PERFORMANCE CONSULTING:
Moving Beyond Training
Dana Gaines Robinson and James C. Robinson                  
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1995
Softcover or hardcover (352 pages): $26.95(10% off retail price of $29.95)

Description

The traditional role of "trainer" is being replaced in today's organizations by the role of "performance consultant."  By focusing on employees' learning needs, rather than on their performance needs, the traditional training process confuses training activity with performance improvement. Traditional programs focus on developing excellent learning experiences, while failing to ensure that the newly acquired skills are transferred to the job. Thus, to be effective, training professionals must become "performance consultants," shifting their focus from training delivery to the performance of the company and its individual contributors.

In this first-of-its-kind book, you will learn the concepts and techniques required to transform your role into that of a Performance Consultant.  When published in 1995, this book was selected by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) as the book of the year.  With an array of valuable tools, exercises and an illustrative case study threaded throughout, this book is the “how-to” for the performance consulting approach that can be applied in any organizational setting.

"Every HRD manager who wants to have a job past the year 2000 should read this book… The world is changing and HRD must change with it.  Dana and Jim Robinson tell HRD managers how they will need to operate to be of real value to their organizations."
William C. Byham, Ph.D., CEO & President, Development Dimensions International, Inc.

PERFORMANCE CONSULTING teaches training and HR professionals how they can become performance consultants. In addition to providing HR and learning solutions, these consultants also address the performance needs of employees and:

• assist management in identifying the performance required to achieve business goals;
• determine the degree to which the work environment of employees will support and encourage the performance required; and
• determine the impact of the work done to support performance change.

In the process, performance consultants become valued partners to management, assisting in identifying business goals and objectives and taking all actions needed for employees to support them successfully.

Dozens of useful tools, illustrative exercises, and a case study that threads through the book show how the techniques described are applied in an organizational setting.

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Introduction: The Need for Performance Consulting

Part I: The Role of the Performance Consultant

 1.  How Performance Consulting Moves Beyond Training
 2.  Identifying Needs Proactively and Reactively

Part II: Designing and Using Performance Relationship Maps

 3.  Mapping the Components of Performance
 4.  Identifying Business Needs in Operational Terms
 5.  Developing Models of Performance Required to Achieve Business Goals
 6.  Creating Performance Models: A Case Example
 7.  Performance Assessments: Identifying Actual Performance
 8.  Identifying Factors Impacting Performance

Part III: Contracting for Performance Consulting Services

  9.  Identifying and Responding to Opportunities for Performance Consulting
10.  Contracting for Performance Assessment
11.  Contracting for Performance Implementation

Part IV: Organizing a Performance Improvement Department

12. The Six Elements of a Performance Improvement Department
13. Forming a Strategic Plan for the Transition to Performance Improvement

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Testimonials

“This will be the most important book of the decade for HRD practitioners who are willing to move beyond the traditional training role to performance consulting and become true business partners.”

“Professionals working in the field of human resource development and organization effectiveness will find this book to be an absolutely indispensable tool.”

“Highly recommended. Brimming with useful, hands-on information, this book includes many checklists, interview guides, case studies, skill-practice exercises, and self-tests.”