The Six Boxes Blog

We have Ignition!

Yesterday (March 23, 2009) we convened our Seattle area Six Boxes® Development ('lab") group for a face-to-face meeting, something that has been happening about once per quarter since we began the group last Spring.  In between such face-to-face gatherings, we meet each week via web conference to learn, share work, and give each other feedback.  This is how we have been learning from our successes and shortcomings, slowly refining our tools, methods and language so that we can reliably produce competent Certified Six Boxes Coaches and Affiliates.

Our group brings together ten colleagues representing a wide range of backgrounds, interests and areas of expertise -- including an experienced training manager working to develop performance consultants in one of our largest corporate clients; several young professionals with technical backgrounds in organizational behavior management now working as either employees or consultants in human services agencies; a senior manager of finance with an MBA from prestigious American university who began her career in her native Nigeria and who is developing a team leadership program on the side; and three former executives now providing consulting services in cross-cultural leadership development, marketing, and performance improvement, respectively.

What was remarkable, and very gratifying about yesterday's meeting, is that among this very diverse group of professionals who now share the language and concepts of the Performance Chain and The Six Boxes Model, there emerged a true community of practice, a shared vocabulary and increasingly clear understanding about human performance and what makes it tick.  It was an explosion, or at least an ignition of "performance thinking" in a group that is in many ways representative of the types of people in organizations who we believe can benefit from The Six Boxes Approach. 

It was absolutely fantastic to see them, all with different technical and professional backgrounds, speaking as peers in plain English about The Six Boxes Approach, giving each other feedback and suggestions, presenting each other with performance descriptions and analyses, talking about how they use the tools, and so on.

We have envisioned for at least 3 years the possibility of a global community of practice sharing the simple but powerful language and tools of The Six Boxes Approach, each involved in their own work and bringing the particular details of that to the table, contributing to and participating in a growing collective understanding about performance and how to improve it. I can honestly say that it is no longer just a vision!

While this is certainly just a start, our work together has paid off. We have learned a lot about what it takes to get people to this point, and we are certain we can do it with increasing speed and ease for future groups.

We have ignition, and now we can build on that bright spark!

Thanks to all who have been involved.  I think this is going to be BIG!

Carl Binder, Senior Partner

Binder Riha Associates

The Six Boxes at the ISPI Conference April 18-23

For those interested in learning more about The Six Boxes® Approach we will be offering our one-day Basic Six Boxes Workshop at a reduced fee in Orlando, FL, on April 18 at the annual conference of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) to be held at the Dolphin Hotel at Disneyworld. This is one of the few times we do the workshop publicly so it’s a great opportunity for individuals to get an introduction to the Six Boxes.

There will also be others talking about the Six Boxes at the conference. Here's a list of all the events where we or others are presenting on the topic:

Removing Performance Obstacles: Connecting Leaders with Staff Using The Six Boxes® 

Art Stadlin, Ceridian Benefits Services, Carl Binder, CPT, PhD, Binder Riha Associates, and Julie A. Capsambelis, CPT, Ceridian - Military OneSource 

Using the Six Boxes® Model to Synthesize Research and Practice – An Encore Presentation (one of last year's best)

Carl Binder, CPT, Ph.D, Binder Riha Associates 

Making the Six Boxes® Your Ultimate Analysis Tool -- Microsoft Case Study 

Brian Turner and Carl Binder, CPT, PhD, Binder Riha Associates  

Creating Opportunities or Repairing Broken Systems: Proactive Design vs. Reactive Problem-solving? 

Carl Binder, CPT, PhD, Binder Riha Associates and Don Tosti, Vanguard Consulting Inc.  

Cracker Barrel: Measurement Counts! Using the Performance Chain to Plan Evaluation

Carl Binder, CPT, PhD 

In addition, Carl will be receiving the Honorary Lifetime Member award for his many years of contribution to ISPI and the field of performance technology.

You can learn more about ISPI and the conference at http://www.ispi.org/content.aspx?id=308&linkidentifier=id&itemid=308.  A brief description of the workshop is below.

 

 

The Six Boxes® Approach: A Fast On-Ramp to Human Performance Technology
Carl Binder, CPT, PhD, Senior Partner, Binder Riha Associates  

Workshop Code: WSD 



The simplicity and plain language of The Six Boxes® Approach can drive rapid communication and implementation of human performance technology across all organizational levels, in diverse cultures, to address performance challenges great and small. This workshop teaches the language and concepts of Six Boxes "performance thinking" for organizational alignment, needs analysis, best practices initiatives, implementation planning, leadership, and other performance improvement efforts. It introduces practical tools and templates plus language that participants can start to apply immediately. 

Participants will be able to: 

·      Communicate in clear, plain language with everyone about causes of deficient and exemplary performance. 

·      Identify metrics for measuring the impact of programs and interventions.

·      Gain consensus about performance objectives and how to achieve them.

·      Obtain and analyze information for needs analyses, best practices initiatives, performance system design, implementation planning, process improvement, and training support.

·      Spread fundamental HPT and performance thinking across diverse organizations and cultures.

 The price for the workshop is $395 for conference attendees or ISPI members, and $445 otherwise, discounted from our usual $495 price.