M aking an impact. It's what we all hope to do…every day. Whether on a large or small scale, we're in performance improvement careers because we want to make a difference. We want to foster progress in organizations to make them better in terms of safety, quality, productivity, profitability, and general societal contribution. We also strive to make organizations better places in which to work. We want people to feel good about their work and make ongoing contributions in a positive environment.But how often do we actually achieve these ideals? More importantly, how often are we, our coworkers, or our clients able to sustain the improvements and progress that we successfully facilitate? Unfortunately, many of us have to answer that our success rate for the maintenance and effectiveness of long-term performance improvement initiatives is, for a variety of reasons, limited.Timm Esque's award-winning book, Making an Impact: Building a Top-Performing Organization From the Bottom Up, tackles this issue that many of us struggle with. In simple, straightforward terms, Esque explains the reasons that performance improvement efforts often fail or have limited results. He then devotes the remainder of the book to describing an alternative, a "self-sustaining performance system" (SPS). Main TopicsIt would spoil your read of Making an Impact if this review revealed the many sensible and thought-provoking points that Esque makes about SPSs. It would, however, be appropriate to give you a sneak peak at the topics that he addresses in the book's six chapters. Chapter 1: An Alternative ApproachThe first chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book with a parable that demonstrates the need for helping groups and organizations create their own SPSs. Esque is adamant that a pitfall of many performance improvement initiatives is the expectation that we can move in and solve a problem, then move back out. He builds a case that lasting change will not occur if we solve others' problems. Rather, we have to assist others in resolving their own issues if we want improvement to be anything more than temporary.

The responsibility for effective transfer of training falls into a gray area between trainers, trainees, and management. It is easy for trainers to point fingers at management and say that they are not supporting transfer of learned skills in the work environment. But this assumes that management views training as an integral component for improving organizational performance, which is often not the case. Training is more often managed as a cost than as an asset. One Training section at Intel has been experimenting with increasing transfer and improving organizational performance by directly influencing the trainee population during and after training. The rationale is that the best way to generate interest from upper management, is to demonstrate business results. This article describes a series of tactics for improving transfer of training. Each tactic was driven by the training function in an attempt to directly influence the transfer of specific management skills to the work environment.

No abstract