subject: Why Poor Performance Doesn't Always Get Better [print this page] Quality is in the dumper and sales are slumping. What do you do? Retrain the sales force? Re-engineer operating processes? Introduce a new compensation scheme?
Chances are, if you put ten experts in a room and posed this question, you would get ten different answers. And, chances are, they would all be only partially right because human beings tend to look at problems from the framework of their own experience and expertise.
The compensation expert sees pay issues, the re-engineering consultant sees process issues, and so forth. Nobody looks at the whole picture. What we need is a framework for determining the root causes of performance problems that lets us see the entire system, not just a few elements.
In his book, A Theory of Everything, Wilbur maintains that the entire universe is comprised of "holons", or whole parts. Each "whole part" is complete by itself but can become a part of something else. For example, a whole atom is a part of a whole molecule. A whole molecule is a part of a whole cell. And whole cells form whole organs that can be organized as a whole human being.
Likewise, organizations are comprised of human beings who may be part of a work team which performs and manages processes to create outputs in the form of products or services. How these individuals are organized defines what they are (work group, team, mob). Their relationship within the work cell and beyond it defines how effectively they can work together to perform and manage the processes necessary to achieve acceptable results. So when we look at a question like declining quality or worsening sales, we have to look at performance on three levels, the organization, the process and the performer.
The Organizational Level describes business strategy, how people are organized to execute strategy, and how results will be measured. The Process Level defines the methods or steps that go into creating and delivering a product or service. Organizations have many internal processes that have to work well if the organization is to function well. Processes are also the link between individual performance and organization performance and may span organizational functions (e.g engineering, marketing, sales) or extend to outside the organization. Work is performed and managed by individuals through processes at the Performer Level.
Using this framework to solve a performance issue, we examine the facts in each of the three levels. Let's use the problem introduced at the beginning of this article -- declining sales -- to illustrate.
At the organizational level, you might ask:
-- Have we accurately defined our target market?
-- Is our sales and marketing strategy correct?
-- Have we set prices correctly?
-- Is the organization structured to effectively build, support, and deliver our products or services to our target market?
-- How are we measuring results?
At the process level, you could ask:
-- Do processes support the results we want?
-- What processes influence sales? Are they designed correctly?
-- Are we managing by function and neglecting cross-functional processes?
-- How are we measuring process goals and results?
At the performer level, you could ask:
-- What jobs are critical to managing and performing the processes critical to sales?
-- Do we have the right people with the right knowledge, experience, and skills performing these processes?
-- Is individual performance consistent?
-- Does the relative performance of individual performers adequately reflect the results of the group as a whole?
Individual performance is a function of six interrelated factors. These are:
(1)Requirements -- Have we clearly and effectively described what is expected and how it will be measured?
(2)Obstacles -- Have we removed the obstacles to effective performance?
(3)Consequences -- Is the impact of poor performance on the the company, department or performer clear and compelling?
(4)Knowledge and Skill -- Does the performer have the required knowledge and skill to produce what is required?
(5)Feedback -- Does the performer know how results will be measured, whether the output is on target and how to fix it if it is not?
(6)Individual Capacity -- Does the performer have the capacity to produce the results expected?
When we look for single causes of performance, we generally miss the point. For accurate performance appraisal, we have to look at all of the factors that influence it. If we do that, it is more likely that we will create an optimum fit between the performer, the performance system, and the needs of the company.
