An Ounce of Good Assessment is Worth a Pound of Analysis and a Ton of Cure: Revisiting Seminal Insights in Performance Improvement

Abstract

Roger Kaufman's 2014 article, An Ounce of Good Assessment Is Worth a Pound of Analysis and a Ton of Cure reminds us that before embarking on any endeavor, it is vital to know where we are headed and how to tell when we have successfully arrived. In our work lives, it is not uncommon to hear individuals espouse the importance of never bringing a problem to others without also offering a solution. This "conventional wisdom," Kaufman would argue, reinforces the belief that value is inherently found in solutions, and blurs the line between experiencing a symptom and defining the problem. Regrettably, our sense of urgency to focus on organizational solutions and change initiatives is accompanied by failure rate estimates as high as 70%. Certainly solutions are important, but where we start our performance improvement efforts can and does influence our success, particularly when we start with "solutions in search of no-known problems."

Trends and patterns of needs assessments in technical and vocational education: A thematic review

“…The concept of needs are categorized into two types: needs in 'processes' that refers to methods and needs in 'input' that refers to resources [1], [11]. The conceptual framework from this concept would provide the realistic and rational reason for both "what to change" as well as "what to continue" [47].…”