Why Doers Do -- New Book Guides Business Managers in Improving Their "People" ROI
Portsmouth, NH (PRWEB) July 12, 2013 -- Author David E. Wile announced today the release of his new business management book, Why Doers Do: Managing Human Performance to Optimize the Return on Your People Investment.
The book helps managers, HR and training professionals, and others solve the question, “What do I need to provide my employees (or other people upon whom I depend) so that they can perform much better?” While geared toward business managers, Why Doers Do can help coaches, volunteer coordinators, teachers, even parents.
Why Doers Do introduces and explores a new nine-point framework that anyone can use to ensure people perform at their highest levels. Through research, surveys and real-world application in the business world, Wile has developed The Externality-Tangibility Model (or E-T Model, for short) which shows how human performance is the function of nine key elements:
1) talents
2) skills/knowledge
3) tools
4) environment
5) incentives
6) information
7) job aids
8) management and
9) leadership
The name “Externality-Tangibility” comes from the fact that:
• some elements (talents, skills/knowledge) are internal to a person
• other elements (tools, environment, incentives, information and job aids) are external to a person and are tangible and
• a third group (management and leadership) are external and intangible
Why Doers Do is written in the unique form of marrying the traditional business book style with a fictional “business novel” approach. Each of the nine major chapters of the book (delving into the nine elements of The Externality-Tangibility Model) begins with the fictional story following the character Luke. Luke is a manager of an IT department, part of a pick-up ice hockey team and the parent of three teenagers. Each of these three dimensions of his life mirror similar human performance problems, situations where he would like to help people do better at work, on the ice or at home. Each of the nine chapters shows how Luke falls into situations where either his employees, his teammates or his kids are somehow struggling with lower-than-expected performance. As Luke discovers solutions to these performance problems, the E-T Model builds element by element.
“Storytelling is a powerful medium,” says author Wile. “My left-brained thinking readers may prefer the traditional sections of this book, as I explore the research around each element and sub-element of human performance. But the right-brained thinkers may more easily wrap their heads around the E-T Model by following the narrative and seeing how human performance management plays out in a real-life setting. Either mode of learning is fine; it gives the reader choice. Some people may skip one section or another. More pragmatic business managers may turn directly to the ‘how to’ sections of the book, while those who are more research-oriented may want to go to later chapters to read about the research underlying the Model. However a reader takes the journey in this book, what’s important is they all reach the goal: understanding a systematic approach to ensuring people have what they need in order to reach outstanding performance, whether at work, at home or in the community.”
Each chapter in Why Doers Do concludes with a simple checklist any person can use in their organizations as a starting point to assess where gaps exist and how to close them. Each checklist asks a series of questions that the manager can answer as an immediate start to assessing and improving human performance.
The book concludes with a chapter on the research underpinning the E-T Model. Wile reviews prominent past models of human performance and how they led up to the E-T Model. He also explains how he conducted surveys as part of his primary research to formulate then validate the Model.
Says Wile, “Whether a company calls them human resources, head counts or full-time equivalents (FTEs), people are literally amongst the biggest investments companies make. In manufacturing industries with large capital investments in equipment, workers’ costs are still at least 20% of company costs. In service industries like banking, insurance and education, the ‘people’ cost is often around 50%. There is a huge potential to increase the return on that investment. Of course, people are not machines; a machine does not have aspirations or feelings. But even though people are all individuals, we still need a methodical approach to the care and feeding of workers, something more than ‘stick them in a classroom’ or ‘give them a 5% raise.’”
But improving human performance takes work. If it didn’t, every employee would share a blissful, productive work experience every working day of the year. That isn’t the case, mainly because every organization is a little different. As Tolstoy said, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
“The ultimate purpose of Why Doers Do is helping managers who struggle with underperforming teams,” says Wile. “One tenet of my book is ‘there are no bad people,’ meaning no one comes into work intending to perform poorly. Often poor performance frustrates employee and employer alike, so I espouse an adult covenant between the worker and management. Employees aren’t looking for hugs; they want to be provided what’s needed for excellent performance that helps them build a great résumé and that is personally satisfying. Companies aren’t looking to treat workers as cogs in a machine that can be tossed out as soon as they are outdated; they know people are important, unique investments upon whom they depend to perform incredibly so they can meet company goals.”
Why Doers Do is currently available for sale at Amazon.com, simply by searching for “WHY DOERS DO.”
David E. Wile was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and moved to Portsmouth NH 25 years ago where he lives today with his wife and three teenage children. In Canada, he graduated from Mount St. Vincent University with a Bachelor of Public Relations degree. Later he earned a Master of Science degree in Instructional & Performance Technology from Boise State University and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire. He has worked with companies such as CVS Caremark, Direct Capital, Liberty Mutual and more.
David Wile, Iago Group, http://whydoersdo.com/, +1 603-828-5570, [email protected]
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