Performance Improvement and ePerformance

Tony Karrer recently did a post on his blog regarding ePerformance. He also has a few good links to Learning Circuits articles on the topic, including this one that serves as a primer. This is a topic that I've written about several times on this blog, and I will continue to emphasize its importance on the community.


I was asked the other day what the real difference was between performance improvement and training, because after all "isn't the goal of training to improve performance?" I answered, 'yes'...however, not all performance can be improved with training. I started back at the basis of a needs analysis and explained that a needs analysis in the training field (i.e. a TNA) is conducted with the intervention already selected (i.e. training). A 'real' needs analysis aims to get at the core of the performance problem and recognizes that the intervention may be training or a process improvement or employee selection or a job aid or ...


I like how Tony defines ePerformance in the Learning Circuits article as a combination of eDevelopment (i.e. performance reviews, development plans, informal learning, etc.), eInteration (i.e. 1-to-1 email, online communities, discussion threads, etc.), and eSupport (tools, job aids, resources, knowledge bases, etc.). Blending Tony's points with what I wrote previously, the key to ePerformance is to look at key at quick interventions that are results-oriented.