The Silber
Performance Consulting Process
Click here to go to a specific part of the process that interests
you, or read straight through the entire process:
1. Analysis
2. Solution Design
and Development
3. Evaluation
1. Analysis
The Silber performance improvement process begins with analysis.
It compares measures of where you’d like your organization to be with where it
actually is. Our process reviews measures in the following categories:
 | Financial |
| Customer |
| Product/Service |
| Internal Process |
| Innovation/Learning |
Often there is a gap between the current measures and desired
ones. We carefully analyze the performance problems leading to that discrepancy. Our
Performance Consultants search for missing or mis-aligned organizational elements
responsible for the difference. We review the following areas for problems:
- Organizational Level.
Factors SPC reviews include the organization’s mission,
vision and values, its organizational culture and structure, and the goals and reward
system.
- Work Process Level.
We investigate how work is accomplished within the organization,
and if the work processes increase quality and customer satisfaction while reducing cycle
time, waste, re-work and cost.We look at specific factors affecting work process include
its inputs, activity flow, information flow, technology, process/cycle time and outputs.
- Team/Departmental Level.
Silber studies the factors affecting the success of work teams in
performing effectively. These factors include: inputs, team functioning and composition,
task significance, team authority, feedback and consequences.
- Individual Level.
We compare factors affecting the individual workers' ability to
succeed and perform effectively, including: inputs, information, tools, skills, knowledge,
feedback and consequences.
- Criteria.
When exploring organizational elements, SPC evaluates each one
against certain criteria for success. Every element affecting performance must be clearly
specified, documented, communicated, aligned, and not interfere with other elements.
Finally, rewards for positive achievement must be employed. All elements need to increase
productivity and employee satisfaction at an appropriate cost, have proper time and
quality parameters and evolve through organizational learning.
2. Solution
Design and Development
After analyzing the problem’s cause, Silber Performance
Consulting utilizes a systematic approach in developing solutions. Our solutions do not
just remedy one part of the part of the problem, causing another problem to arise
elsewhere. The power of the Silber approach is its ability to design and implement
solutions that positively solve the entire problem.
SPC solutions often include recommendations in the following
areas to remedy problems with organizational performance gaps:
| Revise the mission to more closely match future market realities |
| Revise the values to allow for more employee involvement |
| Re-organize to allow for more effective team-based cross
functional work processes |
| Change organizational, business unit, team and individual
evaluation measures to better reflect the desired mission and working environment |
| Re-design work processes to include less re-work, waste, cycle
time, waiting and cost |
| Improve communication of all information throughout the
organization |
| Give work teams more meaningful tasks, better inputs, and better
specified desired outputs |
| Give individuals better physical work environments and tools
(including information technology) to facilitate their work |
| Provide skill enhancement for employees at all levels of the
organization, beginning with senior management and cascading down the organization. |
3. Evaluation
Evaluating our accomplishments in closing the performance gaps
identified at the program’s inception is critical. With Silber, an evaluation stating
"It was a success because everyone liked it." is not good enough. Bottom-line
results are what you deserve and will receive. Evaluation of performance improvement
interventions is measured in three critical areas.
| Behavior Evaluation. |
This evaluation measures the increase of on the job performance
resulting from the intervention(s) we implement. SPC utilizes the Internal Process and
Innovation/Learning metrics identified early in the analysis for this measurement of
success. Our techniques for easily gathering this data without excessive time involvement
are very effective.
| Impact Evaluation. |
Here, Silber Performance Consulting measures how the
organization’s bottom-line changed as a result of our interventions. The Customer and
Product/Service metrics identified early in the analysis are the baseline for this
measurement. We also have other specialized techniques for determining the portion of
gains in these metrics attributable to the intervention.
| Return on Investment Evaluation. |
Corresponding to the Impact Evaluation, the ROI evaluation
converts the organization’s bottom-line measurements into financial terms. This
simplifies the comparison of the bottom-line before the intervention and at the completion
of the Silber Performance Consulting process. SPC utilizes both hard and soft techniques
for determining the ROI.
|
