Email
kandihorsman@performex-consulting.com
Location
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
About
Mission
In partnership with clients, PERFORMEX takes a systematic and systemic approach to the cost-effective optimization of human performance to support organizations with achieving targeted results for all stakeholders.
Values
The following values guide decision-making during collaboration with clients on performance improvement projects. The first four, known as RSVP, align with the International Society for Performance Improvement’s (n.d.) standards for certified performance technologists.
Founder
Owner/Operator/Consultant
Learning for the Joy of It
Let me begin by telling you a bit about my journey to becoming a Performance Improvement Consultant. Simply put, my mantra is, The more you know, the more you realize there is to know. Throughout my life, I’ve been an avid learner. My parents love to recount how, during my elementary and middle school years, they frequently found me sitting cross-legged on the living room floor with the World Book Encyclopedia open in my lap, absorbed in far-away worlds and exotic creatures. This love of learning at an early age set me on a course for a rewarding career in public education, spanning over three decades, and a passion for helping others to optimize performance and achieve greater success for themselves and the clients they serve.
Teaching in the Classroom
By Grade 9, I knew that I wanted to become a teacher so that I could share my love of learning with students. After graduation from high school, I completed a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Arts), majoring in English and minoring in History. For the next 18 years, I taught Grades 5 and 6 students who consistently inspired me with their creativity and enthusiasm for learning. I designed engaging learning experiences for students and enhanced teaching and learning using technology. I also focused on celebrating students’ efforts and achievements while also supporting (and sometimes nudging) them as they progressed along their learning continuum. Those years of teaching in the classroom brought so many rewarding experiences.
Leading to Build Capacity
My continuing zest for learning opened new doors to leadership roles in which I could continue to support students by supporting other educators. Over the next 15 years in New Brunswick K-12 public education, I went on to complete: Graduate Diploma in Educational Technology; Graduate Certificate in Workplace eLearning and Performance Support; and a Master of Science in Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (MS OPWL). Thanks to these formal studies I had the privilege of taking on roles at the district and provincial levels to support educators with building their professional capacity–so that they could in turn help students optimize their well-being and academic achievement.
Supporting educators with their professional growth has been vastly rewarding. I’m continuously inspired by educators’ dedication to continuous improvement. I witness again and again how the higher purpose of student well-being and learning enables educators at all levels to see beyond the heavy lifting of challenges. With a focus on their WHY, they problem solve and devise innovative solutions, persevering in their efforts to help their students shape their current and future lives. It has been and continues to be a privilege to work with the committed educators of New Brunswick.
To learn more about my leadership roles in public education, I invite you to visit my LinkedIn profile
Following graduation from the MS OPWL at Boise State University in August 2020, I had an opportunity to share some of my learning more widely. The professor for our Needs Assessment course, Dr. Lisa Giacumo, encouraged my project team to publish an article on our culminating course project. Molly Sullivan, one of my teammates, and I partnered, taking up the challenge to learn about the publishing process in effort to support other professionals seeking to investigate the root causes of performance gaps in their organization.
In Opening Doors to Employment: A Needs Assessment to Investigate Benefits and Work Counseling for People with Serious Mental Illness (https://doi.org/10.1002/piq.21370), we share with international readers of the peer-reviewed journal Performance Improvement Quarterly how we applied our course learning to a real-world project in the US public service. In the article, Molly and I (with the help of Dr. Giacumo) step readers through the needs assessment process. We then conclude the article by identifying our 10 recommendations for the client aimed at removing barriers in the performance environment, increasing desired behaviours–and ultimately closing the results gap.
Consulting on Performance Improvement
During this new chapter as a Performance Improvement Consultant, I’m leveraging my passion for learning, evidence-based practices from my formal studies, and 33 years of experience in public education. I’m partnering with clients who are seeking to make sustained changes to people’s behaviour on the job so that they can in turn improve results for themselves and other stakeholders within and beyond their organization.
If you’re working in education or industry and are experiencing a gap between current and desired results, I invite you to reach out via the Contact button below. Tell me about the problem you’re trying to solve. We can connect to discuss how I can assist you with taking a systematic and systemic approach to analyzing the performance problem, creating a solution system which targets root causes–and achieving results for all stakeholders.
To learn more about my academic and professional background, please visit my LinkedIn profile
Reference
International Society for Performance Improvement. (n.d.). ISPI’s Performance Standards. https://ispi.mystrikingly.com/performance-standards