Erik Lenderman: I/O, Cognitive Psychology & Performance Management
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Higher Moral Purpose
The primary driver of success for any individual or organization is the presence of a clear Mission, Vision, and Higher Moral Purpose. This serves to establish the foundation for why a project must be undertaken and why a group of professionals would choose to work together.
Therefore, the first step in developing a Performance Management Strategy is to develop a clear and coherent Mission and Vision for the project upon which we have all chosen to work. The objective, in this case, is to serve the World through serving the People of the United States. To protect and serve civilization through delivering a more efficient and effective form of liberated self-governance that will benefit the world.
Higher Purpose: Serving the World
Review: Performance Management
Lenderman believes that one must begin through empirically observing the proper definitions for ‘Performance Management’, which may vary depending upon the company or a particular department’s objectives. Therefore, we must begin through reviewing the elements of an organization’s various potential performance objectives, which include the following:
Compliance with Federal and State Regulations
To what degree does the company comply with Federal and State regulations governing both internal, company facing, and external, client facing corporate conduct?
Revenues: Exterior, Market-Facing Performance
To what degree does the company or organization’s Mission, Vision, and purpose for existence serve to resolve a problem within the world with a High Value moral and existential purpose for existence, and is the company’s revenue in a state of growth and development?
Exterior, Client-Facing Performance
To what degree does the company provide high quality, timely, and effective goods or services to their clients or customers?
Human Capital Engagement
To what degree are members of the organization personally and professionally engaged in the company’s Mission, Vision, and their role in promoting these objectives?
Interior, Company-Facing Performance
To what degree do members of the organization feel that they are safe/secure, connected/communicate effectively, significant/appreciated, growing/developing professionally, informed/clear on roles, processes, and procedures, share a High Value Purpose/Moral purpose, and find Meaning in their work, which extends beyond themselves.
Compliance
Partial List
- The Fair Labor Standards Act
- Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC)
- Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA)
- Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
- Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA)
- Equal Pay Act (EPA)
- Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)
- National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
- Uniform Guidelines for Employment Selection Procedures of 1978 (EEOC)
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) Via Securities and Exchange Commission
- Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA)
- Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Genetic Information Nondsicrimination Act (GINA)
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
- Consolidated Ombibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
- Affordable Care Act (ACA)
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
- Affirmative Action Program (AAP)
- Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act (WARN)
- EEO-1 Survey Filing (Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964)
- Davis-Bacon Act
- Drug Free Workplace Act
- Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (CWHSSA)
- McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA)
- Executive Order 11246
- Vietnam Era Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974
- Vocational Rehabilitation Act
- Walsh-Healy Act
- Copeland Act
Performance Management & Practical Psychology
The U.S. Military has long recognized the valuable role of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in cultivating positive behaviors and maximizing performance. Through first discovering one’s intrinsic drives to contribute through public service, the Military next developed a system of service-person recognition and progressive reward schedules, where members of the Military are incentivized to grow and develop their capabilities and performance.
The Benefits of Staff Recognition
Performance management requires a powerful and sustained commitment to cultivating the positive characteristic’s of an organization’s team. Therefore, staff recognition and retention programs are critical for maximizing engagement and performance. These programs must consistently strive to re-discover the original purpose for engaging with a project and rewarding behaviors that demonstrate the fulfillment of the company’s objectives.
Performance Management Requires Long-Term Training
The most effective strategy for implementing long-term changes to policy and maximizing company performance is to ensure that human learning curves are properly addressed. Training requires multiple strategic interventions in order to maximize the acquisition of new behaviors, which are designed to maximize performance.
Primacy and Recency Effects
Training requires a recognition of the manner in which individuals and groups acquire new skills — Information that is learned during the beginning and end of a training session tends to be retained more effectively than information learned during the intervening time.
The Digit Span Test
The Digit Span Test reveals the manner in which human beings learn — Information is briefly stored in short term memory. The maximum number of units that may be stored in short-term memory ranges from 7–9. Therefore, training and project management-related tasks must be delivered through simple and efficient instructions.
Performance Management & Skill Acquisition
The process of increasing individual and group engagement requires the application of best practices in training and development. These models must address the learning and skill acquisition process for members of the organization. The following model demonstrates the manner in which sensory inputs are stored in short term memory, and maintenance rehearsal is required in order to achieve long term storage of information.
Human Capital Management & Degrees of Professional Engagement
The below model demonstrates the various drives, which cause individuals and groups to engage with their organization. These drives vary according to both need and preferences. Through monitoring and cultivating high levels of engagement, companies may develop strategies that increase individual and group productivity.
Monitor Human Capital Drives, Performance, & Engagement
Through developing and revising a real-time database of the psychological needs and preferences of the organization’s human capital, one may measure the degree to which individuals are influenced by a variety of needs and preferences. Dr. Abraham Maslow’s Human Needs formulate the foundation for measuring and monitoring human capital engagement (See: Robbins Research International).
Human Capital, Stages of Development, & Drives
The below model demonstrates the manner in which individuals and groups progress through a variety of psychological stages of development.
Therefore, psychological stage must also serve to inform leadership of the best way to promote communication among staff members. These stages range from Egocentric to Ethnocentric, World-Centric, and Integrative, which may also influence which “needs” and “preferences” are most significant to each person.
Performance Management Models That Work
The best way in which to maximize human capital resources is to ensure that positive behaviors are rewarded. To maximize project performance, rewards are more effective at installing new behaviors, and punishments are effective at suppressing negative behaviors. The proper application of these two tools is critical for maximizing performance. Through cultivating an enriching team environment and strategically providing rewards during the development of new skills, one may enhance the degree to which individuals and groups increase productivity. Below: Operant Training Schedules.
State
The below model demonstrates the way in which psychological states may vary. The performance of an organization is directly impacted by the state of mind of a company’s members.
Degrees of Engagement
Through developing a comprehensive review of the degree to which various members of the organization prioritize their needs and preferences, one may maximize human capital engagement. Therefore, organizations must regularly monitor the psychological state of their staff in order to promote peak performance.
Determine Incentives to Maximize Performance
Those organizations which value high levels of engagement must develop an an ongoing and systematic investigation into the needs and preferences of their staff members.
Personality Inventories
Personality Inventories are common practice for many companies that are interested in promoting self-awareness and professional development opportunities for their organization. Through learning about one’s unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, staff members may leverage this data for their personal and professional growth.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and Factor Five Personality Inventory are some of the most robust and statistically well validated psychological instruments available for measuring personality. These instruments provide a rigorous review of human personality characteristics, which may be utilized in order to focus upon developing positive character traits.
Performance Management Strategies
Those organizations who are interested may leverage a simple 4-step process, which addresses the individual and group’s ‘State’, ‘Objectives’, ‘Strategies’, and ‘Massive Action’. This includes state of mind, objectives, strategies for achieving those objectives, and tasks that must be completed (See: Robbins Research International).
State of Mind & Performance Management
The Principles of Practical Psychology may be applied through standard HR and Performance Management practices in order to maximize the organization’s performance. Psychological state serves as one of the most critical components of human capital management, because companies are driven by highly complex human beings — Not machines and automatons.
Cognitive Assessments
State of the Art technologies may be leveraged in order to train for psychological performance and resilience. Through collaborating with researchers from the University of Chicago, rapid and effective “Mind Mapping” may be achieved to set training programs apart and draw significant commercial interest.
Some studies have demonstrated potential benefits to IQ as a result of novel cognitive training methodologies, and further research is required to validate this hypothesis and remove confounding variables. The principle hypothesis is that enhanced neural-network integration and CNS performance may result in increased energy resources available for cognition.
The CNS under high levels of stress may inhibit cognitive performance for a variety of tasks, so enhancing resilience of the CNS may liberate psychological resources for peak performance. More information on this subject is located on PubMed, the Journal of Neurotherapy, and EEGInfo. Pilot programs may clarify the nature of these potential cognitive benefits.
Potential Benefits to Executive Attention
Preliminary research has demonstrated that some cognitive training protocols may significantly enhance auditory attention (listening), visual attention (observation), and other characteristics. Further research is required in order to provide strong evidence for these effects under double-blind conditions.
Learn More:
Erik A. Lenderman
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