THE HUMAN PERFORMANCE MATURITY MODEL OVERVIEW

Fusion Sport has officially launched the Human Performance Maturity Model (HPMM) – a tool to help you assess the capability of your human performance program and provide guidelines for evolution. The beta version is now available for high performance organizations to use – download the HPMM Playbook and Scorecard and let us know what you think. Read on for an overview of the model and how it was created.

 

A COMMON FRAMEWORK FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Simply put, a maturity model is a tool to help drive continuous improvement. Just as you may assess an employee’s skills and readiness for a promotion, a maturity model provides a systematic way for an organization to evaluate itself on key components that drive effectiveness and evolution.

Maturity Models are nothing new. The original Capability Maturity Model, developed in 1986 by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, was commissioned by the U.S. Air Force. Because they’d been burned by software development projects that went drastically over budget and schedule, the Air Force wanted to create a standardized model for evaluating software development vendors.

Since then, similar models have been introduced for other applications, including supply chain management, project management, social media management, digital transformation, user experience, and many more.

 

WHY WE NEED A HUMAN PERFORMANCE MATURITY MODEL

When the Capability Maturity Model was first commissioned, the software development industry was relatively new. It was very much the “wild west” with few formalized processes or standards. Which was fine…for a time. But to truly begin to realize the promise of modern technology, the field had to evolve and learn how to pull all the pieces together.

The Human Performance Optimization industry is at a similar inflection point. “Over the last decade, we’ve witnessed a rapid acceleration of the use of data and technology not just in sports, but in the military, public safety, and corporate spaces as well,” says Markus Deutsch, CEO and Co-founder of Fusion Sport. “We’re at a point where there is an endless amount of data, and so many different technologies on the market, it’s hard to identify what’s truly useful and what’s just noise. A maturity model will go a long way in helping bring some clarity to our industry and continue to drive it forward.”

The adoption of data and technology that Deutsch mentions has created a much more complex operating environment for human performance programs.

“Managing a modern performance team requires a new set of skills,” notes Marcus Colby, Principal Consultant at Fusion Sport. “Today, everyone on the staff needs to have a basic literacy in data analytics, while other members need to be highly skilled. Beyond the data, the most successful programs we’ve seen have leaders who know how to build culture and drive change in their organizations.”

To be competitive, high performance organizations must employ and orchestrate an increasingly complex set of resources to optimize human performance. This evolution is hard. It can be overwhelming, costly, and take too much time.

To effectively and efficiently transform, you need to know where you want to go, and where you’re starting. This is where the Human Performance Maturity Model can serve as a guide.

 

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF A HUMAN PERFORMANCE MATURITY MODEL

When we started this initiative to develop a Human Performance Maturity Model in June 2021, there was debate within Fusion Sport about what our role should be and the scope of the effort. Admittedly, Fusion Sport is a data & analytics company. That is where our deep expertise lies. We are not organizational change, leadership, or process improvement consultants.

However, we felt we’d be doing a disservice to our community if we let that limit us. “Ultimately, for data and analytics to have the impact we know it can have on human performance, all the other aspects of the organization needed to align as well,” said Kim Gilmour, Human Performance Consultant at Fusion Sport. “Because of our experience working with hundreds of high-performance teams across the globe, we felt Fusion Sport could be a catalyst to create a comprehensive model that helps organizations evolve their programs.”

To get something off the ground quickly, we pulled together a core team of our own Human Performance Consultants to draft the initial Human Performance Maturity Model. We then reached out to trusted clients and partners to gather their input and refine the model. Finally, at the North American Human Performance Summit, we invited all 200+ attendees to use the model and provide feedback.

Brandon Yach, Supervising Consultant at Fusion Sport, says, “The model went through several iterations over the last eight months based on feedback we received. Each performance expert we’d speak to had something valuable to add, made us think about a particular component differently, or made suggestions to make it easier to use. The beta version truly represents the consolidated wisdom of many people who have learned from their failures and successes. We’re excited to get it into the hands of more people.”

With the release of the Human Performance Maturity Model beta version, we are inviting you to be a part of its continued evolution. Our hope is that you will apply the model to your own organization to see where it’s useful and where it’s broken. We welcome your candid feedback. Download the playbook and scorecard now.

GET STARTED WITH THE HUMAN PERFORMANCE MATURITY MODEL

To get started using the HPMM, download the Human Performance Maturity Model Playbook and HPMM Scorecard. The playbook provides more instructions on completing the assessment and applying the results. The model provides a holistic assessment of your organization, covering the following areas:

  • Leadership – How well has leadership defined the HP Program’s “North Star”, aligned organizational efforts, rallied the team, and driven innovation?
  • People & Culture – Do you have the right people who work effectively together, are empowered to take ownership, and are held accountable?
  • Athlete/Service Member – Has your team built trust with your athletes, educated and engaged them, and demonstrated a commitment to improve athlete/service member outcomes?
  • Systems – From vision to funding to facilities, how well are you operationalizing the vision and supporting your people with the systems they need to be at their collective best?
  • Data – How well are you collecting data and translating it into knowledge and wisdom to help you make better decisions and improve outcomes?

We hope you’ll find this beta version of the Human Performance Maturity Model useful, and encourage you to let us know areas we missed or holes in the process of using it. Only by breaking it can we make it better.

 

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