Submitted by: The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) 

Entering into the grand building of the Settlement Music School in South Philadelphia, the sound of a barrage of instruments hit you like a pleasant wave. You find yourself trying to catch the tune… Is that Bach? Beethoven maybe? It’s a futile effort, you realize, as you’re not well versed in classical music to determine who it is, or even if it’s being played correctly. You do know, however, that it’s an enjoyable sound.

“There is so much history here. So much activity, people and communities represented,” said Rhonda Buckley, Executive Director of the International Society for Performance Improvement. “I knew from the outset that this was the perfect place for our service project.”

The “project” engages Settlement, the largest community school of arts in the U.S., serving more than 300,000 students since its founding in 1908, with the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) in a pro-bono, community service relationship, wherein ISPI provides performance consulting to the school, to streamline and the improve the registration process for the thousands of families who attend Settlement each year.

“Performance Improvement isn’t just for large corporations and publicly traded entities,” said Buckley, “The tools and techniques can be applied across all industries.”

ISPI is the leading international association dedicated to improving organizational results and driving productivity and competence in the workplace. The society represents more than 10,000 performance improvement professionals throughout the United States, Canada, and 44 other countries. As part of the ISPI global strategy, the organization set a new goal: Make the world a better place through sharing performance improvement processes, to those in need.

“The idea”, said Scott Casad, Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard and ISPI Board member, “is to get people working together to impact the “Mega” – deriving measurable results for communities all over the globe, ultimately creating a better place for everyone.”

Settlement and ISPI began making beautiful music together in the fall of 2015, and ISPI intends to report on the service project’s progress at the 2016 Annual Performance Improvement Conference, held in Philadelphia, April 10-12, offering attendees additional opportunities to support the music school.

Carol Panza, ISPI Member and Project Manager for the ISPI/Settlement service project, said: “ISPI is taking an ‘outside looking in’ approach to evaluating and identifying opportunities for performance improvement. We look at the organization as a whole, focusing on achieving tangible, accountable results, for Settlement, that are sustainable, long after the project ends.”

“Everyone the School touches, benefits from this partnership,” said Helen Eaton, executive director, Settlement Music School. “Our focus has, and will always be, the community and our students, first. It is important that they feel welcomed with every interaction, and ISPI’s work, thus far, has helped us to realize and align the many touch points of the organization. We are truly grateful for this opportunity.”

Via this engagement, ISPI has not only helped the Settlement Music School strategize and better its registration process, the organization has also aided in creating excitement among the Society’s membership to become more involved.  For this project, ISPI put together a diverse consulting team, with new and veteran members to build connections between them. New members learned the ropes, gained experience with the models, tools and techniques, and continued building their portfolio. Veteran society members served as mentors, and used the project as a way to network.

ISPI has additional community service projects in the works, and will sponsor initiatives in the host city of the Annual Conference, each year (the 2017 annual conference will be Montreal).

To learn more about ISPI, the 2016 Annual Conference and the project with the Settlement Music School, please visit www.ispi.org