Synolic Model

If there is a continuous need in business to monitor and improve staff performance, this need is more critical when the world¢s markets are in various states of recession. There is no doubt that people are the most critical of a company¢s resources, because it is people that plan and control all other assets, whether fixed, portable or liquid. People also innovate, design and operate systems and raise the capital necessary to put plans into effect that achieve corporate objectives. And yet in difficult times, when expense reduction seems necessary, among the first items to be cut are human resource development items such as training and development. But if a company cannot afford the cost of training, can it afford the cost of decreased performance?
The question always remains how a company could effectively develop its people. Traditional approaches such as skills training, even when based on the findings of job analyses and job knowledge surveys, often fail to significantly affect individual performance. Our company has adopted the Synolic model of human resource development, because it represents a hyper-comprehensive approach to individual performance improvement as it examines critically not only factors lying within conscious control, but also ways of influencing unconscious decisions that account for much of human behavior. Application of the Synolic model produces dynamic results, because it takes into account changes and enriches a manager¢s repertoire for professional and personal growth.
As it is managers who hold the steering paddle of organizations, assessment of their proficiency is critical to overall performance improvement. To help our clients assess such proficiency we have adopted the Managerial Assessment of Proficiency (MAP) model. It measures and develops an individual¢s competencies (group of related skills and attitudes) in 12 key managerial areas that affect performance in a given area of responsibility.
Individual performance is the basic building block of organizational improvement, but as people mostly need to work in teams, we have adopted the Team Management Systems (TMS) model. It helps audit team structure and provides guidance for ensuring that every team is balanced in terms of work preferences, a balance necessary to attain optimum performance. An unbalanced managerial team is like a football team with 11 goalkeepers and no players able to score goals.
While human performance improvement is critical, for senior managers it is only one of the pieces of the puzzle. Some of their key concerns are innovation, growth, utilization of opportunities, development of resources, asset protection, continuous improvement, waste management, expense control, credit control, inventory control. An effective approach to cover such needs is to apply the Organization Consulting Process that involves two parties. A client--an employee, manager or group needing or seeking help to cover needs--and a consultant—a professional capable of providing help in meeting such needs. In addition to hiring an external consultant expert in the content of issues, companies can utilize on an ongoing basis internal consultants recruited from their own staff for being familiar with each unit¢s operations and willing to help as consultants. To enable our clients impart process consultation skills on such internal consultants, we offer an exercise-based training program comprising two-parts, each covering 2 ½ days, upon completion of which participants are equipped with professional consulting skills.
A combination of the above approaches, determined following a needs analysis survey, would help a company achieve its objectives in good as well as in difficult times.

D. Patrick Georges
Co-author of “The Synolic Manager”