I feel truly privileged to have worked with some great people over the years. From both the vendor side and the supplier side, I have been inspired by and have learned from talented, smart, and driven folks. But I am still amazed by two things: first, otherwise savvy organizations failing to recognize the importance of effectively evaluating their HPI initiatives, and second, the lack of overall alignment between those initiatives and the organization's business goals.

Remember CPT Standard #1: Focus On Results And Help Clients Focus On Results

This primary standard has to do with keying in on the outcomes generated by a performance improvement initiative. By assuring business goals are incorporated into the design of an intervention and then measuring the results, we are in the vanguard in creating a metric that can improve performance company-wide and reinforce the importance of the performance improvement function to the organization's health, competitiveness, and growth.

Though all stages of a project's lifecycle are vital to its success and impact, it is in the earlier upstream phases of the HPT Model that the most profound effects on outcomes can occur.

Here's how our team stayed focused on business goals during the Intervention Selection and Design phase of a specific training course. In March of 2003, we were challenged with the task of rewriting a sizable and outdated inventory management Web-based course for an automotive company. This course was part of a broader, blended performance improvement intervention that also included instructor-led workshops and asynchronous interactive CD-ROMs.

To rewrite the course, we had the following inputs:

• A mostly outdated Web course

• A more recently written multi-module workshop binder

• SME interviews

Our client's data from its own internal needs analysis pointed to a lack of knowledge of newer personnel as being a barrier to attaining their business goals. Therefore, an effective training solution to enhance the knowledge of these employees was a valid intervention. Knowing who the audience was not only told us what we needed to write, but just as important, how we needed to write it. Further, a Web-based delivery would ultimately be the most effective medium because it allowed employees the opportunity to study on their own time, when being away from their desk would not affect customer satisfaction, or their paycheck.

How to Determine Business Goals--Just Ask!

As part of the assessment phase of the project, we asked our client to share their business goals. For the fiscal year 2003, three principal business goals were identified:

• Increasing customer business

• Contributing to profitability

• Increasing customer satisfaction

These business goals set the foundation upon which to build our courseware. All learning objectives specifically aligned with at least one of these business outcomes.

Through proper assessment, we identified the business goals and the audience. Our instructional design and development then followed this chronological process:

• List the business goals

• Identify the subject matter

• Write the learning objectives

• Develop content

The strength of this simple process is that it is rooted in the business goals, thereby aligning the entire design and development of the course on the focused results of the audience to attain these goals.

Springboarding Creativity

We had a chance to have some fun by aligning a specific learning element to a business goal. In the workshop binder there was a nice laminated job aid, a Dealership Receiving Guide, which walked personnel through the process of receiving, tracking discrepancies, and returning received materials as needed. Using this piece as a template, we created a Web-based Virtual Receiving Guide job aid which, through a series of algorithmic "yes-no" questions, walked employees through any possible situation when receiving an item.

In order to apply this virtual job aid in an experiential learning environment, we utilized it in a simulation in which the student role plays as an employee within a hypothetical store and must solve a complicated shipping scenario. The student then uses the interactive Virtual Receiving Guide to help solve the problem. We also created downloadable versions of the Virtual Receiving Guide for students' desktops and a printable version for the wall of their offices or receiving areas.

As a tool, the Virtual Receiving Guide improved efficiency by reducing guesswork (and subsequent errors and corrections) and research, thus saving time. This increased efficiency allowed workers to accomplish more tasks per shift, which had a positive effect on profitability (business goal #2).

Final Thoughts

As performance improvement professionals, we are constantly challenged to look beyond the many processes, theories, and deliverables that most of us deal with on a daily basis and to describe specifically what we offer to achieving the business goals of the companies that give us our daily bread.

When the time comes for budgets to be cut, performance improvement initiatives are often near the top of the list. It would behoove us all to be able defend their value appropriately. By assuring that these interventions are aligned to business goals, have a positive impact on some aspect of the bottom line, and are measurable during the evaluation phase, we are armed with the data that justifies our efforts.

2005 ASTD, Alexandria, VA. All rights reserved.