Table Of ContentHuman
Performance
Consult
in@
Copyright 0 2000 by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston,
Texas. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may
not be reproduced in any form without express written
permission of the publisher.
Gulf Publishing Company
Book Division
P.O. Box 2608 0 Houston, Texas 772.52-2608
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pepitone, James S., 1947.
Human performance consulting : transforming human
potential into productive business performance / James
S. Pepitone.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87719 -352-5
I. Organizational effectiveness. 2. Organizational change.
1. Title.
HD58.9.P465 2000
6.5 8 .S--dc2 1
Transferred to digital printing 2006
Printed on acid-free paper
(w).
iv
Preface
Have you ever been asked the question, “What do you do?”-
only to find it challenging to offer a succinct explanation? You
are not alone.
Consultants whose work is improving human performance find
this question particularly difficult because it quickly brings to
mind the tremendous complexity and frequent ambiguity of their
work. Senior executives in particular frequently ask me to explain
how I do my work, only to see me struggling for words that can
describe the methods with which I work. Not long ago, the CEO
of a major industrial firm listened patiently for a few minutes
as I tried to explain my work, only to interrupt me with this
response: “I don’t understand a word you’ve said!” Ouch.
Sometimes it’s better not to try to explain, particularly when
executives and managers don’t seem to be very aware of the
human side of enterprise. One approach I use for dealing with
such people is to respond to their questions with a question like,
“Does how you feel about your work affect your performance?”
If I get the more human answer-they recognize that their
attitude toward their work makes a huge difference in their
behavior and performance-then I continue the dialogue to
uncover other aspects of their work and work situation that affect
their performance.
The factors that are mentioned may include the relationships
they have with their supervisors (even the chairman has one) and
peers, particular challenges they face, their personal lives, how
others characterize them, and even the weather. The goal I have
in this dialogue is for these business leaders to acknowledge that
their performance is affected more by how they experience their
work than by the training they have received-and that this same
ix
phenomenon is true for their entire organization. This under-
standing is a necessary beginning to any meaningful dialogue on
the subject of improving human work performance.
One of my hopes for this book is that it will “raise the playing
field” for managers and organizational-support practitioners by
passing on valuable knowledge and insights I have gained from
my education and experiences. I have been fortunate during my
twenty-plus years of providing consulting services focused on
improving human performance to have had the opportunity to
remain an avid student of the many fields of science and tech-
nology that lend insight into how greater business results can be
achieved. In addition, I have had the opportunity to select proj-
ects that have provided substantial and varied challenges and
professional learning. By passing on this valuable “technology”
to other consultants and the managers they serve, I hope to assist
them with their work challenges and thereby to advance this
emerging professional discipline.
Human performance consulting is better described as a develop-
ing method of professional work than as a body of knowledge.
There is wide variance in the principles and practices of con-
sultants in this field, which I think stems from the varied back-
grounds, knowledge, and experience that have led them to this
work. I know I am not alone in my search for a way to bring
this diverse capability together into an integrated methodology
and professional body of knowledge. Another one of my hopes
for this book is that it will “raise a flag” to inform professionals
from other disciplines of the knowledge and methods with which
management scientists work.
Some of the thinking in this book is based on ten-plus years
of work supporting major organizations with the start-up or
development of staff functions specializing in human performance
improvement. What began in the 1980s as a reincarnation of the
old operations-research consulting function-though now primarily
focused on knowledge and service work rather than the mechanized
work that occupied it in the ’60s and ’70s-has become an
important field of work for human resource, organization develop-
ment, and training functions.
My colleagues and I have enjoyed sharing our professional prac-
tices and experiences to support this new work, and through our
efforts we have gained a greater understanding of and appreciation
X
for the important role of “internal” consultants. As a result, we
have become convinced that internal consultants, if equipped with
essential knowledge and effective methods, are better able to
provide value-adding human performance consulting to organiza-
tions than are their external counterparts. We regard internal
human performance consultants as the knowledge-era instruments
for human performance improvement.
Jim Pepitone
xi
Special N o t e
to Managers
This book contains a formula for solving many of the organi-
zational challenges you face in your work. It will help you as a
manager to make changes that directly improve operational
performance and workforce productivity. And it will help you
receive more helpful support from human resource, organization
development, training, and other organization support functions.
There are no huge capital expenditures, high-profile programs,
or major upheavals to endure. Perhaps the greatest challenge is
simply that it is probably new to you.
Why this special note to managers? Because you are the critical
human resource in any enterprise. Anything material that happens
in organizations generally happens with the encouragement and
support of managers. Though all employees can make important
contributions to an enterprise, we know there is always a manager
involved-encouraging or preventing, supporting or rejecting these
contributions. By reading this book, you will be prepared to
weigh in on discussions of employee performance and pro-
ductivity with new clarity, up-to-date knowledge, fresh insights,
and a strategy to make it really happen.
In this book, I outline a strategy and process for better capitaliz-
ing on human assets-especially organization members engaged
in knowledge- and service-oriented work. Few managers now
realize the ease with which they can create financial value through
organization-based improvements in operational performance.
This approach extends the productivity gains of reengineering by
xii
improving the design of individual work roles within operational
processes. These improvements are substantial, frequently exceed-
ing a 30 to 50 percent average.
For quick insight into how this approach works, let me ask
you a few questions about your own performance as a manager.
You’ll see that I’ve answered for you with the kinds of answers
I generally receive, having asked these questions of hundreds
of managers.
What’s your assessment of your performance?
Answer: I’m doing a good job, sometimes great!
What’s your potential to improve it?
Answer: I’m already working harder than I want to, but maybe
I could improve 10 percent, 20 percent, or even a bit more.
What would you focus on changing if you had the goal of
improving your performance?
Answer: I’d focus on improving myself. . . my work habits, a
specific skill or behavior, or on somehow trying harder to create
the right results.
Can you detect the misconception reflected in these answers?
They seem to suggest that the focus for improving work per-
formance should be on improving people. For organizations, this
is a very common strategy, but it’s not very effective. Managers
will be hard pressed to point out major operational improvements
or increases in productivity that have resulted from employees
improving themselves. Personal improvement may be an option,
but it certainly isn’t the most effective, fastest, least costly, and
most convenient option, and it doesn’t make the best use of
current technology. It also lacks certainty and organizational
leverage, and it requires uncommitted funding and time to make
it happen.
If personal improvement has these disadvantages, why do
managers consistently rely on this approach? Generally speaking,
they are simply not aware of a good alternative. That’s one
reason why I am writing this book.
My colleagues and I have learned through years of research
and consulting experience in major companies that work behavior
is influenced much more by employees’ circumstances than by
their individual efforts. These circumstances, which I refer to
throughout the book as the “work situation,” wield this power
xiii
because of people’s natural inclination to adapt their behavior to
the conditions that surround their work.
The circumstances or work situation that I speak of is also
casually referred to as “the system.” Perhaps you have heard the
refrain, “In any encounter between an employee and the system,
you can count on the system to win.” Think of your own work
or that of your employees, and you will recognize that this is
basically true.
Any employee’s performance-even a manager’s-is largely
defined by the context within which he or she works. Sometimes
this reality is obvious, and at other times it is hard to imagine.
The fact remains that people naturally work within the limits of
the work situation in which they are placed, and only within
these limits do they then exercise their capability to achieve.
Explicitly recognizing this law of human nature helps us better
understand work performance. Think for a minute about your
work situation and the many elements that were not designed
with performance in mind-and so become unintended limitations
to your performance (information flow, discretion, goal align-
ment, supportive staff functions, authority, reporting structure,
financial resources, information, equipment, and so on).
For some positions that I analyze, I am amazed that the employees
accomplish as much as they do. What interests me more, however,
is how much better they can perform with a few changes.
If you knew that some element of your employees’ work
situation was unintentionally standing in the way of improving
their performance, you could consider removing or reducing the
obstacle based on the marginal payoff for doing so. The problem
for managers is that they typically don’t know with certainty the
things that are most getting in the way of their employees’
performance. And even if employees recognize such problems and
their causes and have the courage or permission to mention them,
they are rarely able to impress upon managers the need to make
such changes. As a result, relatively easy opportunities for sub-
stantial performance improvement are overlooked, and managers
have to try to find work-around methods to get individual
employees to improve their performance.
People adapt their behavior in a reasonable attempt to fit into
the work situation in which they are placed. They are simply
accommodating themselves to the prevailing requirements or
xiv
standards for behavior. The appropriate behavior may be subtly
implied by the organization’s culture or dictated by formal policy.
The sources are all around: other people’s behavior, supervisor
expectations, the physical environment, the job description, the
available equipment, current business conditions, customer needs,
and a myriad of others. People’s prior experience or inexperience
also plays a part in this adaptation, because people learn the
impact of their behaviors through experience.
Ultimately, the process of adaptation determines employee
performance. It’s our human nature. Regardless of the situation-
surviving the first day on a new job, preparing an e-mail message,
requesting a budget, serving a customer, or designing a new
product-people choose behavior that is consistent with their
perception of what’s acceptable. Employees face many behavioral
cues and constraints in their work situations, and each one
requires some sort of adaptation. Though employees are rarely
conscious of this behavior, their first goal is to adapt appropriately,
and only then do they try to accomplish their objectives.
Employees are generally not in a position to politically confront
constraints in their work situations, even when these situations
are obviously unconstructive and unnecessarily restrict their
potential for performance. Many who tire of constraints that
stand in the way of their performance simply leave when they
have had enough. Such departures explain a high percent of the
turnover that organizations experience.
Adaptation does not have to be a problem-in fact, it can be
just as powerful in guiding people to do what’s necessary for
performance. Managers can use this natural behavior to design
work situations that produce the results they want to achieve.
By making changes in the current work situation, managers can
improve employee performance-with much greater improvement
potential than exists for employees to somehow improve their
individual performance. Management is at its most effective when
it designs work situations so that high levels of performance are
the natural result and are not overly dependent on the efforts of
individual performers.
Granted, there is much more that a manager needs to under-
stand to have an accurate knowledge of work systems, the way
they naturally operate, and the way they can be designed to
produce the desired performance. This book will begin to provide
xv
that knowledge, and it will introduce managers to an emerging
support role in organizations-internal human performance con-
sulting-that is professionally capable of providing this kind
of support.
In the final analysis, this book is about helping managers
change the situations within which employees work-in ways that
directly improve operational performance and workforce pro-
ductivity. It is about putting human performance consultants to
work for managers in order to create operational value-added.
xvi
Acknowledgments
I think of myself as one who applies emerging knowledge in
pioneering ways to create value. Thus I am particularly indebted
to the many thought leaders and knowledge contributors whose
work is implicitly woven throughout my own, to the point that
I no longer know whose ideas are whose. The high levels of
collaboration and sharing that have been characteristic of the
transdisciplinary open-source development that grounds much of
my work have been so rich and stimulating for my colleagues
and me that it is no longer possible to sort out who thought of
what first. These relationships present a special challenge to me,
because I could not feel more enriched and thankful for the
people who have contributed their expertise and thinking, either
directly through collaboration and conversation or indirectly
through their writing to the success I have experienced as a
human performance consultant.
Among those to whom I feel most indebted are the explorers
and pioneers of knowledge who have contributed to the field of
human performance improvement. Many I mention in the text
and references of this book, yet many who have been no less
important to my work will go unnamed. My genuine appreciation
for the work of all these great people is limitless.
Exceptionally helpful have been my clients, whose meaningful
challenges have provided my colleagues and me with experiences
that have further extended our skills and knowledge far beyond
the principles, theories, and concepts we applied. I truly believe
that the real heroes in every successful consulting assignment are
the executives, managers, and workers who made the improve-
ments happen.
xvii
