Virtual Freelance Human Performance Improvement Consultant at Huformance Tech Consulting
My organizational performance and workplace learning academic journey began when it was time for me to transit from the field of education into a closely related field. Boise State’s Master of Science in Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) stood out as a unique graduate program in the College of Engineering, unlike other Instructional Design graduate programs usually offered by the colleges of education across the U.S.A. Therefore, I decided to pursue the OPWL program, as I already had dual master’s degrees in both biology and education.
Gradually, I gained insight into why the OPWL program is an engineering graduate degree as I delved deep into each course of the program. The curriculum assists students to engineer human performance in organizations while pursuing various courses by working on real-life projects with real clients. Students gain the knowledge, comprehension, and hands-on skills of working on real projects by communicating and collaborating with their teammates, clients, and stakeholders. They obtain related and relevant data, analyze the root causes by incorporating various human performance improvement models and theories, and use their creativity and innovation to provide customized performance improvement interventions that are cost-effective, to resolve various organizational performance issues in a systemic and systematic manner. The client organizations will actually implement the interventions provided by the students to improve the performance of their employees and obtain Return On Investment, thus obtaining value added results. Finally, the students are encouraged to document their projects by writing related case studies for potential publication in professional journals and magazines to contribute to the professional Community of Practice.
The OPWL program is very rigorous in nature and requires the students to focus a lot of their time and energy. Therefore, please be aware that this program is not for the faint of heart. Students should have both the mental and physical strength, and stamina to withstand the hardships that both internal and external human performance technology consultants experience while working on real human performance improvement projects with real clients in organizations. The professors always ensure that the students focus their attention on both the end-results (products/services) and means (process) for attaining them.
According to Aristotle, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”. Finally, students will also get to enjoy the fruit of their hard work and sleepless nights in the form of a portfolio of real-life project reports, case studies, work samples, and authored publications in professional journals and magazines. Please bear in mind that according to a biblical proverb, “As you sow, so shall you reap”. This means that both the quality and quantity of student input (hard work, persistence, and passion) determine the quality and quantity of the program output (project reports, case studies, work samples, and authored publications). Therefore, the overall OPWL program itself serves as a comprehensive internship experience.
The OPWL program, if pursued with the right mindset and attitude, will equip students with the skills essential for the 21st century workplace, and help them to create a job for themselves and others, instead of searching for a job after graduation. Thereby, the OPWL program assists the graduate students to compete and succeed in the global economy! Go Broncos!
Articles
Bertrand, J.*, Sparrow, T.**, Jagdeep, S.*, & Winiecki, D.+ (2016). Improving and Maintaining Torque Accuracy in Aerospace Manufacturing: A Case Study. Performance Improvement Journal, 55(9), 7-17.
Bertrand, J.*, Sparrow, T.**, & Jagdeep, S.* (2016, April). Torque accuracy in aerospace manufacturing. PerformanceXpress Newsletter, April’16 issue.