5 Ways To Use Basic Performance Engineering For Superior Employee Performance

Training is no guarantee of improved performance. When we know our employees are well trained, more training is wasteful and counterproductive. If you can't quite seem to work out how to get constant improved performance from your people, these ideas may help.

If they can do it with a gun at their head , they don't need training.

Harsh? Inhumane? Brutal? Maybe all of these things. But if that's your opinion, think about this: do you test your people before subjecting them to training? Are you absolutely certain that they don't know and can't do what they're going to "learn" in the training? Have you considered how you could help them improve performance without training?

To put it bluntly, training will improve performance only with people who don't know and can't do. The problem with people who aren't performing is often that they "won't do" rather than "can't do". Training won't fix "won't do" problems.

A bad system will beat a good performer almost every time.

Please grasp this idea. It can't be overemphasised.

Some academics and gurus want you to believe managing people is a vexing, unpredictable, complex business. That's how they keep their jobs. They want us to believe that we need them to help us fix our "people problems". We don't. We need good systems.

Good people performance results mainly from good engineering with only a dash of psychology. Good engineering requires crystal clear objectives supported by sound systems designed to achieve the objectives. And these need simple processes to implement the systems easily.

Disregard all the so called guidance from the behavioural sciences. Get the people system right.

Consequences are often the key to improved performance.

A client called me recently for advice on how to improve the performance of his salespeople. In discussion, I discovered that each salesperson had to complete and submit 9 documents with each sale. Most of us dislike completing only one form. He was constructing negative consequences without even realizing.

A single mother on a pension recently told me that she "saved up" so she could afford the most expensive plumbing company in town. "They treat me so well", she said.

In both cases, the expected consequences determined the performance. This occurs even if the expected consequences are inaccurate and unfounded. Real consequences based on experience are even more powerful.

Ask yourself: when my people perform the way I demand, what's in it for them in their terms?

The Simple Keys.

The keys to superior people performance are unbelievably simple.
Focus on performance, not behaviour
Emphasise outputs over inputs
Ask what rather than how
Put results before processes
Provide the biggest rewards to the superior performers.

You simply can't make sound decisions about what to do and how to do it until you've specified the result you want.

Truly, it is that simple. I didn't say simplistic. I didn't say easy. Just simple.

Conclusion. Firstly, know exactly what you're trying to achieve. Then focus on engineering performance: just design the job in such a way that your people cannot fail. When you do, your job as a manager will be much easier. And you'll be able to stop playing psychologist, motivator, father or mother confessor: roles which require considerable skill which few managers possess.