Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart

15.1. Two Views of Performance Improvement

There are two views of performance. In the prevailing view, people exist in a vacuum. If managers want to establish or improve a certain performance output, all they need to do is arrange for the proper training input. Figure 15.1 shows this limited perspective. When people in the human resource development department hold this view, their response to a request for training tends to be "You got it. When do you want it? Do you have enough money for a multimedia program?"

Unfortunately, the world of performance is not simply "skills and knowledge in/performance out." This reality leads to the second view of performance: the systems view. In the systems view, represented by the Nine Variables that serve ...