George Hanshaw presented a webinar titled People, Performance, Partnership, P3. Dr. Hanshaw has a variety of experiences, but this webinar focused on his time working at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
When describing human performance technology, Dr. Hanshaw describes performance as the behavior and outcome. To affect change, we need to focus on performance instead of content. He made a good point about how content does not do actions. People do. We teach people. He spent his time at Lockheed Martin transforming a learning and development department into a performance dept.
Like Dr. G. M. Bud Benscoter, Dr. Hanshaw says to think in terms of gap analysis. He told a story about defining the gap by first understanding organizational culture. He said while working at Lockheed Martin, there was a project that was a competition, and there was a clash of corporate culture and the group called “skunk works” on the ground. They created a vision based on three goals together that they called the “hat trick.” The two cultures rallied around the hat trick and came together. They won the competition by rallying around a vision that changed the culture, not through training.
Dr. Hanshaw gave a few points of practical professional advice. Use tools often to define the gap or create a job description. Don't come up with solutions while listening to people. Always aim for the TALC – Technically Acceptable Lowest Cost solution. Find the faster, better, and cheaper option to cure the problem.
I have heard Dr. George Hanshaw speak before. He always focuses on people. All our work is about people. Dr. Hanshaw’s work at Lockheed Martin is fascinating, and it appears that he was able to make substantial change. However, I am more interested in being an outside consultant than an internal consultant. Dr. Hanshaw helped me see how changing corporate culture is about building relationships with the people in the business. After watching several of our class webinars, they discussed three things that Dr. Hanshaw discussed: 90% of the time, training is not the answer. Ask why until you get to the root of the problem. Think in terms of gap analysis.