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Engineering Worthy Performance

Six boxes for managing behaviour at work

The purpose of performance engineering is to increase human capital, which can be defined as the product of time and opportunity. Opportunities without time to pursue them mean nothing. And time, dead on our hands, affording no opportunities, has even less value. Thomas Gilbert Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance The two causes of poor performance most commonly espoused are motives and capacity. But these are usually the last two places one should look for causes of incompetence. Simply because they are rarely the substantial problem Thomas Gilbert Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance

What is there in this to tell the rest of the team? What might be useful for the team to know about from what you have learned or read? Make some notes here so that you could explain in two minutes what this idea has that the team should consider

Worthy performance occurs when all six components of the model and personal behaviour are in place to cause accomplishment that is high in both quality and quantity. Performance that is worthy can only come from the ratio of accomplishment (A) to the costs of behaviour (B) Mark W. Phillips, Obtaining Worthy Performance,

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Background to the work

A Model for Creating Incompetence Although passionate and serious about human performance, Gilbert also suggested a model for deliberately creating an incompetent workforce. Perhaps it was a touch of humour or was it a bitter recognition of his observations of the world of workand a strangely predictive view of a world inhabited by a fictional cartoon character created years later by Scott Adams and called not Gilbert.. but Dilbert. The numbers relate directly to his six boxes..his suggestions for creating incompetence include 1 Withhold information - dont tell them what they need to know or how theyre doing 2 Use old technology and design the tools without involving the people who have to use them 3 Dont provide incentives for good performance, make sure poor performers get paid as well as good ones 4 Dont help people improve their skills, leave training to chance and make it difficult to learn 5 Ignore the individuals capacity, select people for tasks they cant do 6 Ignore the individuals motives, avoid working conditions that would make life more interesting

Thomas F. Gilbert described himself as an engineer, behaviourist and philosopher. When he published his book in 1978 entitled Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance, he said he was writing to correct a deficiency. Countless books had been written on different aspects of human competence but none had addressed the issue in a comprehensive and systematic way. His intention was to explain human competence and translate theory into practical step-by-step procedures that managers and other performance engineers could use to banish incompetence from the workplace. Worthy Performance and Leisure Gilberts approach follows much more of an engineering than a psychological path to improving performance. The term worthy performance comes from his first theorem, usually written as W - Worthy performance f - function sign A - Accomplishment B - Behaviour Or

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By worthy, Gilbert was suggesting that humans only consistently perform if it is valuable to them in some way. In particular Gilbert suggested we all should aim for more leisure. This was not a proposal to be lazy or frivolous. His earnest belief was that if we could learn to perform to the best of our ability and achieve our full potential in the shortest possible time and with the least effort then we would and should have more time for taking lifes opportunities that present themselves, not just spend all our lives at the office or in the factory. If we learn to get more leisure, and better use what leisure we have, then it will not be too late too soon

He was quite clear that movement along the first row and the verifying of Environmental factors was the most effective direction. By moving in this direction you avoid jumping too quickly to training (Boxes 4 and 5) as the answer to poor performance. By correcting deficiencies in information, instruments and incentives first, you make sure you dont end up ...training people to use tools that could be redesigned, or to memorise data they dont need to remember, or to perform to standards they are already capable of meeting and would meet if they knew what those standards were

The Behaviour Engineering Model

Gilbert identified six elements or factors which he saw were the key to creating, maintaining and developing human performance and achievement at work. The six elements were divided between two sets of factors. Environmental factors and Individual factors (also known as behaviour repertory). In other words the working environment and the people doing the work. For any given accomplishment, a deficiency in performance always has as its immediate cause a deficiency in a behaviour repertory...or in the environment that supports the repertory or both The six box model (as it later became known) is a simple yet powerful way to consider performance and accomplishment at work and, in particular, to help take an objective look at performance management issues. The same rigour applies in moving through boxes 4 to 6. Some advocates of Gilberts approach suggest that you may never reach or have to deal with Box 6 since it is extremely unlikely that, with all the other 5 factors in place and functioning correctly the issue is purely one of attitude or a mismatch with their values. Gilberts six boxes approach provides an alternative approach to the subject of motivation and many performance engineers have found his model useful in taking an objective view of performance and achievement rather than starting at Box 6.

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Performance Management Questions The arrangement of the six boxes and the numbering is also to dictate an order in looking at performance management, particularly in investigating performance problems. Gilbert was typically opinionated and forthright on this issue. The two causes of poor performance most commonly espoused are motives and capacity. But these are usually the last two places one should look for causes of incompetence. Simply because they are rarely the substantial problem The numbering of the boxes suggests an order that managers, and other performance engineers to use another of Gilberts terms, should use to investigate and resolve performance problems.

The Six Boxes and their Connections

The boxes are laid out in the pattern above and numbered with a specific purpose. Firstly to separate two sorts of factors. The Environmental Factors (broadly the responsibility of the organisation) are Information - The data people need to do their job, including performance data to tell them how they are performing and achieving Instruments - The tools, technology and processes people employ to do the job. The working procedures of the organisation Incentives - The means by which performance is rewarded, both in monetary and non-monetary terms The Individual Factors ( the things people bring to the job) are Knowledge - The things they already know which are useful in performing the job Capacity - Their skills and their ability to learn and develop Motives - Their values and needs, the things they count as important, perhaps the reason they do the work in the first place.
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So the place to start, in Gilberts view, is Box 1 and check that people have what they need in terms of information and feedback to do the job. If the answer to all the questions ( and some are illustrated above) in that box are unequivocally Yes then move to Box 2the Instruments box. It is important to note that, this time, it is not about jumping to box 4 and checking the match with peoples Knowledge.

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Thinking of the six boxes as three pairs or three columns, Gilbert states that there should be a match between the pairs. People need timely and accurate information to do their work and they need to have feedback which helps them know what to change or improve.

The rewards for performance need to be structured in a way which encourages outstanding performance. People should see the clear link between their achievements and the rewards they receive

At the same time they have to have the relevant knowledge base and the ability to understand the information they receive so that they can adjust their performance based on the feedback It would be pointless providing someone with statistical data on variances if they had not worked with statistics and could not understand what was being reported. To do a good job people need to be provided with the right tools which function properly and are designed with the work and the worker in mind

...and peoples values and needs should be satisfied by the nature of the work and the way that it is rewarded. There should, at some level, be a match between what they want and the work they do If someone is not excited by high financial reward and competition to be better than their peers then it is not useful to structure the rewards in that way. At the same time the reward system will not provide the performance required if there is a mismatch between what is asked for and what is rewarded. So one way to use the tool is to check that there is a match between the Environmental Factors and the Individual Factors. The question then is Do we provide whats required and do we have the right people using what we provide?

...and people need to have the relevant skills to use the tools provided and make the most of the technologies and processes to make their work easier and to achieve their potential. They also have to be able to learn how to use new tools. If the technology is out of date, doesnt work well or was designed without an understanding of the work people do then they will not be able to do their best. Equally if they do not have or can not learn, how to use the technology then the investment in the tools is wasted
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