At Performance International, we believe that while all of us “do” work, few of us understand the “grammar” (or components) of work. This means that while employees and managers complain about work, they have no way to concisely, coherently and consistently discuss solutions and improvements. So performance improvement efforts are hampered.
Danny Langdon, founder of Performance International and developer of Language of Work™ Model tells us that the model grew out his frustration at seeing Quality Groups try to discuss and solve problems. Without a common language, individuals jumped to solutions, believed they were talking about the same things at the same time and debated endlessly without satisfactory solution, or at a minimum with great inefficiency. Improvements were based on the loudest voice—not the best analysis.
The Language of Work™ was developed to give people everywhere a way to talk about, think, understand and improve work. The model is not just a clever graphic. Instead, it identifies and models all six elements of performance, aka work aka behavior—and their relationship to one another. With this model and its value-added attachments, organizations can develop a common understanding of the performance of an individual, work group, a core process, the whole business unit, and solve/realize problems and more effectively implement daily work. Work understanding leads to performance improvements. Of course, there are many aspects to performance, but the basic model is the foundation on which other considerations can be bolted to truly understand and make work the best it can be in an organization for everyone.
At Performance International, our process is to show you how the problems you are trying to solve (such as reorganizing, reengineering, improving work performance, building competencies, improving training results, or aligning work) can be understood and solved by using the Language of Work to bring clarity.