By Jeffrey E. McElyea, Lucid Business Strategies

Our company, Lucid Business Strategies, specializes in working with small businesses with less than 100 employees. In many cases, owners and/or managers of these businesses contact us because their business is in financial trouble, and may be in danger of closing. We are contracted to solve a myriad of performance problems that are causing the business to struggle. We use a Human Performance Improvement (HPI) approach to do so.

Since these businesses are small, the decision to undertake an HPI project is critical from several viewpoints:

• Deciding to invest in an outside resource is a major decision—an investment that most small business owners do not do.
• This decision is about more than ROI; it is about survival.
• The business could close if the Performance Consultant is not able to improve their situation.

Time is critical; results must be both immediate and substantial.

Their business may be in trouble; they do not have money to invest in high-cost interventions, even if the ROI is projected to be excellent.

The Process

On the surface, this seems like an impossible situation. In reality, it is the perfect arena to apply the HPI process. We have adapted the VanTiem, Moseley, Dessinger (2001) HPI model in a manner that fits the situation perfectly, and ensures that we get results very quickly. The process is summarized below:

Change Management

We are very candid with the business owner and stakeholders about the kinds of changes they may expect as a part of working together. We establish a very close partnership with these stakeholders, and ask that they become a part of the analysis and implementation teams. This ensures their buy-in, and helps them feel in control of their destiny. Interestingly, it also helps speed the entire process, because they can visualize their problem getting better.

Analysis

We conduct a performance/cause analysis in every situation. During this phase, we work hard to get to the heart of the situation in a hurry. We uncover the major causes of the problems using typical analysis processes, but we do not get caught up in the details—at least not initially. In businesses of this size, this analysis can be accomplished in a few days to two weeks. As soon as we have enough evidence to identify even a single major cause of the problem, we identify an intervention and begin designing, developing, and implementing it. We recognize that we have not identified all of the causes at this point, and that there may be side effects from our interventions.

Our immediate goal is to prolong the life of the business so that there is enough time to manage any side effects, and move on to the next intervention.

Intervention Design/Implementation

Our initial interventions are linked directly to eliminating causes that are shortening the life of the business. This could be anything from developing financial systems and controls, working with financial institutions, to complete redesign and focus of the sales and marketing team. These interventions are designed to have a very fast implementation cycle and an immediate impact on the business. Literally every person in the organization is called upon to help develop and implement these changes, so that we can begin implementing at least some intervention within a couple of weeks. Making money available for interventions is always a concern in these projects. For this reason, these first interventions must have an impact! Immediate Level IV results are all that counts! We expect that anything spent on these interventions can be recovered within 90 days. The financial improvement from these first interventions is used to fund future interventions.

Evaluation

Since the impact of our interventions must be felt immediately, our evaluation is rather simple: Is the financial condition of the company improved immediately as we implement our interventions (measured by Sales, Cash Flow, and Profit and Loss Statements)? If so, we continue working to make these changes part of the organizational culture. If not, we immediately (within 30-60 days) adjust our interventions based upon what we learn as we implement and evaluate.

Analysis

The process to this point buys us enough time to go back and address other issues that have caused the performance problem, and to address the side effects of our initial interventions. It allows us to quickly learn the culture of the organization, be actively involved in observations, data analysis (from our evaluation), and establish a collaborative, open relationship with the client. Owners, managers, and staff are already involved in changing, and have seen evidence that the changes can yield quick results. It is an ideal setting to go back and do a more in-depth analysis to discover the other root causes of the business problems, and make broader, longer-term changes. We continue this cycle of analysis and rapid development/implementation of high impact interventions “on- the-fly” until the business is out of immediate danger. Then we go down a more typical HPI path, deciding how interventions will work together, and considering the side effects and longer-term ramifications of our changes. In other words, we continue working on change, but we become more focused on stability and improving the operation of the business. This process can take several months or more, depending on how comprehensive the final interventions must be.

Working with small businesses presents several challenges, not the least of which is extremely short timeframes for results and very limited financial resources. Following a Human Performance Improvement approach helps keep the Performance Consultant focused on immediate results, and ensures that we address only the performance problems that are impacting the survival of the business. This makes HPI an ideal process for small businesses!

Jeff McElyea, MA is the principal and lead consultant of Lucid Business Strategies, a management consulting firm that applies the principals of HPT to help small business owners build successful enterprises. Prior to Lucid Business Strategies, he spent 20 years in middle and senior management positions in the hospitality industry, where he had full operational and financial responsibility for the success of the businesses. McElyea received his master’s degree with high distinction from the performance improvement and instructional design program at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. As part of his graduate work, McElyea received his Human Performance Improvement (HPI) certificate from ASTD. He is a past board member of the Greater Detroit Chapter of ASTD, and is a mentor for the Michigan ASTD Train-the-Trainer program. McElyea has published articles in ASTD Links, and is a frequent contributor to business publications in S.E. Michigan. He has been an invited speaker at more than 30 national, state, and local conferences. He may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Lucid Business Strategies - We Bring Your Business To Life!™

Published in October 2004 edition of ASTD Links. ©2004 ASTD Links. All Rights Reserved.