretical understanding. Third, we have observed that both KM and HPT practitioners are increasingly concerned with the learning that takes place outside the confines of traditional formal training environments. We briefly review the electronic performance support systems literature from HPT and KM, noting the similarities in epistemology, design, and interventions. Finally, we highlight the KM research agenda and suggest related opportunities for HPT research.     

A Selected Review of the Underpinnings of Ethics for Human Performance Technology Professionals - Part One: Key Ethical Theories and Research

Professionals serving as internal and external consultants, whether as performance technologists, human resource development facilitators, training specialists, organizational development change agents, or quality improvement engineers, are uniquely positioned to influence ethical awareness in the workplace. Understanding the basic underpinnings of ethical theory and empirical research in ethics will give professionals a grounding in the ethical implications of their interventions as they practice their craft. This is especially true for the practice of Human Performance Technology. This article is a review of the basic ethical theory and relevant empirical research. Further, the article serves as a reveille for HPT professionals. They know the systems and strategies of HPT. By examining these in the context of ethics, they may broaden their “vantage points” (Dean 1992b) on these systems and strategies so they can see more precisely how ethical issues influence performance and how what they do can influences the ethical climate of an organization.     

What's in a Name? A Comparison of Instructional Systems Design,Organization Development,and Human Performance Technology/Improvement and Their Contributions to Performance Improvement

What are the similarities and differences between instructional systems design, organization development, and human performance technology/improvement (HPT/HPI)? This article defines these fields and highlights how they contribute to the performance improvement domain. With Rossett's view of HPT as a “perspective, or habit of mind, that inclines us towards data, analysis, systems, alignment and partnerships” (A. Rossett, personal communication, October 28, 2012), HPT/HPI will be presented as the overarching framework for selecting and measuring instructional systems design or organization development interventions.     

A Selected Review of the Underpinnings of Ethics for Human Performance Technology Professionals -Part Two: Professional Resources

Professionals serving as internal and external consultants, whether as performance technologists, human resource development facilitators, training specialists, organizational development change agents, or quality improvement engineers, are uniquely positioned to influence ethical awareness in the workplace. Yet it is unlikely that they will be able to exert much influence without knowledge of the factors that influence ethical behavior in organizations and knowledge of ethical decision making. Although the literature on ethics is proliferating, little of it is directly related to performance improvement professionals. Those who want to educate themselves in ethics have been left to their own devices. Part One in this series of two articles presents a review of key ethical theories and research. Part Two is a list of references available for those who are ready to examine the ethical responsibilities of HPT professionals, who have encountered ethical issues, who want to include an ethics audit in their needs assessment tool box, or who need to suggest ethics-related solutions to performance problems.     

Changing Roles and Professional Challenges for Human Performance Technology

From its roots in behavioral science and instructional systems design, the field of human performance technology has broadened significantly during the past three decades in terms of its interventions and the backgrounds and skills areas of its practitioners. This development brings with it many questions as to the field's definition, theoretical underpinnings, and future developments in research and practice. A brief review of the history of HPT, a survey of some of its leaders, and a model of the roots and branches of the field are presented.     

Interventions (Solutions) Usage and Expertise in Performance Technology Practice: An Empirical Investigation

Performance technology (PT) is complex, drawing theory from instructional design, organizational development, communications, industrial psychology, and industrial engineering to name a few. The Standards of Performance Technology developed for the certified performance technology designation codified the processes used in the practice of performance improvement. The Human Performance Technology (HPT) Model of the International Society for Performance Improvement illustrates the Standards for the Performance Technology process, including the selection, design, and implementation of appropriate performance interventions. Research exists on specific PT interventions, such as problem solving, feedback, or job analysis. This foundational study considers intervention usage within organizations and the expertise of performance technologists. Findings indicate that years of experience in the field or related field is positively correlated to expertise. Some alignment was found between higher ranked PT expertise and higher ranked intervention usage within those organizations.     

Patterns of Performance

Complex human interactions involve more than just performance toward pre‐determined goals. For this reason, systems that measure and seek to improve performance must adapt to a wide range of ever‐changing patterns of individual and group behavior. Historically, HPT professionals have recognized these complexities and responded in a variety of ways. This article uses a case study of community change to explore principles from human systems dynamics (HSD), an emerging field of theory and practice that explores the intersection between nonlinear dynamics and the wide range of social sciences. Given that human performance technology (HPT) draws methods and measures from a variety of disciplines to solve problems and pursue opportunities to improve, HSD and HPT could be mutually informing. The case study and analytical model described in this article draw metaphorically from the nonlinear dynamical concept of attractor patterns. Patterns are recognized, and their influences on performance are explored. Each of the patterns captures options for action to observe, measure, evaluate, and intervene in human systems to improve performance.     

Examining the boundaries of HPT through the lens of communities of practice

Despite its existence for over six decades, the practice of human performance technology (HPT) has not been widely accepted within organizations. Varying levels of confusion surround the understanding of HPT, which has been influenced by myriad fields and disciplines. Although HPT is focused on improving performance at the organizational, team, and individual levels, it does not own the practice of performance improvement. The goal of optimal performance across various functions and levels within an organization is not confined to HPT but extends to process improvement, human resource development, organizational development, knowledge management, and several other areas. Therein lies the problem: A lack of consideration about the boundaries that delineates the field has ramifications for both the research on and the practice of HPT. This study examines the domains and disciplines that HPT proponents consider central to the field.     

Human Performance Technology and Knowledge Management: A Case Study

ABSTRACT As organizations respond to competitive environments and strive to enhance performance, knowledge management (KM) has increasingly become a strategic activity. A KM strategy entails consciously helping people share and put knowledge into action. A key challenge is how to develop and implement KM solutions that provide performance support to knowledge workers and seamlessly integrate KM into business processes. We propose that human performance technology (HPT) provides a systematic framework to help guide KM initiatives. Specifically, HPT provides a holistic view of a knowledge worker's performance environment by considering the complex interdependencies between the organizational context, business processes, and individual performers. Via a case study, we describe and illustrate how HPT guided one organization in its journey to identify the content and structure to best support performance and manage knowledge in a core business process. Based on the case study, we offer lessons for other firms on how HPT can be used to guide KM initiatives.     

E‐Learning Ain't Performance: Reviving HPT in an Era of Agile and Lean

Not all instructional design models are fully integrated into the HPT practice. Some of these processes such as the successive approximation model (SAM) and the lot like Agile methods approach (LLAMA) are the outgrowth of Agile processes for instructional design. The major design processes are often assumed to be competitive; that is, one model is better than the other. However, most Agile instructional design processes assume that the most ubiquitous performance solution is e‐learning, hence the direct integration of Agile processes. Therefore, instead of thinking about design models, we think about instructional methods and solutions over human performance technology (HPT). These methods are all equal until one understands the conditions or the context of the instructional or performance problem. We recommend designers reverse engineer the Agile instructional systems design process by using a rapid performance analysis method that quickly pinpoints and confirms the performance problem(s).     

基于案例的液压与气压传动课程教学改革

为全面开展液压与气压传动课程项目式教学,将教学内容分成8个教学模块,设计了能够涵盖所有教学内容的8项教学案例,逐一说明了各教学案例设计思路,针对每一个项目从8个方面进行了评价。评价结果表明,教学案例设置充分考虑了学生的主体性和实施性,涵盖了基本的教学知识点,与工程实例接轨,可以培养学生的创新力,拓宽学生的职业技能,并为相关课程项目式教学提供借鉴。     

Teaching Instructional Design: An Apprenticeship Model

Several cognitive psychologists have written about the importance of placing instruction within “authentic” contexts that mirror real-life situations. They argue that knowledge learned in academic settings does not necessarily transfer to non-academic settings. Whether preparing performance technologists or instructional designers, educators must strive to create meaningful problem-solving contexts that enable students to define, and subsequently solve, real-world problems. In an attempt to address this issue we have modified the way we teach instructional design. This paper discusses a cognitive apprenticeship approach to teaching design, which incorporates elements of modeling, coaching, reflection, articulation, and exploration. We describe how these features are embedded within three phases (orientation, situated training/learning, and exploration) of an introductory instructional design course designed to move our novice designers along a continuum of expertise as they develop and refine their own professional design skills. Although the apprenticeship model described here specifically addresses concerns within the context of preparing instructional designers, we believe that this model can be adapted to address similar issues in the education of performance technologists.     

The Harvest of PT: ISPFS Past Presidents' Recommendations for the Preparation of Performance Technologists

Much of the preparation for performance technologists has been embedded in other disciplines such as instructional technology, organizational development, and human resources. Changes in the work environment are forcing instructional technologists to examine their priorities and to reexamine the primary skills they need to work in the field of performance technology. This interview study examines the collective advice, concerns, and recommendations of fifteen of ISPI's past presidents. They offer advice on essential skills, voice concerns about the general application of instructional technology, and comment on ISPI's role in the preparation of performance technologists in a world of fast-moving organizational problems, challenges, and opportunities.