TECHNOLOGY THAT SUPPORTS PERFORMANCE
The workplace has grown too complex for organizations to expect their workers to perform without technological support. But in turn, technology has developed to the point where we must be far more cognizant that we have been about the kinds of support provided. As we move to the next phase of information technology in the workplace, there will be new starting point: not, “here is a system, do it this way,” but rather, “What are your performance needs? What do you want to do? Now, here is a system that will anticipate needs and coach workers towards their performance goals.” Technology can be the powerful enabler to organizations that it promised it would be. It can, that is, if it is properly oriented toward the real performance needs of the workforce. It can if the technology conforms to the needs of humans, not the other way around. Here is the sort of technology I mean.
Consider a system that gives a worker a more wholistic picture of the work to be done. Almost every task to be performed should be available within the worker’s field of vision. Part of making this happen is to provide basic interface – the primary screen that the worker sees – that makes the system intuitively understandable to the worker. No blinking cursors waiting for complex keystrokes, no memorized codes taking them into green-on-black computer screen full of poorly structured and overwhelming data. Workers could interact with this system naturally: in addition to the keyboard, they could talk to it, or gesture and point, or write.
But the interface is only part of what gives the worker a whole picture of the work to be performed. Everything within this system is designed from a performance-centered point of view. Every feature and function is designed to facilitate what workers actually need to do. This worker is a real person at work, not a “user” using a system.
The system “knows” this worker, or at least recognizes the class or type of worker. It knows the person’s skills inventory, training history, job responsibilities, career path, and authority level. The system also recognizes that this is a dynamic individual. He or she change over time: changes jobs, learns new things, and gains new competencies. The system knows about the work that this person does. It contains a “knowledge base” (not a database), which holds job tasks, work flows, and performance standards. It knows what the critical success factors and the key performance indicators are for each job or role and can track these, helping the organization ensure that they are constantly aligned with larger objectives. The processes and functions that accomplish strategic objectives can be linked by working models and measurement criteria, with the strategic objective they support.
Most importantly, this system contains powerful support features that are integrated within the application environment the person uses and are made available to the worker seamlessly under a common interface. These are available at a point of need, either at the request of the worker or provided directly by the system.
He support features include:
Advice – Coaching provided by the system at particularly important moments in the work flow. This, too, may be requested by the worker or initiated by the system. Advice may include case descriptions of how experts and co-workers have resolved similar situations; it may also include diagnostic support, decision modeling, and suggestions on how to proceed with the support from other support services.
Tools – A set of integrated and customized job aids for such things as project management, document creation, computation, and communication are available to automate or simplify routine tasks.
Reference – Job-relevant information from an organization’s internal knowledge base and/ from external sources.
Training – Tutoring, example, and practice that are delivered on demand, often interspersed with actual job assignments, and organized into task-specific chunks, or “granules.” Workers “learn by doing,” rather than having to remember information delivered as a separate training event, away from the job.
All of the support that the system provides is linked by a steering mechanism, which monitors and directs the workings of the integrated system. The system is not passive, not a tool, but a proactive operating resource representing the work to the workers and providing the support necessary to ensure that the work can be accomplished. In fact, the system has become so powerful that the workers can concentrate once again on doing their jobs, not just on using the system.
The result of this performance support environment? More satisfied workers. More productive and efficient workers. Workers who take the fraction of the time to reach basic proficiency levels and then higher proficiency level: workers who can exceed customer expectations because the support they require to respond to a customer’s needs is right there at their workstations. Workers, who above all, meet or exceed the performance requirements of their jobs continuously. And the overall result: satisfied customers.
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