Talent Management - November 2008 - (Page 10)

[human performance] by Harold D. Stolovich, Ph.D., CPT I I Small Changes, Big Results watched, fascinated, as 17-monthold Francesca dug her spoon into the frozen yogurt, extracted it carefully and lifted to her mouth the few drops clinging to the spoon. Dissatisﬁed, she repeated her actions, again retrieving only a tiny amount. Tears began building when Mom intervened, turning the spoon in Francesca’s ﬁst. Another plunge, only this time, a giant mound of yogurt emerged on the right side of the spoon. Joy! Francesca, newly empowered, began demolishing her favorite treat. Small Is Beautiful It’s amazing how often small behavioral changes produce remarkable performance differences. Consider these examples: • Acknowledging waiting store customers via eye contact, body language or a quick, “Be with you in a moment” increases the time a customer will wait for assistance. transform an emotionally charged gathering into a full-blown riot. However, by altering simple behaviors — preparing the environment, strategically dispersing police, selecting appropriate words/gestures, withholding immediate display of confrontational gear — the emotional temperature can lower, defusing the potential for violence. Safety: In their book Intervening to Improve the Safety of Occupational Driving, Timothy Ludwig and Scott Geller report a wonderful experiment on changing the behaviors of pizza delivery drivers, whose accident rate is four times the national average. Customers calling in orders who asked dispatchers to remind deliverers to buckle up when delivSeniors’ charter of rights: Angered over lack of respect from the staff of a large seniors home, residents met with management to draft a seniors’ bill of rights. Residents identiﬁed required behavioral changes such as knock, then wait to be invited into a room, move at resident’s pace when accompanying a resident, and don’t open drawers or read residents’ mail without permission. Residents helped guide staff to adopt these simple behaviors. The result was a model program that expanded to other facilities. These examples illustrate the “small behavior change, big performance result” principle. Another approach is to apply the critical incident technique to systematically identify small key behaviors that contribute to success. Small behavioral changes produce remarkable performance differences. ering their pizza received dollar-off coupons. Seatbelt safety stickers were posted on pizza box tops. Result: a 32 percent increase in seatbelt use by deliverers compared to baseline. Turn signal use increased 41 percent. Increases were maintained six months following program completion. Tracking marketing and advertising effectiveness: Having car dealership sales personnel simply ask walk-in customers, “What brought you into our store?” allowed dealerships, for the ﬁrst time, to directly track return-on-investment of their marketing/advertising investments. Multiple-item sales: A coffee shop chain experienced a 28 percent revenue increase over three months from multiple-item sales by having store managers post after each shift the percentage of multiple- versus single-item customer transactions per counter person. • Calling restaurant patrons the next day to inquire about the previous evening’s experience results in a high repeat booking rate. • Here’s one of my 1980s favorites: To reduce long-distance expenses at an automotive company, employees dialing a long-distance number encountered a recording instructing them to “Press 1 for personal call, 2 for business call.” No records were kept of keys pressed. Long-distance calling decreased by 30 percent. Small behavior changes with potential for high impact dramatically increase the probability of acceptance. Cost is generally low. The change often is nonthreatening, easy to perform and produces immediate results — three conditions for high payoff success. Consider the following diverse examples: November 2008 About the Author Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D., is a principal of HSA Learning & Performance Solutions LLC and is an emeritus professor of instructional and performance technology at the Université de Montréal. He can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com. Riot control: Ask any police department how little it takes to In the July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, researchers reported on infant mortality in South Nepal, where there are more than 4 million neonatal deaths per year. This study of 23,662 newborns reported that birthing attendants who washed their hands immediately prior to delivery lowered the death rate by 25 percent. Mothers who washed with soap and water prior to handling their newborns increased their babies’ chances of survival by a whopping 60 percent. Small behavior changes, big performance results. 10 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - November 2008

Talent Management - November 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Recruitment & Retention Assessment & Evaluation Compensation & Benefits Performance Management Learning & Development Succession Planning Insight Dashboard Application Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - November 2008

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