Elevating Performance Management

As learning professionals, we understand the power of a metaphor in explaining complex, multilayered concepts. Let's consider for a moment that the business environment is a river that carries all boats ahead with the current. When waters are smooth, it's much easier to float downstream without a tremendous amount of coordinated effort. But when you hit whitewater, it is critical to have knowledgeable leadership at the helm-one that consists of a well coordinated team of paddlers with an in-depth understanding of the river's twists, turns and currents to help navigate around rocks and snags, including the unseen obstacles beneath the surface that can flip your boat and send your paddlers downstream looking for safe haven, most likely on someone else's boat.

Like it or not, everyone in business today is navigating through rapids. The momentum of the 1990s' swollen river has slowed, exposing more dangerous obstacles than we've seen in recent history. The performance of every individual on the boat depends on the strength of the leadership, the flow of information and the ability to successfully negotiate rough waters. In this environment, the function of performance management suddenly becomes a critical success factor, and CLOs find themselves in the indispensable role of navigator, looking ahead to see what dangers await around the next bend and helping leaders communicate directions that will successfully lead everyone to the calmer waters of the future.

As many companies struggle to navigate the whitewater, their boats increasingly have fewer paddlers, leaders are forced to rethink strategies on the fly, currents are shifting rapidly, and the paddlers don't always know what's expected of them or how their job impacts the overall direction of the boat. Consider the following statistics:

• 95 percent of employees do not understand their companies' strategies.
• Less than 17 percent of employees understand how their jobs relate to overall corporate strategy.
• 50 percent of employee time is spent on nonproductive tasks.
• 47 percent of companies rarely or never measure the impact of workforce development on productivity.
• The average turnover rate of employees across all industries is 17 percent, and on average, it takes more than 52 days and $12,000 to bring on a new hire.