M Mari Novak

Mari Novak has worked in the area of improving organizational and individual results for over 30 years. She has worked in the corporate, development, and governmental arenas. Over the past 16 years, she has focused her work geographically on the transitioning social, economic, and business challenges in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Mari has successfully applied "systems thinking" and structured performance analytical to all aspects of the development cycle.

She has advised donor country and headquarters offices on policy and strategic planning and implementation. Likewise, she has applied performance methods across sectors; with project assessment, monitoring and evaluation. She has worked in both front-end planning and trouble-shooting technical assistance; in both large and multi-agency efforts. As illustrative examples, Mari Novak has worked in the Caucasus and in Central Asia analyzing and revamping the HICD approach into the 5 year development strategy; suggesting improved approaches and implementation. She has worked with the major donors, technical assistance contractors, and with host country governmental units and organizations to conduct performance assessments and recommend solution sets for improved results. These include central banks, professional associations, trade associations, not-for-profit associations, ministries of health, finance, treasury; and their related sub-units. Novak has developed a series of modules, and trained development professionals in the front end assessment and management/monitoring and evaluation of systemic approaches that are inherent in HICD. She is currently working on a primer and handbook on managing performance improvement and systems dynamics approaches, interventions, and modeling in the development context.

• What Works in the Performance Improvement World - Editorial

  • Performance Improvement Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, Wiley
  • January 2013
  Authors: M Mari Novak

  When you stop being aware of your surroundings because they have become comfortable and
  normal and you start to believe—arrogantly—that you have this under control, that is when the danger of being kidnapped is heightened. As a dynamic professional in this dynamic profession
  and working in these times that are dynamic for our clients, this advice struck hard and deep with me. Do not be complacent; do not get so comfortable that you forget to be aware of the context.

• Making a Difference: The Future of HPT in Sustaining Best-Practice International Capacity Development

  • Performance Improvement Quarterly. Volume 25, No. 1, Wiley
  • April 2012
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Steven J. Kelly, Patrick Coughlin

  Over the past decade, human performance technology (HPT) has become an important source of rigor and application in support of best practices in capacity development. HPT shares common principles with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development best practices. This article explores HPT’s critical role as the methodology of choice within the future capacity
  development environment. This future will feature leaner donor aid budgets and ever-more-complicated theoretical frameworks, which may deflect practitioners away from shared principles.
  This article reaffirms the validity of those principles and recommendations.

• What Cost Development? Building Performance in Transitional Societies

  • Performance, Volume 4, No. 2, Ernest & Young
  • February 2012
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Steven J. Kelly

  Performance improvement approaches from the commercial sphere are increasingly being used in the very different world of international aid support for the development of transitioning societies. The time, effort and money poured into development programs and projects have not had the results expected — both in terms of sustainability and improving quality of life. Applying performance strategies and methodologies to this complex arena requires special consideration.

• Applied Performance Technology Gets Results in Donor Funded Development

  • Performance Improvement Journal, Volume 49, No. 3, Wiley
  • March 2010
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Steven J. Kelly

  Donor agencies are examining how they develop, deliver, and target aid. Pressure is high
  because significant accomplishments have not been consistently demonstrated despite decades
  of activity. This leads to a great need for systems thinking and human performance technology
  skills to achieve the desired effectiveness. This article demonstrates that it is not enough to have
  the intention of doing good; it must also be done well.

• Building a Sustainable Project Management Capacity in Cyprus.

  • Performance Improvement Journal, Volume 51, No. 8
  • September 2012
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Anna Čermakova, Steven J. Kelly, Timm Esque

• Fifteen Years of Building Performance in Central Europe

  • Performance Improvement Journal, Volume 47, No. 10, Wiley
  • December 2008
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Steven J. Kelly, Anna Čermakova

  The past 15 years have been quite a tumultuous ride for those involved in performance
  improvement in former communist Europe. This article traces the case of a boutique
  performance consultancy, KNO, whose American principals landed in the former
  Czechoslovakia at the onset of the “velvet revolution” in 1991. We analyze progress through
  the lens of three 5-year cycles against dimensions of investor focus, infrastructure, employee
  mindset, business relationships, and performance services treated in the context of the changing
  political and economic times.

• Performance Issues in International Donor-Funded Development: A Starting Point for the PI Professional

  • Performance Improvement Journal, Volume 46, No. 1, Wiley
  • January 2007
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Steven J. Kelly

  During the past decade the benefits of HPT approaches used in the commercial sphere are being
  adopted in the much different world of donor-funded development. The challenges of applying these
  strategies and methodologies to this complex and foreign arena require special consideration of application for real-world results. The authors provide some insight from their combined 50+ years of work in this environment for prospective HPT professionals thinking to enter this critical and growing sector.

• A Reconsidered Approach to Building and Sustaining Capacity

  • White Paper, Arab Planning Institute
  • December 1998
  Authors: M Mari Novak

  The building and sustaining of the capacity for the reform of social policy is a critical and decisive step in the process to alleviate poverty, address health as a broad physical and social issue, and provide a web of support for peoples’ lives. Significant attention and funds are put toward “building and sustaining” capacity, sometimes referred to as institutionalising capacity. If there is any hope for accomplishing the objectives of the policies, the process of realising the policies must be itself effective.

• Behind the Former Iron Curtain: Introducing Performance Improvement to a Transitional Economic Culture

  • Performance Improvement Journal, Volume 44, No. 6, Wiley
  • July 2005
  Authors: M Mari Novak, Steven J. Kelly, Anna Čermakova

  It is not easy to restart a new country. And when you are working in the area of
  performance, you are not quite sure where to start—Macroeconomics? New
  postage stamps? Taking down the old statues? The tendency is to throw everything
  out, including the bath water and the baby! That is not necessarily the best
  approach, because you begin to understand that the system works perfectly and the system
  does not work at all.

1. Organizational Development
2. Management Consulting
3. Performance Improvement
4. Leadership Development
5. Change Management
6. Coaching
7. Executive Coaching
8. Strategic Planning
9. Program Management
10. Performance Management
11. Business Strategy
12. Project Management
13. Governance
14. Project Planning
15. Organizational Design
16. HR Consulting
17. Needs Analysis
18. Operating Models
19. Strategy
20. Business Transformation
21. Restructuring
22. Performance Measurement
23. Human Capital
24. Program Evaluation
25. Business Process Improvement
26. Organizational Learning
27. Organizational Effectiveness
28. International Development
29. Management Development
30. Capacity Building
31. Strategy Alignment
32. Executive Development
33. Entrepreneurship
34. Instructional Design
35. Strategic Consulting
36. Culture Change

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• Certified Performance Technologist

  • International Society for Performance Improvement
  • October 2003

Websites:

• Company Website
• Blog
• RSS feed

Groups and Associations:

Former Peace Corps Volunteer American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia International Society for Performance Improvement Systems Dynamics Society

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  Certified Performance Technologists
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  Czech & Slovak Professional Community
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  Human Performance Improvement Professionals (HPIP)
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  ISPI - Global
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  International Development Professionals
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  Irregular Warfare (Security, Development and Governance)
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  KNO Worldwide International Development Network
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  Technical Assistance Consultancy Network; EU, Worldbank, Calls, Grants, International Development
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  Vector Consultants
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  Veterans Guest House