Sydney Business & Travel Academy

1. Sydney Business & Travel Academy Contribute to workplace improvements with Sue Cameron Sessions 1 & 2 Identification

2. Agenda • Welcome back and introduce any new students • Unit (Topic) description and it’s application • The 5 elements • Identify areas for improvement • Innovation • Definitions • The 2 Assessments

3. Who is Sue? • Originally from Otago, New Zealand • 20 years in management, HR, Operations and Marketing and owned 4 businesses • Established and managed several businesses • Has been a lecturer for over 4 years • Works as Tour Guide at the Sydney Opera House

4. Sue’s Qualifications • MBA degree (Masters of Business Administration) • AFAIM - Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management • TAE - Certificate 1V in Training and Assessment • Travelled to many countries and lived in Italy (2 years) England, Spain, Morocco and Germany

5. What about you? • Where are you from? • Tell us a little about your family • What did you do at home (student, work etc)? • What work do you do now in Sydney? • How long have you been in Australia? • What do you like about Australia?

6. Housekeeping Issues • Duty of Care • Emergency Procedures • Class List • Please leave the class room clean and tidy • Class is from 5 – 8.30 with a break at 6.30pm (15 minutes)

7. Class Rules • Please be on time (Australian Time) • Turn off mobiles during class • Attendance 80% means you must attend at least 6 out of 9 classes • Please no talking except in activities • Sorry but no food or drinks in the class room

8. Contribute to workplace improvements • This subject will be covered over the next three (3) weeks • It covers continual improvements, innovation and team work • It also includes 2 assessments, one of which is a project assignment and the other an exam – both to be completed in week 3

9. Unit (Topic) Description • This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to generate and propose ideas for improvements to workplace practices, services or products • It requires the ability to identify areas for improvement, generate appropriate ideas or solutions, and discuss and review their appropriateness

10. Application • All personnel at all levels could apply this skill, but it does describe a basic operational function of minimal complexity • The unit applies to frontline operational personnel who operate under close supervision and guidance from others during the normal course of their daily activities • They would apply little discretion and judgement because they operate within the predefined organisational procedures for their individual participation in work practices

11. The 5 Elements (sections or parts) • Identify areas for improvement to work practices, services or products • Generate ideas for improvement • Discuss ideas with others • Develop ideas for improvement • Review process for proposing improvements

12. Identify areas for improvements • Three (3) sections of this element are: • Clearly identify your own role in work practices and role of others • Identify opportunities for improvements to work practices, services or products • Check and clarify areas where improvements could be made

13. Identify areas for improvements This covers work practices, services or products 1.1 Clearly identify your own role in work practices and role of others • So how do you do this? What do you think?

14. Identify areas for improvements • Check with your job description to understand your role in the organisation • Understand your place in the organisation • The importance of feedback • Reflection and the reflective cycle • Being aware of your values and beliefs • Assessing your knowledge and skills

15. Understanding your place & role • Businesses use Organisation Charts to identify the positions and roles in the organisation

16. Identify areas for improvements • Feedback from other people can be a very useful way for you to learn more about yourself and can help you to improve your practice • Feedback can be formal or informal. For example, your manager may give you formal feedback during supervision or an appraisal

17. Identify areas for improvements • Informal feedback often comes friends and work colleagues, when you talk work events while having a cup of tea or coffee, during a break, or over lunch

18. Activity on self assessment • Think of a few times when you have received feedback from people in the workplace: 1. Who gave you the feedback? 2. Was the feedback positive or negative? 3. How did you feel? 4. Did you find the feedback helpful and did you learn anything? 5. How did you use the feedback to assess your practice?

19. Identify areas for improvements Reflection and the reflective cycle • One way you can improve your knowledge and skills is to look back on events at work • You can use what you learn from both good and bad experiences to improve your practice

20. Identify areas for improvements • Looking back like this, and thinking about a situation or event, is called reflection. • Knowing how to use this type of reflection will help you to improve the quality of your work

21. Reflective Cycle

22. Identify areas for improvements Being aware of your values and beliefs • Everyone has rights that relate to how they are treated They include the right to: • be respected and be treated as an individual • be treated equally, without discrimination • be cared for in a way that meets their needs • be protected from danger and harm

23. Identify areas for improvements • We all have our own values and beliefs • Sometimes you may be working with people very different beliefs to your own • As an employee you have to make sure that your beliefs do not affect how you treat others

24. Identify areas for improvements • Assessing your knowledge and skills • We have already looked at the benefits of feedback from other people, and how you can use reflection to improve your practice • Now you need to discover the areas of your job that you need to develop

25. Identify areas for improvements • Before you can do this, you need to identify what skills and knowledge you have already • You will probably find that you actually have a number of skills

26. Identify areas for improvements • SWOB assessments • This term may be new to you. SWOB stands for: • Strengths (something you are good at) • Weaknesses (something you are not very good at) • Opportunities (having the chance to do something) • Barriers (something that stops you from doing something)

27. Identify areas for improvements • How can I develop my knowledge and skills? • Why is it important to develop my knowledge and skills? • How can I put my new skills into practice? • Reviewing practice Reference: Pearson’sDevelop your knowledge and practice Website (May 2013) http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/FEAndVocational/HealthAndSocialCare/DiplomaNVQandSVQ/S_NVQHealthAndSocialCare/Samples/Samplematerial/Unit%2023%20Easy%20Steps2.pdf (This is for slides 8 -16)

28. Session 2 • Revision Q&A • Identify opportunities for improvements to work practices, services and products • Activity on identifying opportunities • Check and clarify areas where improvements can be made

29. Revision Q&A • What is the name of the element we discussed last night? • Clearly identify your own role in work practices and the role of others means? • How can we do this? • What does SWOB stand for (or mean)?

30. Revision Q&A • Identify areas for improvement to work practices, services or products • It means that we really understand our role, position and what we produce in our jobs and also for others • By job descriptions, feedback, self reflections and SWOB • Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Barriers

31. Identify areas for improvements 1.2 Identify opportunities for improvements to work practices, services or products • It is important to make a contribution to improving working practices and procedures because this makes everybody (including yourself) more happy with the working environment you are in and therefore makes everyone work more effectively and efficiently

32. Identify areas for improvements • Also if you did not contribute to improving your working practices and procedures and the rest of your colleagues did it would make you look like you do not care about it and it is unfair on everyone else who did

33. Identify areas for improvements Identify areas for improvement in your business • The starting point for improving your business is an assessment of the current situation • This will help you to identify gaps and develop your business in order to improve • You can then apply a SWOT analysis to your products and services

34. Definitions • Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination • Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for (see video on slide 36) • Reference: Wikipedia Website (May 2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing

35. Videos on Improvement • Kaizen – The art of continuous improvement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExL1E4ty6_g • Toyota Way using Kaizen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohu9WH3a5FM • Lean Management http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfsRAZUnonI

36. Group Activity • In small groups select a team leader and a scribe (note taker) • Each person in the group to discuss what areas of improvement are in your work place • The note taker to take the notes on each of these scenarios • The team leader to share the information with the class

37. Definitions • Continual Improvement is the ongoing improvement of processes that lead to achievement of higher levels of performance through incremental (increased) change Reference: EU Quality Assurance website (May 2013) http://www.eqavet.eu/qa/gns/glossary/c/continual-improvement.aspx

38. Definitions • Continual improvement, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" (increased) improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once Reference: Wikipedia website (May 2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continual_improvement_process

39. Continual Improvement Stages

40. Definition • Innovation: The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay Go to e-learning and under links click on ‘Becoming an Innovative Business’ Reference: Business Dictionary.com (May 2013) http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovation.html

41. Innovation • The first step in innovation is to pay attention to what we do and the way we do it (Assess) • This helps us to do our jobs well and to make them even better – for our own benefit and that of our organisation • The next step is to think creatively about our work both individually and in teams (Create) • The final steps include engaging others, reviewing, planning and implementing the innovation (Implement and Evaluate)

42. The innovation cycle • This is similar to the Continuous Improvement Cycle, in that you assess, create new ideas, implement and then evaluate

43. Innovation • For example, Susan is a receptionist at a small hotel • Her job is to attend to customers at the counter and assist with incoming phone calls • She regularly has long queues of customers at the counter; some with quick enquiries, others who require more time

44. Innovation • She and the switchboard staff discuss ways to create at least two queues at the counter, how customers could choose which queue suited their needs, and how the staff could better share counter duties while still managing the phone calls • They present their ideas to their manager and include a way to pilot this innovation

45. Why Innovation is important • Innovation is good for business, helping organisations to achieve commercial success through the provision of new and better products and services, often delivered at lower costs • Doing things differently can also help to create better, more productive workplaces and make staff happier to be at work and to feel more involved • Clients also benefit, and so they should, after all they are the reason the organisation exists

46. Your role in innovation • Everyone can contribute to making changes for the better • You don’t have to wait to be asked to be innovative at work, nor do you have to be at a particular level • Changing work practices to meet current needs is part of your work role and can help keep you interested • You also develop new skills, which benefits your organisation as a whole

47. Your role in innovation • Many of the small changes you will make on a daily basis won’t be all that obvious, but everything adds to your sense of job satisfaction and to your organisation’s effectiveness • A small change might be something as simple as moving a visitors’ bed to a more ideal location and adding some up-to-date reading material about the organisation, its products or services in order to attract new business

48. Videos on Innovation • Also on e-learning under YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10ruqzSb4WE • Innovation and Continual Improvement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6RpllK3hh8 • Innovation (May 2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uh1KxcpWz0

49. Identify areas for improvements 1.3 Check and clarify areas where improvements could be made This may involve such things as: • Observing problems • Observing inefficient work practices • Observing non-compliance with policies and procedures

50. Identify areas for improvements • Understanding current policies and procedures • Asking questions to ensure full understanding of work practices, services or products