Evaluating impact: Evaluation and continual improvement for performance improvement practitioners by Ingrid Guerra‐Lopez

Ingrid Guerra‐Lopez, PhD, is an assistant professor at Wayne State University. She publishes, teaches, consults, and also conducts research in the areas of organizational effectiveness, performance evaluation, needs assessment and analysis, and strategic alignment. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees from Florida State University. She is co‐author of Practical Evaluation for Educators: Finding What Works and What Doesn't with Roger Kaufman and Bill Platt. Evaluating Impact (ISBN:1‐59996‐051‐6) is published by HRD Press and ISPI (price $19.95). The publisher may be reached online at http://www.hrdpress.com or by telephone at 800‐822‐2891.     

performance improvement

The Board of Directors of the International Society for Performance Improvement has identified top managers and executives as one of the population groups that are or should be represented in ISPI membership. In an effort to research these professionals, Performance Improvement is introducing a new feature — Executive Summaries. These are synopses of the feature articles in each issue. They will appear together on pages that can be copied and distributed to members of your organization who might not have time to read PI, but may benefit from the content of its articles. We encourage you to share summaries with managers and executives, as well as clients, team members, students, and other performance improvement professionals. Also — look for the summaries to appear on ISPI's Web Site soon.     

Evaluating the implementation of performance improvement training: The E3 process for success

The E³ process for success provides a basic framework for evaluating the implementation of a training program implemented as a broad‐based performance improvement strategy. The regularity of conducting the evaluation helps to determine challenges and opportunities for modification, integration, and continuous application for the desired change.     

A performance technologist's approach to process performance improvement

Process performance management provides detailed understanding of the design of a process to improve performance. This article highlights a process performance model aligned with the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) steps of the Six Sigma model, but with additional substeps to guide process improvement. It thus identifies process improvement as one of the key tools in the performance technologist's toolkit and provides recommendations for methods, practices, and tools.