Human Performance & Training

Aligning Performance Systems

Too often good initiatives fail in the execution. To achieve strategic or operational improvements in a sustained way, management must address how these changes occur within an organizational context. By understanding the variables that affect performance, managers can take actions that help the organization support change.

Whether an organization is managed as a system or not, it behaves like one. A change in one area is not isolated from other parts of the organization. External variables such as customers, suppliers, competitors, the economy, and shareholders affect how an organization performs. While some external variables can be controlled and others cannot, together, they are the context in which a business operates. 

Structural variables provide the framing for an organization. They include business processes, goals, information management, and roles/responsibilities. While these variables are only as good as the people who make them work, they provide the steps, protocols, tools, and roles within which people perform.

Human variables are the skills, motivation, and behaviors of people working in an organization. The leadership, culture, and human capabilities provide the lifeblood that drive an organization forward.

Some variables have both structural and human dimensions such as an organization’s strategy and its approach to issue resolution. An organization is guided by the human dimension within structural boundaries of a strategy, and its issues are resolved by people using specific resolution processes.
 
By understanding the relationships of these variables in the systems that comprise an organization, Kepner-Tregoe helps clients plan and execute sustainable improvements. For organizations plagued by a failure to execute successfully, our systems approach helps them identify the most effective “next steps” to take now and the actions that will embed change and secure the future for their organization.

Focus on human performance

The choices employees make, the actions they take, and the behaviors they demonstrate take place within this organizational context, creating a human performance system. To change employee performance, Kepner-Tregoe has developed systematic processes to design, analyze and improve the performance of people in an organization. Our performance system model is used effectively to improve performance and promote lasting change. Learn more about our Managing Human Performance process.