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works cited
For works cited, click here. Most of the information provided on this page has been re-worded, but the majority of ideas were either created by or mention by one of the Authors in the following books: The Present, The 4-Hour Workweek, A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and Who Moved My Cheese.
S.W.0.T. Analysis
Used as a method to evaluate where your business stands, a great tool for helping give direction to and organization or team. S.W.O.T focuses on recognizing your organization's/team's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Go to the DOWNLOADS section to get the template below:
Takt time
Takt time is part of the Lean Six Sigma manufacturing concept. In short, Takt time allows you to figure out how much of a product you need to produce in a given time to meet costumer demand.
+ If your Takt Time is too high, you will over-produce your product and create waste.
- If your Takt Time is too low, you will under produce your product and bottle necking will occur: your costumers will be waiting for orders.
+ If your Takt Time is too high, you will over-produce your product and create waste.
- If your Takt Time is too low, you will under produce your product and bottle necking will occur: your costumers will be waiting for orders.
Takt Time = Planned Production Time/Costumer Demand
*Keep in mind peek demand times so when deciding on the takt time you want to meet. If a large influx of customers enters a store, make sure you are ready to accommodate them!
S.M.A.R.T Goals
S.M.A.R.T Goals: When setting goals, using the acronym S.M.A.R.T improves the likelihood that you and or your team will accomplish your goals.
Specific: What do you hope to accomplish? Stresses the need for a specific goal rather than a general goal.
Measurable: Can you measure your progress? Measurement allows for tracking progress and improvement.
Attainable: Is this goal realistic or achievable? Make goals reachable!
Relevant: Does this goal matter to you? Is your goal contextually important.
Time-Bound: Is your goal grounded to a time frame/ target date? Don't forget to apply Parkinson's law.
Specific: What do you hope to accomplish? Stresses the need for a specific goal rather than a general goal.
Measurable: Can you measure your progress? Measurement allows for tracking progress and improvement.
Attainable: Is this goal realistic or achievable? Make goals reachable!
Relevant: Does this goal matter to you? Is your goal contextually important.
Time-Bound: Is your goal grounded to a time frame/ target date? Don't forget to apply Parkinson's law.
Military problem solving process
The Military Problem Solving Process offers a simple and effective way to solve a variety of problems. It can also be used to analyze case studies and solve real world problems. HRM (human resource managers) often use this method when dealing with company problems. The model is broken down into 8 steps:
1.
Recognize And Define The Problem
-What is the problem? 2. Gather Facts And Make Assumptions -Facts are statements about the problem known to be true -Assumptions are used to replace missing or unknown facts 3. Define End States And Establish Criteria -What are the goals and objectives? -How do you want to achieve these results? -Criteria for solution 4. Develop Possible Solutions -What can you do? -How can you do it? 5. Analyze And Compare Possible Solutions -Does the criteria work? -Do you need to develop new facts or criteria? 6. Select And Implement Solution -Make the decision on how to act. -Is it acceptable? Feasible? 7. Analyze Solution For Effectiveness -Was the problem solved? -How can you do it better? 8. Repeat |
the golden circle
The present (p)
- Learning from the Past: Ask yourself: What happened in the past? What did I learn from it? What can I do differently now?
- Living in the Present: focus on what is happening at the moment. Appreciate what is right about the situation, and build on it. Pay attention to what is important now.
- Planning for the Future: Ask yourself: what would a wonderful future be like? What are my plans to make it happen? What am I doing today to make it happen?
A system's approach to small group interaction (s)
- Social Loafing: when people in a group deliberately don't work as hard when working in a group as opposed to working on their own. To avoid this, there are six steps you as a leader can take:
- Increase personal involvement
- Minimize free riding
- Clarify group goals
- Set high standards
- Increase collective efficacy (let people know that their goal is in reach, they will work harder as a result!)
- Increase unity (go have a drink with your co-workers, order a pizza, have lunch together etc).
- Some interesting Alternative Brainstorming Techniques:
- Random Input: Pick random nouns from a dictionary to help people make connections (this will help them come up with new ideas).
- Re-framing: Put yourself and your team in someone else's position or perspective
- Professions Approach: Follow the four p's when brainstorming, base your ideas on the product, pricing, placement, and promotion.
- Provocation: Suggest an idea that is completely unconventional/different to promote a new and different way of thinking.
- An easy way to improve an existing product involves the SCAMPER Technique:
Combine
Adapt
Modify
Put to another use
Eliminate
Reverse
- Group Think can be detrimental to a team's success and leads to many group failures: Group Think happens when the majority of group members reach a dangerous level of agreement, even if the decided upon actions are wrong.
- How to Prevent Group Think:
- Appoint a devil's advocate (someone who regularly challenges the group's decision).
- Discuss the groups thinking process with people outside of the group
- Call in outside observers for critical analysis
- Leader should not reveal their preferences at the start of the discussion
- Have a second chance meeting
the five dysfunctions of a team (5)
Dysfunctions of a Team:
- There are five dysfunctions in teams that you should look for, they are on the triangle at the top of this page.
- Trust is the biggest dysfunction that causes all other dysfunctions. People want to impress and feel the need to be perfect, as a result they have a hard time admitting faults or asking for help.
- Fear of conflict is number 2. People will pretend everything is going fine even if it isn't, in order to avoid conflict with each other.
- Lack of commitment is number 3. Being uncertain of a task, having a vague task, lack of goals and ambiguity can cause this.
- Avoidance of accountability is number 4. This can happen when a company or group has low standards.
- The last one is inattention to results. If the team has previously been successful and or has a high status or ego, they tend to ignore shortcomings or bad news.
Solutions to Dysfunctions:
Trust:
1. Personal Histories Exercise (Low Risk): Get your group to sit together and go around one by one asking questions like
where their hometown is, unique challenges of childhood, favorite hobbies, first job, and worst job. This exercise encourages
greater empathy, unity and understanding.
2. Team Effectiveness Exercise (Medium Risk): Have team members identify the single most important contribution that each of
their peers makes to the team, as well as the one area that that peer must either improve upon or eliminate for the good of the
team. All members then report their responses, focusing on one person at a time.
Fear of Conflict:
1. Mining: Assign a group member to be the "miner" or devil's advocate of the group. Their job is to address "buried"
disagreements. They have to call out sensitive issues in order to force the team to work through them.
2. Real-time Permission: In order to stop team members from retreating from healthy debate, it is sometimes necessary to remind
them to debate. Simply saying "Keep on arguing, this is what the team needs" can reduce tensions when conflicts arise.
Lack of Commitment:
1. Cascading Messaging: Requiring a minimum time of 10 minutes, at the end of staff meetings, a team should explicitly (clearly)
review the key decisions made during the meeting, and agree on what needs to be communicated to employees about those
decisions. This eliminates confusion and gets everyone on the same page.
2. Deadlines: Intermediate deadlines, milestones, and final deadlines must all be honored with discipline and rigidity. Ambiguity is
the enemy!
3. Worst Case Scenario Analysis: Discussing the worst case scenario of a decision that a team will make, reduces the overall
fear of the team, and increases commitment to making decisions.
Avoidance of Accountability:
1. Publication of Goals and Standards: Clarify publicly what the team needs to achieve, who needs to deliver what, and how
people must behave to achieve success.
2. Regular Progress Reviews: Create a structure that regularly forces team members to communicate their thought about each
others performance (verbal or written works).
3. Team Rewards: reward the team for team accomplishments, this makes the team hunt down social loafers.
Inattention to Results:
1. Public Declaration of Results: Making teams publicly commit to specific results can boost passions and "caringness" of the
team towards the said goals.
2. Results-Based Rewards: Tie a team's performance results to rewards like compensation. "You surpassed your monthly quota
for sales? Here's a bonus."
Trust:
1. Personal Histories Exercise (Low Risk): Get your group to sit together and go around one by one asking questions like
where their hometown is, unique challenges of childhood, favorite hobbies, first job, and worst job. This exercise encourages
greater empathy, unity and understanding.
2. Team Effectiveness Exercise (Medium Risk): Have team members identify the single most important contribution that each of
their peers makes to the team, as well as the one area that that peer must either improve upon or eliminate for the good of the
team. All members then report their responses, focusing on one person at a time.
Fear of Conflict:
1. Mining: Assign a group member to be the "miner" or devil's advocate of the group. Their job is to address "buried"
disagreements. They have to call out sensitive issues in order to force the team to work through them.
2. Real-time Permission: In order to stop team members from retreating from healthy debate, it is sometimes necessary to remind
them to debate. Simply saying "Keep on arguing, this is what the team needs" can reduce tensions when conflicts arise.
Lack of Commitment:
1. Cascading Messaging: Requiring a minimum time of 10 minutes, at the end of staff meetings, a team should explicitly (clearly)
review the key decisions made during the meeting, and agree on what needs to be communicated to employees about those
decisions. This eliminates confusion and gets everyone on the same page.
2. Deadlines: Intermediate deadlines, milestones, and final deadlines must all be honored with discipline and rigidity. Ambiguity is
the enemy!
3. Worst Case Scenario Analysis: Discussing the worst case scenario of a decision that a team will make, reduces the overall
fear of the team, and increases commitment to making decisions.
Avoidance of Accountability:
1. Publication of Goals and Standards: Clarify publicly what the team needs to achieve, who needs to deliver what, and how
people must behave to achieve success.
2. Regular Progress Reviews: Create a structure that regularly forces team members to communicate their thought about each
others performance (verbal or written works).
3. Team Rewards: reward the team for team accomplishments, this makes the team hunt down social loafers.
Inattention to Results:
1. Public Declaration of Results: Making teams publicly commit to specific results can boost passions and "caringness" of the
team towards the said goals.
2. Results-Based Rewards: Tie a team's performance results to rewards like compensation. "You surpassed your monthly quota
for sales? Here's a bonus."
Who moved my cheese? (W)
Most of the main points made in the book can be summarized on the picture of the cheese on the right. Cheese refers to anything in your life that makes you happy, whether it be money, love, job fulfillment etc. In order to move through all the stages of change, remember to envision yourself succeeding, and look to the future.
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work cited
All concepts taken out of The Present, The 4-Hour Workweek, A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and Who Moved My Cheese have been assigned a letter next to each title of the concept shown. See this bullet points below:
Ferriss,
Ferriss,
- The Present (P): Johnson, Spencer. The Present: The Secret to Enjoying Your Work and Life, Now! New York: Broadway, 2010. Print.
- The 4-Hour Workweek (4): Ferriss, Timothy. The 4-hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. New York: Crown, 2007. Print.
- A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction (S): Tubbs, Stewart L. A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1978. Print.
- The Five Dysfunctions of A Team (5): Lencioni, Patrick. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002. Print.
- Who Moved My Cheese (W): Johnson, Spencer. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life. New York: Putnam, 1998. Print.