1 Discussion Question,1 Summary and 1 Case study

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costs, such as the value of internal consultants and other resources used in the project that would be productive in other ways in the organization.

Communicate to such key stakeholders as managers and affected employees both the improvement in performance that occurred as well as the results of the cost-benefit analysis. Organizational leaders must recognize that HPI practitioners can produce measurable results in the workplace with interventions other than training, and that they can do it in a fiscally responsible way. Use company newsletters, websites, e- mail, and presentations to employees and management. Share the success stories with anyone who will listen. When the success case is communicated, it should:

Identify the problem or challenge Describe the intervention(s) that were selected Clarify the behavior change that was achieved Estimate the net impact on the organization’s goals and the return on investment projections

Charles Harpham, a Six Sigma Blackbelt with Constellation Energy, says, “I feel like I’m valued more and more with every successful project.” The only way this happens is if the business leaders of his organization know about his successes. This is not the time to be humble. Be proud of your accomplishments, and be sure to share the role that others played in your success.

Step 10: Gain Organizational Support for the TransformationStep 10: Gain Organizational Support for the Transformation

When you are equipped with a successful case, you are ready to spread the word about your HPI function’s new capabilities. There are many ways to get the word out and thereby build support throughout your company. First, everyone on the staff must be capable of describing the vision for the new organization in 30 seconds or less. One effective way to solicit support for your transformation is informally via “elevator” or “water cooler chats.” These conversations tend to be very brief. Therefore, you must be able to succinctly communicate what it is that you are trying to do.

Here is an example of an early-stage conversation:

Chris: Barbara, what’s been going on over in your area? Barbara: We’re beginning to measure training’s impact on the achievement of organizational goals.

A later-stage conversation:

Chris: How are things in training these days, Barbara? Barbara: We’re trying to change our focus from one that just provides skills and knowledge to the

organization to one that offers multiple solutions, in addition to, or in lieu of, training that helps our businesses achieve their goals.

Chris: What’s wrong with training? Barbara: Nothing really, if the reason you’re not making your numbers is because people don’t know

how to do certain aspects of their job, but we’ve found that many times, that’s not the case. In fact, training is a pretty expensive solution, so we only want to use it if we need to. We try to improve performance with less costly solutions, if we can. We use a systematic approach to analyze what’s really going on in the workplace and offer the most cost-effective solutions that

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will bring the desired results.

As you can see, individuals can communicate the overall gist of the transformation from a training- oriented to a performance-oriented approach in just a few short sentences. Occasionally, people like Chris in your organization will show more interest. That opens the door to schedule some time to share the model and approach that you use to improve human performance, as well as your success story. Remember to lose the jargon and talk in terms of how you can help “Chris” with his or her business challenges.

In addition to these informal opportunities to share what you are doing, seek out formal avenues of communication. You should “create a comprehensive marketing plan with the goal of creating mindshare and transforming the way [the training function] is viewed by the organization” (Spirgi, 2005). Newsletters, websites, e-mail, and presentations to managers and employees are all good ways to share your success story. Be careful not to promote the new approach beyond your means. In other words, do not solicit project work that you are not staffed to complete. Make sure that your communication includes your current and future capabilities to implement the model in other parts of the organization.

Consider, at this point, changing the name of your department. Harless (1995), in survey research he conducted, notes that the word performance appeared in the names of many in-house departments. He cited the following list of department names provided by respondents: