Thomas Gilbert (engineer)

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Thomas F. Gilbert (b. 1927 - d. 1995) was an engineer who is often known as the founder of the field of performance technology, also known as Human Performance Technology (HPT).^[1]^[2] Gilbert applied his understanding of the process of technological improvement to human beings. He is best known for his book Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance. Gilbert devised HPT when he realized that formal learning programs often only brought about a change in knowledge, not a change in behavior. Other techniques were needed to bring about a lasting change in behavior.^[2]

Gilbert established the basic principles of performance improvement that are used by HPT consultants today. He identified six variables which he believed were necessary to improve human performance: information, resources, incentives, knowledge, capacity, and motives. Gilbert believed that it was absence of performance support at work, not an individual's lack of knowledge or skill, that was the greatest barrier to exemplary performance. Therefore, he believed it was most necessary to focus on variables in the work environment before addressing an individual's variables.

Dr. Gilbert trained under the behavioral psychologist B.F.Skinner at Harvard University.

Much of Dr. Gilbert's work involved applying the behavioral paradigm to the world of work and school. Technically the behavioral paradigm = Discriminative Stimulus --> Response --> Reinforcing or Aversive Stimulus (= SD --> R --> S+/-).

This paradigm can be summarized as the ABC theory: Antecedents lead to Behaviors which, in turn, lead to Consequences. The nature of these consequenses effect the probabilty of future expressions of this behavior. In other words, behaviors are prompted by stimuli which then result in responses which are, in turn, followed by reinforcing or aversive consequences. The reward or punishment value of these consequences, that is, increases or decreases the probability of future repetition of this behavior.

Gilbert applied this model to the world of work and school by observing that Performance is a function of an interaction between a person's Behavior and his/her Environment (P = B x E) and then defining the elements of the ABC model within each of these two domains. He called the resulting model the Performance Engineering Model, and used it to identify opportunities to systematically develop the managerially controllable systems and other factors in the work and school environments which support employee/student performance. These improvements sometimes resulted in dramatic increases in performance.

Dr. Gilbert's work has created much of the organizing framework upon which the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) is based. The ISPI award the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, previously called the Outstanding Member and Distinguished Professional Achievement, that was renamed in 1996 in honor of Gilbert.^[3]