Performance Consulting: Moving Beyond Training Paperback – April 14, 2008

For those of us that still like getting books, Harmony for Souls looks like a great source. Good selection and very reasonable prices. They had what I needed and I received it quickly through Amazon. I'll use them again!

Ms Robinson's book is easy to read and her model is easy to follow.

In preparing for a recent move, I resolved to trim my overstuffed library down to the few books I refer to regularly. The Robinsons' classic guide on performance consulting was one of the first I set aside for packing.Performance Consulting takes a broad view of performance generally, both individual and organizational, and the inputs that go into producing it. Then it explains and illustrates a process for identifying performance gaps, analyzing their causes, and choosing from among the variety of solutions that might be implemented, often in combination, to bring what `IS' up to what `SHOULD' be. The chapter on "Developing Models of Performance" - including best practices and competency models - alone is worth the price of the book.The Robinsons emphasize the importance of solid data gathering to ensure accurate understanding of the problems and accurate evaluation of the effectiveness of the solutions. And they liberally illustrate their principles and techniques with examples from their own consulting practice with major corporations, many of them manufacturing companies. Even so, I found their examples enlightening and their templates and general principles readily translatable to other settings - including professional service firms, government agencies, and nonprofits - in my own consulting.The updated Second Edition contains most of the same material as the first, but adds two new chapters (one on "identifying performance consulting opportunities in a proactive manner" and the other a collection of FAQs) and also provides a web address for downloading and purchasing electronic versions of the Robinsons' templates. I found annoying the stylistic changes in this edition that came out of a collaboration with Ken Blanchard, who persuaded the Robinsons to develop some catchy acronyms for their models (e.g., the "GAPS! Map") and also, apparently, to liberally sprinkle the book with exclamation points. Those frothy additions detract from the solid substance of the book and are my only reason for rating the Second Edition with 4 stars instead of 5. Perhaps some readers will actually enjoy them.Even if your current arsenal does not extend beyond training solutions, Performance Consulting is a helpful book for learning to recognize when training is not the answer to a problem - and also, perhaps, for working yourself into a position with greater influence and a broader scope.

Not what I expected. The title and the description was so deceitful.

simply simple. excellent storehouse of knowledge

Great book!

Thanks

This is a well written and mostly clear text on performance consulting that goes in-depth into gaps analysis. The process is well outlined and if you're thinking of doing consulting work, this may just become a integral part of your process. The charts are excellent from a technical writing perspective and easily translatable to clients. I could not get access to the template forms online- this seems dated since it's been a while since this was published. That's too bad as it would be very helpful to have downloadable versions.