Question 1.

Decisions should always be made based on good information, List six (6) different processes you can use to analyse the collected data and make a decision as a team based on the findings.

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1.4 Develop Strategies for Continuous Improvement and Encourage Team Members to Participate in Decision-Making Processes

To successfully facilitate continuous improvement, you must be able to motivate your work team to be a part of the decision-making processes you have developed. As mentioned earlier, decision-making processes have key stakeholders. In this case, those key stakeholders are you and the members of your team.

Their participation is important in the decision-making process because they are directly involved in the work done in your organisation. They can provide helpful input based on their personal experiences as members of your work team. Since management cannot always be present in every level of the organisation, they lack firsthand observations of some processes in place.

1.4.1 Developing Strategies for Continuous Improvement

A strategy for continuous improvement is a general outline of what an organisation does to facilitate the ongoing improvement of products, services, or processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements. When developing a strategy, you should consider the following factors:

The Persons Involved in Continuous Improvement

As discussed earlier, there are different types of stakeholders that are affected by continuous improvement. When developing a continuous improvement strategy, you must have a clear understanding of who is involved in implementing and who is affected by the continuous improvement strategy.

You can refer to the discussion in Section 1.3.3 to help you identify the different persons that are involved in continuous improvement.

The Decision-Making Process

Different strategies may also require different decision-making processes. You can identify the appropriate decision-making process for your strategy based on the continuous improvement goals that the strategy is for. You can refer to the discussion in Section 1.3.2 about the business decision-making process to give you an understanding of what decision-making process would work for the continuous improvement strategy that you will develop.

The Continuous Improvement Needs and Opportunities

Simply put, your continuous improvement needs and opportunities serve as the foundation of the strategy that you will develop. You must ensure to address needs and opportunities with your strategy so that you come up with the best one possible. Section 1.2 of this unit provides a discussion on how to identify the improvement needs and opportunities for the organisation.

Internal and External Requirements

Another factor you must consider in developing strategies for continuous improvement would be the requirements with which you must align your efforts. These are your internal requirements (i.e. policies and procedures) and external requirements (i.e. pieces of legislation and sustainability requirements) that are relevant to your endeavour. You must make sure that the strategy you come up with is compliant with these requirements. They are in place to guarantee that, at the very minimum, all your efforts meet the standards that must be upheld by all businesses.

As you develop a strategy for continuous improvement, you must ensure that it is aligned with your organisation's policies and procedures, goals, and values. Continuous improvement is for the entire organisation, and that should be evident in the efforts to support it.

1.4.2 Team Participation Tools

There is a range of tools that can be used to encourage your team to participate in the decision-making process. Each of these tools has its own use, and the tool you use will depend on the nature of the problem. Some of the most common types of tools are:

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the free, uninhibited generation of ideas, usually in a group setting. It allows each participant to state their opinions in a non-threatening environment. You should use brainstorming to unite a group with diverse ideas and needs. Brainstorming begins with selecting a recorder and group facilitator. Then you begin to generate ideas. These ideas are recorded and discussed.

Steps involved in brainstorming include:

Below is an example of a typical brainstorming diagram:

Check Sheets

The second quality tool to examine is the Check Sheet. A Check Sheet is used to gather data and analyse the data that you have gathered. Your work team should attempt to gather data using this chart that outlines how often something might be happening and the types of problems that you are experiencing. The process of creating a Check Sheet includes:

1. Identify how you will make your measurements.

This may include looking at the problem you are trying to resolve, who will need to use the information, and who will be tasked with actually collecting the data. Using appropriate technology and investing some time to build the Check Sheet template will allow the work team to collect the best measurements.

2. Using the template that you have created, gather the data.

This will involve looking at each event and recording it onto the template so that your team will have an accurate measure of how often an event is occurring. Have your team members that are assigned with data collection work at different times throughout the observation period to gather as much data as possible.

3. Total up each row and each column as well as the total number of events that occurred during the specified time.

Ensure that the team members in charge of data analysis clarify the records with the team members tasked with data collection.

4. Analyse the collected data and make a decision as a team based on the findings.

The members tasked with data analysis must develop conclusions based on the collected data. These conclusions must be shared and discussed with the work team so that they can collectively make a decision for continuous improvement.

Below is an example of a Check Sheet. In this case, your team is attempting to determine if specific quality issues occur more frequently on given days of the week. This is done by measuring all defects that occurred during manufacturing on a given day of the week.

Defects / Mistakes	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Total
Incomplete paint	ll	l	ll	l	lll	9
Dents	lll	llll	l	l	l	10
Missing parts	l		lll	ll		6
Poor quality			l		l	2
Total	6	5	7	4	5	27

Mind Mapping

A Mind Map is a concept used to organise ideas in a way that is easy to track and understand. It is particularly useful when conducting problem-solving exercises such as quality improvement.

The Mind Map is designed around a central issue, and then from this, you provide linkages to facts, data, and other relevant information. Each member of the work team should be given an opportunity to provide something that is relevant to the central issue. By doing this, each member builds up, on the Mind Map, an overall picture of the problem at hand. A Mind Map is considered simple to comprehend because of the way that it displays each of the major linkages between issues and problems.

The Mind Map takes a very different approach to the list of ideas that come from a brainstorming session. It will allow your work team to see the way a problem is organised and the importance of various factors in relation to the issue at hand. Your team will often find that a good Mind Map is able to express much more information than a list and in a much smaller and easier to understand space. Below is an example of a mind map that illustrates a work team's challenges in meeting their performance standards.

Cause and Effect Diagram

These are also known as Fishbone Diagrams. The diagram looks somewhat like a fishbone, with the problem or defect (the effect) defined as the head. On the bones growing out of the spine, the team should list possible causes of production problems, in order of possible occurrence. The chart can help point out how various separate problem causes may interact. It also shows how the various possible problem causes occur with respect to one another, over time, helping to start the problem-solving process.

An example of a Cause and Effect Diagram is provided below. Cause and Effect Diagrams are useful in group situations as they allow everyone to get together and attempt to resolve any problems that have developed.

Nominal Group Technique

The Nominal Group Technique is a quality improvement technique that is used to allow a group of individuals to come together, discuss an issue, and quickly reach a valid conclusion. This conclusion may be the solution to a known problem. The technique will find solutions and, using discussion, rank these according to the priorities for the solution.

The Nominal Group Technique follows a number of key stages. These are:

Go back to the check sheet and try to generate some ideas on why these defects may be occurring. You may end up with the following five options:

A. Poor training

B. Poor materials

C. No processes in place

D. Staff numbers too low

E. Lack of managerial oversight

You would then ask all team members to rank these according to how they feel they impact on the defects that are occurring within the department. Then combine the rankings of all team members.

Example:

Defect Causes	Jane	Bob	Jack	June	Mack	Total
A. Poor Training	4	5	2	2	1	14
B. Poor Materials	5	4	5	3	5	22
C. No process in place	3	1	3	4	4	15
D. Staff numbers too low	1	2	1	5	2	11
E. Lack of managerial oversight	2	3	4	1	3	13

In this case, B. Poor materials, would be the highest priority. The team would work on this first and then move through the rest of the list as needed.

Consensus

• Consensus means finding an option that all team members will support.
• Consensus does NOT mean that everyone is totally happy with the decision.
• To reach consensus, you need to consider the ideas, feelings, and situations of all team members, not just of a few or even just of the majority.
• Reaching consensus usually takes a lot of discussion time and requires skills in resolving differences of opinion.
• The investment in time is usually not worth it; however, consensus decisions can often be implemented since they are supported by the entire team.
• Use consensus for complex or important decisions that require the coordination and understanding of all team members.

Voting

• Each team member gets one vote. The choice with the most votes wins.
• This process is easy and familiar.
• It is okay to take a vote for relatively unimportant decisions but remember; it can leave the 'losers' feeling left out.
• While taking a vote is a faster way to make the decision, pushing for consensus often makes implementation much faster!
• Explore important issues by polling.
• Go around once and ask each member to state how they vote.
• Then make a round where people briefly give one or two reasons for their vote.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a technique used to organise and visually display information. Storyboarding works best with a small group of usually five (5) to eight (8) people, but it can also be used with large groups that are divided into smaller groups.

It requires a quiet, comfortable room without outside distractions. The room must have clear walls, so papers and cards of all sizes and shapes can be taped to them. It takes a lot of wall space! Also, the key to the Storyboarding process is a skilled facilitator that the group recognises as being fair and unbiased.

Six Hat Thinking

This problem-solving technique forces team members to go outside their comfort zone and think in ways that they traditionally do not do. Teams often end up in what is known as 'group think' where the team would rather stick within their comfort zone. This leads to them being unwilling to come up with new ideas. Each of the six (6) coloured thinking hats represents a different way of looking at a problem.

1.4.3 Obstacles to Team Participation

Obstacles to team participation are present in any workplace, and you must understand them to overcome them. This section will discuss some examples of those obstacles. These obstacles are:

Inequality of Contribution

It is often the case that contributions by team members are not equal. That is, one member of a team is more likely to be involved in a meeting than other team members. In these cases, it is important to ensure that you allow all team members to contribute. Actively seek the opinions of those who are not active and encourage a supportive team atmosphere.

Foundering

Foundering is essentially the sinking of a meeting or team problem-solving exercise. It takes its name from the definition of 'sinking of a ship'. A meeting can be likened in many ways to a ship. If a correct course is not steered, the ship can run aground and be sunk. So, foundering is where the meeting has gone so wrong that nothing is achieved. Whenever a team gets together, there is potential for foundering to occur.

Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is a big obstacle to the participation of team members. If a team member is reluctant to change, they are unlikely to be willing to participate in any activity that would force their work ethic to change. Some common reasons for reluctance to change include: