Volume 63: Issue 5

What attracted you to PI/HPT/ISPI?

I’m drawn toward cognitive—or learning—sciences (i.e., how we learn), and I have a deep appreciation for learning experiences that are delivered and facilitated based on evidence-based learning and facilitation principles. In fact, 15 years ago, my career pivoted from project management to learning and development largely because of my fascination with the teaching-learning process. I enjoyed developing lesson plans, creating engaging participant engagement activities, designing compelling visuals, and guiding learners through a cohesive process to strengthen their understanding of important rules, concepts, and practices.

At some point, I came across the concept of performance improvement.

Umbrella U.S., Inc., is the U.S. branch of a global nonprofit advocacy organization focused on improving the economic security of the neurodivergent population through community involvement, education, and sustainable change initiatives. Volunteer retention was the local organizational issue at hand. I conducted an applied improvement project in collaboration with the executive director to address this problem. The intervention solution targeted the volunteer onboarding process and included a volunteer onboarding survey, a task-mapping process to align volunteer strengths with tasks, and formal task and role descriptions. The improved clarity that resulted from the alignment of strengths to tasks and the tangible descriptions of the task and role profiles created pathways that empowered volunteers to contribute to the organization in meaningful ways. The community played a crucial role in the solution, offering a safe and welcoming space for volunteers to share strengths and support needs while fostering a sense of belonging.

This paper introduces the Key Value Chain Analysis (KVCA) methodology, designed to systematically identify pain points and opportunities within business value chains. Drawing from the literature on Human Performance Improvement (HPI) and marketing management, the three-step KVCA methodology enables business executives to transition from heuristic, overly simplistic approaches to comprehensive, data-driven analysis. This paradigm shift mitigates cognitive biases that often lead to suboptimal decisions and unintended consequences. Documented successes across various industries in China demonstrate that KVCA can help business executives enhance revenue, profitability, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency by addressing a critical gap in the literature.

This article is the first in a three-part series that explores the performance improvement project for the Gulf Coast chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), which was conducted to investigate the reasons behind the chapter's inability to fulfill its mission of creating an ISPI chapter for performance improvement students and practitioners. The series is organized by phases in the Performance Improvement/Human Performance Technology (Van Tiem et al., 2012) model. This first article covers the problem identification, performance analysis, and intervention recommendation phases. The second article will focus on the intervention design, development, and implementation, and the final article will examine the evaluation results.

We conducted a rigorous performance analysis to identify the desired and current performance states, gaps, and root causes. This mixed methods study used extant data analysis and interviews to determine the current and desired states, performance gaps, and root causes. An online survey was used to help identify appropriate interventions. The analysis results revealed performance gaps associated with strategic planning, staffing, communications, programming, and membership. The root cause analysis results revealed a lack of vision, lack of motivation, insufficient buy-in, and ineffective planning. We proposed two intervention sets: organizational design interventions and organizational development interventions. This article provides valuable insights for performance improvement practitioners aiming to address the challenges of enhancing performance within distinct organizational environments, such as a professional organization chapter.

HIDDEN CURRENTS: THE QUIET LINKS DRIVING PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

SPECIAL FEATURE: KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUE: INTERVIEW WITH MARK NILLES, CHAIR, ISPI CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

What attracted you to PI/HPT/ISPI?

MAPPING STRENGTHS, EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES: VOLUNTEER TASK ALIGNMENT IN A NEUROINCLUSIVE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION

KEY VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS: IDENTIFYING PAIN POINTS TO IMPROVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

REVITALIZING AN ISPI CHAPTER USING THE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT/HPT MODEL: PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND INTERVENTION RECOMMENDATIONS

IMPROVING COMPRESSED AIR SYSTEM EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY WITH SIX SIGMA DMAIC

OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE IN THE REFRIGERATION INDUSTRY: AN HPT APPROACH

SPECIAL FEATURE: KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES

LIFE, A FULL CIRCLE? FROM WINNING THE ISPI CASE STUDY COMPETITION TO JUDGING IT! REFLECTION OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE—SHAPING THE FUTURE OF PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

LEVERAGING HPT TO ENHANCE HVAC TECHNICIAN RETENTION: A MULTISITE CASE STUDY

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE APPLIED IN PRICING RATE DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION

BEING RESPONSIVE IN TIMES OF CHANGE

VALUING TIME TO REFLECT

SPECIAL FEATURE: KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES: JACK PHILLIPS AND PATTI PHILLIPS

EDITOR'S NOTES