What does it mean to be Accomplishment-Based?
Thomas F. Gilbert and other pioneers in the field of performance improvement introduced a major paradigm shift in the analysis of human performance and methods for improving it, from a focus on behavior to an emphasis on its valuable products, what Gilbert called accomplishments.
In the more than 40 years since Gilbert’s groundbreaking book, Human Competence, the word accomplishment has been used by many thought leaders and practitioners, and has come to be associated with an important segment of the performance improvement community.
However, publications and presentations over the years have revealed a wide diversity in how that term is used, how people identify and describe accomplishments, and how they pursue performance improvement with a focus on accomplishments.
Carl Binder and his colleagues have for decades been refining and applying an accomplishment-based approach that has been called, and trademarked as, the Performance Thinking® methodology. It’s unique definition of accomplishments as “countable nouns” has helped to clarify how best to apply Gilbert’s concept.
And the plain English models that have arisen as part of this work continue to help both performance specialists and non-specialist leaders, managers, and stakeholders apply the essentials of accomplishment-based performance improvement.
This session provides an overview of the origins and elements of Performance Thinking, and highlights some of the applications and advantages of an accomplishment-based approach. Dr. Carl Binder, CEO of The Performance Thinking Network
Carl began his career as a behavior scientist, one of the last graduate students of B.F. Skinner at Harvard University.
He spent the 1970s conducting research, training teachers, and consulting to a wide variety of educational and human service organizations with a focus on what has been called fluency-based instruction. Shifting to corporate training and development in 1982, he joined ISPI and met Tom Gilbert, Geary Rummler, Joe Harless, Donald Tosti, Roger Kaufman, and other pioneers in the field of performance improvement, who were generous in their mentorship and support for his development.
Founder of 4 consulting firms, he and his colleagues have continued to refine their methods and models for conducting performance improvement projects, partnering with clients and stakeholders, developing others as performance consultants, and teaching leaders and managers to contribute to continuous performance improvement.
Over more than four decades, he has developed what is now known (and first named by his clients) as Performance Thinking®, a flexible but powerful accomplishment-based performance improvement methodology that he and his colleagues train and certify others to apply. It has been adopted by colleagues in the UK, Nigeria, Italy, Sweden, Dubai, Qatar, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and across North America.
Carl has published several dozen articles and chapters, presented workshops and presentations every year at ISPI’s conferences since 1987, and been given ISPI’s Thomas F. Gilbert and Honorary Life Member awards, along with the Fred S. Keller Award from the American Psychological Association for his work in education, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organizational Behavior Management Network.
You can learn more about his work, and download publications and unpublished white papers at www.PerformanceThinking.com and www.Fluency.org, and contact him directly by email at carlbinder@sixboxes.com
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