HPT Pathfinder: Rummler's Anatomy of Performance

Summary

In this HPT Pathfinder presentation, Gary Rumler's evolution of ideas from 1995 to 2008 is explored. Rumler, with Alan Brash, defined performance at three levels: organizational, process, and job. They introduced the human performance system and later developed the 'Anatomy of Performance' to view organizations as interconnected systems. They emphasized the value chain and the impact of external forces on organizations, advocating for quality management and effective process management across vertical and horizontal dimensions. Rumler's tools, like process maps and the effective process framework, are designed to address organizational complexities and enhance performance.

Takeaways

• 📈 Gary Rumler's ideas evolved significantly from 1995 until his death in 2008, focusing on the holistic view of organizational performance.
• 🏢 Rumler and Alan Brash defined performance at three levels: organizational, process, and job/performer, introducing the Human Performance System.
• 🔄 They emphasized that organizations should be viewed as interconnected systems rather than isolated silos.
• 🌐 Rumler introduced the 'Organization as a System' lens, later known as 'Anatomy of Performance', which considers the entire organization as a value chain receiving inputs and producing outputs.
• 💹 The value chain includes resources like capital, raw materials, and human resources, aiming to create valued outputs such as products, services, and shareholder value.
• ⏳ Rumler's model includes the 'Organizational Super System', which acknowledges external forces like regulations, economic conditions, and societal trends impacting organizations.
• 🛠️ Quality management was identified as crucial for high-performing organizations, requiring managers to manage both vertically and horizontally.
• 🔍 The 'Value Creation Hierarchy' was used to identify and improve processes at various levels within an organization.
• 📊 Process maps, also known as swim lane diagrams, were developed by Rumler to help visualize and manage processes within organizations.
• 🔄 The Effective Process Framework combines the three performance levels with horizontal considerations from the value chain for job-level process improvement.
• 🏆 Rumler's legacy is marked by his continuous refinement of concepts, models, and tools to suit changing organizational circumstances.

Q & A

What were Gary Rumler and Alan Brash known for in the field of performance?

Gary Rumler and Alan Brash were best known for defining performance at three levels: organizational, process, and job or performer.

How did Rumler and Brash address the misconception of organizations consisting of disconnected silos?

They emphasized the processes within and between departments and functions to show the interconnectedness of organizational units.

What is the human performance system introduced by Rumler and Brash?

The human performance system is a concept that describes the inputs, outputs, consequences, and feedback impacting an individual's ability to produce expected results.

What is the 'value chain' as described by Rumler and his colleagues?

The value chain is the entire system through which an organization receives inputs of resources, produces valued outputs, and receives consequences and feedback from successful value creation.

What is the organizational super system according to Rumler's perspective?

The organizational super system refers to the larger business environment that impacts an organization, including governmental regulations, economic conditions, cultural norms, and societal trends.

Why is quality management considered a key component in a high-performing organization by Rumler and his colleagues?

Quality management is key because it enables managers to articulate, organize, and manage functions, jobs, and performers both vertically and horizontally across the value chain.

What is the value creation hierarchy mentioned in the script?

The value creation hierarchy is a tool used to drill down through various levels of a business to pinpoint processes in need of improvement.

How does the value creation system within an organization encompass major departments and functions?

The value creation system includes all major departments and functions, as well as the processes that move value, products, and services from concept to consumer.

What did managers discover was the issue with customer service agents in the online business scenario?

Managers found that customer service agents were not confirming the shipping address for each order, leading to dissatisfied customers.

What tools did Gary Rumler develop to help managers and HPT professionals?

Gary Rumler developed tools like process maps (swim lane diagrams) and the effective process framework to help identify relationships and processes within an organization.

How did Rumler's work aim to impact the total system of an organization?

Rumler's work aimed to refine and enhance concepts, models, or tools to make them better suited to changing circumstances, ultimately impacting the total system of an organization.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Gary Rumler's Evolution of Performance Improvement

This paragraph introduces Gary Rumler's work on defining performance at three levels: organizational, process, and job performer. Rumler and Alan Brash emphasized the interconnectedness of organizational processes and departments, introducing the concept of a human performance system. They later developed the 'Organization as System' lens, which views the entire organization as a system receiving inputs and producing outputs, with the 'value chain' being the ultimate goal for performance improvement. The paragraph also discusses the impact of external forces on organizations, referred to as the 'organizational super system', and the need for organizations to adapt to survive. Quality management and the ability to manage both vertically and horizontally across the value chain are highlighted as crucial for high performance.

05:00

🔍 Tools and Techniques for Performance Improvement

The second paragraph delves into the tools and techniques developed by Gary Rumler for performance improvement. It discusses the use of process maps, also known as swim lane diagrams, to identify relationships and processes within an organization. Rumler also created the effective process framework, which combines the three performance levels with horizontal considerations from the value chain. The paragraph concludes with an example of how these tools were used to address customer dissatisfaction in an online business by identifying and improving specific processes. Rumler's legacy is summarized as one of continuous refinement and enhancement of concepts, models, and tools to suit changing circumstances, with the ultimate goal of impacting the total system of an organization.

Keywords

💡Performance Improvement

Performance improvement refers to the ongoing process of enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability of an organization's operations. In the video, Gary Rumler's work is centered around this concept, emphasizing the need for organizations to constantly adapt and improve to remain competitive. The video discusses how Rumler's ideas evolved to consider performance at multiple levels within an organization, from the individual performer to the entire system.

💡Organizational Level

The organizational level is one of the three levels at which Rumler and his colleague Alan Brash considered performance. It refers to the business as a whole, looking at how the entire entity operates and performs. The video notes that focusing solely on this level could lead to a misconception of organizations as disconnected silos, highlighting the importance of also considering processes and the individual performer.

💡Processes

Processes are the systematic series of actions directed towards the production of an end result or service in an organization. The video emphasizes that Rumler and his colleagues recognized the importance of understanding and managing processes within and between departments to avoid the silo effect and to ensure effective performance. This is crucial for maintaining the value chain and improving the organization's overall performance.

💡Human Performance System

The human performance system is a concept introduced by Rumler and Brash to describe the inputs, outputs, consequences, and feedback that impact an individual's ability to produce expected results. In the video, this system is used to illustrate how performers exist within an interconnected system, and it is a key component in understanding how to improve performance at the individual level.

💡Value Chain

The value chain is a term used by Rumler and his colleagues to describe the entire system through which an organization receives inputs of resources and produces valued outputs for customers and shareholders. The video explains that maintaining and improving this chain is the ultimate goal of all performance and process improvement efforts within an organization.

💡Organizational Super System

The organizational super system refers to the larger business environment that impacts an organization, including governmental regulations, economic conditions, cultural norms, and societal trends. The video discusses how Rumler and his colleagues viewed this super system as a critical factor that organizations must consider and adapt to in order to survive and thrive.

💡Quality Management

Quality management is a key component of high-performing organizations, as mentioned in the video. It involves the activities and techniques used to control and improve the quality of products and services. Rumler and his colleagues argued that managers must be able to manage functions, jobs, and performers both vertically and horizontally across the value chain to ensure effective and efficient work performance.

💡Value Creation Hierarchy

The value creation hierarchy is a tool used by Rumler and his colleagues to analyze and improve business processes. The video describes how it can be used to drill down through various levels of a business to pinpoint processes in need of improvement. This tool is instrumental in identifying issues within the organization's value chain and addressing them systematically.

💡Process Maps

Process maps, also known as swim lane diagrams, are tools developed by Rumler to help managers and human performance technology (HPT) professionals identify relationships and processes within an organization. The video mentions their use in visualizing how work flows through different departments and functions both vertically and horizontally, aiding in the identification of bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

💡Effective Process Framework

The effective process framework is a method developed by Rumler to examine process improvement at the job level. The video explains that it combines the three well-known performance levels with horizontal considerations from the value chain. This framework is used to ensure that work can be performed and managed effectively, giving the company a competitive advantage.

Highlights

Gary Rumler's contributions evolved from 1995 until his death in 2008, focusing on performance improvement.

Rumler, along with colleague Alan Brash, defined performance at three levels: the organizational level, processes between departments, and the performer level.

They introduced the Human Performance System to describe how inputs, outputs, consequences, and feedback impact performers' ability to meet expected results.

Rumler and colleagues developed the 'organization as system' approach, later known as the 'anatomy of performance.'

In this view, organizations are systems that receive inputs (resources) and produce valued outputs (products/services) for customers and shareholders.

Maintaining and improving the value chain, which connects inputs and outputs, became the ultimate goal of performance and process improvement.

The concept of the organizational super system emphasizes external forces like government regulations, competition, and societal trends impacting organizations.

Organizations must constantly adapt to changing circumstances in order to survive and thrive in a competitive business environment.

Rumler viewed quality management as a key component for high-performing organizations, managing both vertically (jobs and performers) and horizontally (value chain).

The value creation hierarchy allows managers to drill down through various business levels to identify processes that need improvement.

In the example provided, a small business identified problems with customer orders due to a lack of address confirmation.

The value creation system comprises three interdependent processing systems: product creation, marketing, and delivery to consumers.

Rumler's tools, such as process maps and swim lane diagrams, help managers visualize relationships and processes across the organization.

The effective process framework combines the three performance levels with horizontal considerations from the value chain for job-level improvement.

Rumler's legacy lies in continuously refining and enhancing his models and tools to adapt to changing organizational challenges.

Transcripts

hi in this hpt pathfinder presentation

we'll revisit gary rumler to see how his

ideas evolved from 1995 to his death in

2008.

as we learned in the last presentation

rummer with his colleague alan brash

became best known for defining

performance at three levels

they first considered the business as a

whole at the organizational level

however this could lead to the

misconception of organizations

consisting of disconnected silos

so they emphasize the processes within

and between departments and functions

finally they focused on the job or

performer and introduced their human

performance system

to describe the inputs outputs

consequences

and feedback that impact the performers

ability to produce

expected results the idea of a performer

existing within an interconnected system

was

incredibly important but it did not

capture the complexities facing

organizations as a whole rumler and his

colleagues realized that

all organizations are systems and they

developed an approach

first called the organization as system

lens and more recently known as the

anatomy of performance

in this view like the human performance

system the entire organization receives

inputs of resources

including capital investment raw

materials and equipment

human resources and new technologies

likewise

all businesses seek to produce valued

outputs for customers and shareholders

these would include products and

services and increased shareholder value

the consequences and feedback from

successful value creation

would hopefully be increased orders for

goods feedback from customers

and increased investment from

shareholders this entire system was

called the value chain by rumler and his

colleagues

and for them maintaining and improving

this chain became the ultimate goal of

all performance and process

improvement and management efforts but

like all complex systems

organizations are impacted by other

outside forces

for rumbler and his colleagues this is

the organizational super system

in this super system the organization is

impacted by the larger business

environment

including governmental regulations

economic conditions

and cultural norms and societal trends

additionally

the organization constantly faces

competition from other businesses who

want to provide

products and services to the same

customers and who compete for resources

from the same pool of providers

as rumler and his colleagues stated in

2009 and 2010

this is the ultimate performance reality

in context for every organization

and every organization must constantly

adapt or die

because of these complexities and

demands rumler and his colleagues viewed

quality management

as a key component of any high

performing organization in this context

managers must be able to articulate

organize and manage

functions jobs and performers in the

traditional vertical direction

and they must also be able to manage

horizontally across the value chain

and they argue that designing and

managing processes in both directions is

the key to ensuring that work can be

performed effectively and efficiently

that it can be effectively managed and

that the company can gain an advantage

over the competition

to illustrate this one small online

business was experiencing a high level

of dissatisfied customers who claimed

that they were being charged for orders

that never arrived to ensure that both

the vertical and horizontal processes

were being accounted for

the management of the firm used what

rumbler and his colleagues called the

value creation hierarchy

to drill down through various levels of

the business to pinpoint the exact

processes in need of improvement

after considering the super system at

the business and enterprise level

managers can focus in on the value

creation system within the organization

this system encompasses all major

departments and functions in the company

as well as the processes that move value

products and services from concept to

consumer

in rumbler's model from 2009 this level

is made up of three interdependent

processing systems those concerned with

creating and launching the product

those concerned with marketing and

selling the product and those concerned

with making sure it gets into the hands

of consumers

within each of these the manager drilled

further

down to view the primary processing

systems that might require the work of

various departments

and teams that consist of multiple large

process steps

in our scenario it was clear that there

were problems with the order being

obtained

with this knowledge the manager

continued to investigate lower and lower

levels in the hierarchy

through the process level sub processes

and individual tasks in this scenario

managers determined that customer

service agents were not confirming the

shipping address for each order

gary rumler's ideas and tools are

incredibly comprehensive and robust

enough to address needs in the simplest

or most complex organizations

at each level ramler and his colleagues

developed powerful tools like process

maps also known as swim lane diagrams

to help managers and hpt professionals

identify relationships

and processes vertically through the

organizational functions

and horizontally across the value chain

he also developed the effective process

framework which examined

process improvement at the job level by

combining the three well-known

performance levels

with horizontal considerations from the

value chain

in 2009 ramos and rummer summed up gary

rumler's legacy best by stating that

rumbler's endless efforts at refining

and enhancing a concept

model or tool to make it better or more

suitable to changing circumstances

is a hallmark of his contributions to

the field of performance improvement

although he was most noted for his

contributions to process improvement

his objective was always to make an

impact on the total system of an

organization

you