P3 Performance – Using the 3 P’s to Dramatically Improve Performance

We’ve all seen it. Your superstar cashier, John, has always been a top performer. He has always smiled and greeted our guests. His paperwork is always correct. He has been your go to person to help train new cashiers.

However, over the past few weeks, John’s performance has been deteriorating. He no longer smiles, and usually grunts his greetings to guests. There are now multiple errors each day on his paperwork. The other employees are complaining that John is surly and rude to them. As a Leader, you decide that he needs to be retrained. You contact Corporate Training, and ask for John to be registered for a remedial customer service module as well as a paperwork refresher course. John grudgingly attends, but his attitude and performance do not improve. Eventually, you make the difficult decision to terminate John.

What happened? Why didn’t the training work? The simple answer is that training is not always the answer for performance issues. In fact, it is rarely the answer. My brother coached a high school basketball team. In a recent game, his team jumped out to a 20 point lead. By halftime, the lead had been reduced to two points. Did they suddenly forget how to play basketball? Did they need a refresher on how to play? Not at all. They merely needed to be motivated. The threat of running laps around the gym was motivation enough. They went on to win the game.

So what is the answer? The first thing we need to realize is that we cannot ignore the problem. If we do, it will get worse and worse. Also, training is not the answer to most performance issues. Training may be a part of the answer, but it is not the only intervention. Finally, we cannot jump straight to termination for performance issues either. Sometimes our knee jerk reactions cause us to fire a potential superstar performer, when all we had to do was to correctly assess the true issue and take steps to correct it. This middle ground approach is called Human Performance Improvement (HPI). This middle ground is how we should handle employees with problems.

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) defines HPI as the systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and non-financial results.

That is a big definition that means that when we are faced with a performance issue, we first have to determine the cause, decide on what to do, and then put the solution in place to fix the issue. How do we determine what has caused the performance issue? Most often, that is the easy part, if we take the time to observe and listen. Human Performance is affected by three things:

• People
• Processes
• Place
  

All three of the pieces of the Performance Puzzle must be properly joined together for the performance to be at maximum levels. Let’s look at each a little more.

People:

Most organizations are built on people. If our organization did not have people, we would quickly fail. So when assessing performance, we have to start with the people. Do we have the right person? Is this person a good fit for Lanier and our culture? Is Lanier a good fit for the employee? Is the job they are doing a good fit for them? Or should they be doing something else that fully utilizes their strengths? Are we building a pipeline of good candidates as we move people into other projects?

Processes:

If a process is bad, the best person cannot perform at a high level. We have to constantly audit our processes. Even when something worked before, something in the work environment may have changed to the point where the process must be modified.

When doing a process audit, we have to map out the process. We do that by watching each step of the process, documenting the step, and then asking, “Why are you doing that?” By the end, we have the process mapped out, and can more easily spot breakdowns.

Place:

Place is about the physical work environment and the environment created by the leadership and peers. The work environment has as much of a profound impact (if not greater) on job performance and satisfaction as does management, salary, personality, knowledge and skill. It influences every aspect of our being and directs our actions and reactions. We are not usually conscious of these effects but our physical and mental / emotional well being are dictated by our surroundings:

1. Physical work space – Color, air, lighting, sound, and work station all play a major role in productivity, quality of performance, attendance, and interpersonal relationships. Is our workspace neat and organized? Is it cramped? Is it hot? Is it cold? Do the employees have what they need to do the job?
2. Created by leadership / peers – is there a reward / recognition program in place? Does the leader only notice when the employee screws up? Does the employee want to come to work? Do their peers make the job more difficult through comments or inaction?

So the next time you are faced with a low performer, consider what part of the Performance Puzzle has changed and take the appropriate steps to correct.