Macro-Design · A 30-90 minute diagnostic conversation per performance problem.

Mager & Pipe Performance Analysis

Mager and Pipe's performance analysis is a flowchart for diagnosing why people are not doing what they should. It separates skill deficiencies from problems caused by consequences, obstacles and missing feedback, so training is used only when people genuinely cannot do the task.

When to use Mager & Pipe Performance Analysis

When someone asks for training to fix a performance problem and you want to check that training is the right remedy.

How Mager & Pipe Performance Analysis works

Walk the flowchart with the client before accepting a training brief; use the outcome to decide which parts of the programme are training, which are practice or feedback, and which must be fixed in the workplace.

Phases of Mager & Pipe Performance Analysis

  1. Describe the discrepancy: State the gap between what people do and what they should do, in concrete behaviour. Vague complaints become a specific performance problem.
  2. Judge its importance: Ask what happens if nothing is done. If the gap does not matter, stop there.
  3. Check for a skill deficiency: Ask whether people could do it if their lives depended on it. If yes, the problem is not a lack of skill and training will not fix it.
  4. If skill is lacking: choose the lightest fix: Consider whether they used to do it, whether it is used often, and whether the task can be simplified, before choosing formal training, practice or feedback.
  5. If skill is present: look at consequences: Check whether desired performance is punished, non-performance is rewarded, performance does not matter to them, or obstacles block it.
  6. Select and cost solutions: Pick the solutions that address the causes found and compare their cost with the value of closing the gap.

Key principles

  • Diagnose before prescribing
  • Could they do it if they had to?
  • Consequences drive behaviour
  • Choose the simplest effective solution

Best for

  • Intake conversations for training requests
  • Managers solving team performance issues
  • L&D teams prioritising their portfolio
  • Coaching and performance reviews

Considerations

  • Focused on individual behaviour; systemic or cultural causes may need a broader lens.
  • Relies on honest answers from managers about incentives and obstacles.
  • Largely a practitioner heuristic from 1970; the steps are logical rather than empirically validated as a sequence.

Attribution & sources

Developed by Robert F. Mager and Peter Pipe, 1970

Primary source

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