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The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) is organizingseven professional communities within the overall Society. Over time, thesecommunities will shape our professional practices and have a major influence onconferences, publications, awards, certification, institutes, and all other areas inwhich our technical content is important.

Human performance technology (HPT) professional communities are groupingsof practitioners around content and applications that meet the following criteria:• There is an organized body of knowledge and practice.• The needs of a significant number of ISPI members or potential members

are met.

The Communities

The seven professional communities being formed include the following:

• Science of HPT—Foundations: The intellectual pursuit of basic principlesand conditions of applications that impact human performance

• Motivation, Incentives, and Feedback: The determination of the means bywhich the likelihood of performance can be increased, decreased, or sus-tained through modifications in performers’ arousal, attention, and anxiety,or through adjustments to performers’ desire and expectance of success

• Analysis, Evaluation, and Measurement: The process of assessment, deci-sion, and action relevant to the maintenance and adaptation of a system

• Instructional Systems: The determination of when learning should occurand the best means by which to achieve learning through manipulation ofdisplay, response demand, and instructional management

• Process Improvement: Efforts involving the efficiency and/or effectivenessof the sequence of activities in a value chain that produces outcomes andresults

• Organizational Design/Alignment: The examination of the allocation ofdecision-making authority, business processes, values, business practices,and conduct of people’s performance within an organization to ensure thatactions are aligned to produce desired results

• Management of Organizational Performance: The pursuit of organizationalresults by examining the whole system to determine the major sources ofperformance variance and to address them with appropriate organizationalchange processes and techniques

Human PerformanceTechnology: ProfessionalCommunitiesby Ray Svenson, CPT

COMMENTARY

The Expected Outcomes

The HPT professional communities will be expected todeliver the following outcomes/results for individual com-munity members, ISPI as an organization, and HPT as a fieldof practice.

For individual community members, the communities willprovide:

• Stories about real issues in the workplace.• Opportunities to work together on real problems

(problem solving).• Opportunities to plan to apply new learnings.• New ways of looking at current HPT practices.• Networking for professional advancement.• Means for enhancing one’s professional reputation.• Opportunities to work on issues not in a person’s

current work portfolio.• A logical argument for what works and what does not.

For ISPI as an organization, the communities will:

• Attract and retain members.• Provide a framework for awards, conferences, publica-

tions, etc.• Provide a place to link and partner with other societies

and universities.• Increase the opportunity for membership involvement.• Provide a repository for state-of-the-art practices that

build our professional reputation.• Provide a broader base of interest to extend application

areas and attract contributions.• Increase revenue.• Establish ISPI as the authority for HPT.

For HPT as a field of practice, the communities will:

• Clarify for organizations what may be expected fromHPT practitioners’ services.

• Broaden the knowledge base for practitioners and performance consultants.

• Provide a list of key questions that each communityaddresses.

• Differentiate HPT from—and relate it to—other allieddisciplines.

• Accelerate HPT applications in the workplace.• Educate consumers of HPT services.• Improve the quality and validity of publications,

papers, and presentations.• Make the HPT literature more visible to practitioners

and consumers.• Conduct an annual HPT review of the state of the

technology.• Map the HPT landscape and its interaction with other

fields.

Implementation Phases

Phase 1 (through September 2005) is an organizing phase.During this phase we will establish the communities’ orga-nizational structure; further define the scope of each com-munity; and communicate with ISPI members, chapters,staff, and other constituencies who will have a stake in thecommunities and their operation. We will also begin pro-ducing community-oriented content for ISPI publicationsand conferences. We will start enrolling members in thecommunities as each becomes ready to take that step.

Phase 2 (beginning September 2005) is when the communi-ties come into full operation. For example, we expect thatall the communities will regularly be enrolling members atthis point. The 2006 conference tracks will be categorizedby community, and most of the community feature setsdescribed above will be in place.

Community Systems Design for Phase 1

A hub-and-spoke design (see Figure 1) will be used for initi-ating the HPT communities and supporting their leadership.

The communities’ advisor and communities’ directors willform a communications and support network. Each commu-nity director will recruit thought leaders and a support teamto assist in refining the community scope and description. Astanding committee will manage the overall implementationplan during Phase 1 and develop plans for Phase 2.

Community founding directors are being recruited for oneyear to handle the following steps:

• Recruit thought leaders who will help define the com-munity scope and description and help the communitydirectors organize content.

• Work with a team of thought leaders to:– Shape the scope and definition of the community.– Refine the charter.– Shape the practices.

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Figure 1. Phase 1 Community System Design.

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• Identify opportunities for outreach to other organiza-tions, societies, and universities.

• Solicit content for PerformanceXpress and the commu-nities’ web pages.

• Plan conference content with the directors from ISPI’sconference committee.

• Provide input to Phase 2.

The communities advisor (who is, for the next year, JeanneFarrington) will be a member of the new communitiesstanding committee and will be expected to:• Reinforce the common goal of expanding HPT applica-

tions through the use of professional communities.• Foster connections among the community leaders.• Provide new ways for the communities to support each

other.• Assemble Phase 2 recommendations.• Facilitate and communicate the community founding

director responsibilities.• Inform board, staff, and task force stakeholders about

communities’ progress and issues.• Participate on the communities’ standing committee.

The communities’ standing committee will be expected to:• Clarify issues of implementation with the communities

advisor.• Review Phase 1 progress.• Plan Phase 2 and beyond.• Make recommendations to the board regarding commu-

nity system design and implementation and objectivesfor Phase 2.

How the Communities Will Evolve

During the next year, you can expect to see the communitiesevolve in the following ways:• The founding directors and their thought leaders will fur-

ther refine the definition and scope of each community.• You will begin to see community content in

PerformanceXpress and communities’ web pages.• There will be Performance Improvement articles on

each community.• General enrollment will be available to ISPI member-

ship starting at the 2005 conference.• There will be communication to the chapters regarding

the community system and its implementation andimplications for the chapters.

The 2006 conference tracks will be organized around thecommunities, and by then you can expect that the commu-nities will be fully functional. As more information comesout during the coming year and at the 2005 conference, weencourage you to consider which of the communities repre-sent your professional interest and prepare to join one ormore of them.

Ray Svenson, CPT, President of Ray SvensonConsulting, Inc., is a recognized leader in busi-ness-driven learning and development strategy formajor corporations. He is the chair of the new ISPIstanding committee on professional communities.Ray may be reached at raysvenson@qtm.net.