Jesse's New Article

I have a new article in the September edition of the International Society for Performance Improvement's journal.

The piece is titled "A Systemic Cause Analysis Model for Human Performance Technicians" and it features my latest research on methods of identifying barriers to learning and performance.

Here is the abstract of the article. Click here to read it online:

This article presents a systemic, research-based cause analysis model for use in the field of human performance technology (HPT). The model organizes the most prominent barriers to workplace learning and performance into a conceptual framework that explains and illuminates the architecture of these barriers that exist within the fabric of everyday organizational life. The model has broad implications for HPT scholars and practitioners.

We Are The Stream

While coaching a stressed-out executive several years ago, I shared a metaphor that I thought could be helpful during my client's exceedingly tumultuous time. Probably borrowed from zen tradition, I conjured an image of a smooth stone in a stream. The analogy of the roiling waters fit the description of the many challenges and demands of his daily work. And, like an edge-less stone in a stream, the water will naturally find a way around -- and eventually pass -- without undue resistance.

Well, the conversation proved helpful at the time, but I think I had it wrong. I don't think we are the stones, I think we are the water.

This paradigm shift occurred to me while using the CMM Solutions consulting model to address a workplace conflict. After exploring the ways in which the patterns of communication were "making the conflict" for these two colleagues, I immediately thought of the smooth stone in the stream as a possible metaphor to help ease the emotional tension/burden that the conflict was producing for them. Then it hit me: one of the core causes of the conflict was their effort to stay in one place, continuously engaging in the same pattern of communication that produced the friction.

So I shifted the metaphor. Staying in the moment, I described the stream and invited them to consider how the quality and character of the water is forever-changing with the contours of the rock, soil, and wind. We are the water. We never stop moving. We never stop flowing. We endlessly make and re-make the patterns of interaction that shape our experience. When we think of ourselves as fixed (like the stone), surrounded by the circumstances of life that constantly ebb and flow around us, we get stuck. We miss out on the creative freedom that comes with knowing we will not be the same tomorrow, as we are today.

For me, this shift has implications in other arenas as well. For example, in leadership and career coaching, one of the most common challenges I face is helping clients deal with the gap between their desired quality of experience and the one they are actually living. This frame is based on "being the stone." An empowering shift here is to ask them what it would be like if they were "the stream." In other words: "If you weren't motionless, dwelling on the circumstances that continuously rush your way, how would your focus change?" "If you were ever-flowing and rock-shaping water, never reaching a plateau, never quite arriving at the same place twice, would that invigorate you to see something new and different?"

In the right moment, these could be powerful questions. They certainly offer an opportunity to change the way we think about our oreintation toward "problems" and to think about our influence in shaping the experience we live in.

Perhaps the simplest way to put this is: are you the stone, or the stream?

“Do you know how fast you are going?”

Driving down highway 1 in California, the only thing that can distract from the world-class vistas is the threat of a CHiP ready to say hello by asking the dreaded question “do you know how fast you were going?”

That is why I was surprised when a lonely radar speed sign showed me that I was driving 72 in a 55 zone. There it was, flashing in bright orange “72!” Just below the legal speed limit, it was there in real-time, objective, straight by the numbers -- a surprising, but healthy warning to take stock and evaluate the current pace of my travels.

In the corridors of work we could benefit from this kind of in-your-face, objective assessment. Indeed, one of the leading explanations of speeding violations is that the driver “wasn’t paying attention” and “didn’t notice their speed.” How often does this type of dangerous distraction happen to us in the break-neck pace of the modern workplace?

To decrease distraction and avoid the unwanted outcome of an accident or citation, we can create our own version of radar speed signs at work. A major value of these is that they can provide space for self-correction and alignment of priorities and actions without punitive consequences. If we follow this metaphor, it becomes a straightforward process of deliberately placing these “sign posts” in front of us so that we can catch a glimpse of how we’re doing in the precise moments when and places where we may lose sight of the quality of our progress.

Whether it is a request of a colleague/mentor, a post-it note on your desk, an automatic reminder in your email system, I am referring to the kind of questions that we can ask that will provide this objective feedback:

- How fast am I going right now?

- Considering the conditions, is this the ideal speed?

- Am I tuned into the landscape, or is it just a blur?

- Do I know where I’m headed (what I’m seeking to accomplish)?

- Am I too far back, or too far out in front of the people I need to be working with?

The vendor, Radarsign, claims that their machines offer an effective and affordable traffic-calming solution for reducing speeding drivers on city streets and highways, in neighborhoods, school zones, and more. Let’s look at these kind of anchor-questions as our own traffic-calming solution to finding the right rhythm and pace of work.

Health Affairs Article

This post references a June, 2011 article that I co-wrote for Health Affairs. The piece was listed in the top three most read GrantWatch Blog Posts online.

The July print addition of the Health Affairs journal will publish the piece about the groundbreaking ACA Education project conducted by AmericaSpeaks.

Here is an excerpt:

To explore the key factors that influence support and opposition to the law, including ways to better educate the public about the actual provisions of the law, AmericaSpeaks (referred to as CaliforniaSpeaks in this project) conducted seven community dialogue sessions with more than 220 participants, total, at all sessions across California during January and February 2011. The sessions assessed how the general public responds to the core elements of the ACA when they are presented in a variety of formats. These forums, supported by a grant from the Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF), were held in Fresno, Pasadena, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Leandro, and San Luis Obispo. This project built on the BSCF’s prior support of CaliforniaSpeaks in 2007 when the state was debating a major health reform proposal. Both projects were designed to educate and inform the public about efforts to expand health coverage for Californians.

You can get to the article here.