Imagine your best possible organization: a place where people strive for continuous improvement, communicate clearly and honestly, freely share information, respect their colleagues and leaders, make a difference -- and achieve truly extraordinary levels of performance, even in tough times. Using this book’s powerful Work/Life Approach, you can build that organization. World-renowned performance consultants Dr. Gene Fusch and Richard Gillespie offer a step-by-step blueprint for developing a true performance culture, where people bring a relentless focus and selfless collaboration to bear on the organization’s most fundamental goals. A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis walks through every step of the process: analyzing business problems, identifying performance gaps, selecting the best interventions, measuring results, and more. You’ll learn how to integrate your organization’s goals with the beliefs and needs of your people; foster unity without conformity, and diversity without division; how to overcome the fear and distrust that makes organizations dysfunctional; and how to build an organization where everyone really takes ownership of their “fraction of the action.” Along the way, they present 50 dynamic models that tightly connect theory to real-world business practice, are ROI-driven, are fully measurable, and can be utilized by all leaders and practitioners in HR, organizational development, and training. With their guidance, you can choose and execute the performance initiatives that deliver the greatest positive impact on culture, business metrics, and the lives of all your people.

Table of Contents:
Preface   xiv Chapter 1 Creating a Living Endowment for Ensuring Performance  1 Organizational Performance  4 Performance Analysis  6 Gap/Cause Analysis  11 Intervention Strategy  15 Design an Evaluation Plan to Measure End Results and Your Return on Investment  20 Design, Develop, and Deploy the Intervention  24 Measure End Results and Calculate Return on Investment  25 Conduct a Performance Analysis  25 Summary  26 Chapter 2 Starting with the Desired End Results  29 Principles of the Work/Life Approach  31 Organizational Bill of Rights  32 Understanding and Clarifying What People Were Hired to Do  33 Understanding and Clarifying the Expected End Results of People’s Work  34 Understanding and Clarifying How the Expected Results Are Measured  34 Understanding and Clarifying the Needed Knowledge, Experience, and Skills to Perform Well on the Job  35 Understanding and Clarifying the Resources Needed: Financial, Physical, and Time  37 Understanding and Clarifying to Provide and Receive Regular Feedback  37 Understanding and Clarifying What Is Required to Be Paid for Performance  41 The Celestial Approach to Managing  43 Communication and the Flow of Work  44 Additional Thoughts to Help You Realize Your Desired End Results  45 Batting Averages  46 Tell and Persuade  46 Focus on the Work  50 Summary  50 Chapter 3 Focusing on the Work  53 Organizational Mission  53 Vision  54 Acquiring Wealth  56 Stakeholders  56 Values  57 Growth  59 Social Responsibility  59 Longevity  60 Our People  60 Mission Statement  61 Focus on the Work  61 Summary  65 Chapter 4 Increasing the Flow of Useful Information  67 Sharing Ideas  67 Useful Information  69 Levels of Information  71 Shelf Life of Useful Information  72 Communicating Useful Information  73 Respectful Communication  75 Summary  76 Chapter 5 Getting Others to Own Their “Fraction of the Action”  77 Sapiential Authority  77 Understanding, Acceptance, and Support (UAS)  83 Understanding  83 Acceptance  86 Support  86 Arc of Distortion  88 Summary  90 Chapter 6 Valuing Behavior: Increasing Trust and the Bottom Line  93 Valuing Behavior  96 Stress Reduction  100 Validations  102 The Whole Person Model  105 Summary  106 Chapter 7 Owning the Present Condition Helps Define the Future Condition 109 Managing System Overview  110 Strategic Arena  110 Planning  111 Organizing  112 Directing  112 Leading  113 Controlling  113 Iterative  114 Operational Arena  114 Quality Management  115 Mosaic  118 Summary  121 Chapter 8 Fifty Years of Problem Solving: A Magnificent Obsession  123 Prioritizing and Time Management  124 The Basics of Solving Problems and Making Decisions  129 Problem Solving: Analyzing the Situation, Expectations, and Actions  131 Decision Making  133 Summary  135 Chapter 9 Why Play the Blame Game?  137 Self Assessment and Analyzing the Situation  138 Summary  144 Chapter 10 Fostering Change to Enhance End Results  147 Change Management  148 Resistance to Change  150 Memories  153 Habits  154 Labeling  156 Beliefs  157 Vision  157 Summary   160 Appendix A Measuring End Results: The Return-on-Investment Plan  163 Step 1: Collect, Evaluate, and Isolate Data on the Effects of the Intervention  167 Participants’ Post-Initiative Questionnaires  171 Step 2: Convert the Effects of Performance Intervention into a Monetary Value  175 Direct Observation  175 Interviews with Participants, Coworkers, and Supervisors  176 Interviews with Participants’ Customers, Vendors, and Supply Chain as Appropriate  177 Focus Groups Can Add to the Synergy of a Group’s Output  177 Measuring a Change in Production  177 Reduction in Customer Complaints, Customer Callbacks, and so on as Applicable  178 Reduction in the Amount of Time Needed to Perform a Task  179 Reduction in Scrap/Waste  179 Step 3: Calculate the Total Cost of a Performance Intervention  180 Step 4: Calculate the Net Benefit of a Performance Intervention  184 Step 5: Calculate the ROI  184 Summary  185 Appendix B The Authors and Their Perspectives  187 About the Authors  188 Gene E. Fusch, PhD  188 Richard C. Gillespie  189 References  191 Index 195