Strengths & assessment

Strengths & assessment PE431- Administration & Organization of Sport & P.E. (Reference: www.mindtools.com )

Strengths: Problem Solving “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Simplex Process • Min Basadur designed this • Problem solving as a cycle rather than a straight line 8. Action 1. Problem finding 7. Sell idea 2. Fact finding 6. Planning 3. Problem definition 5. Selection 4. Idea finding

1- Problem Finding • Identify the RIGHT problems using trigger questions: • What would our customers want us to improve? What are they complainingabout? • What could they be doing better if we could help them? • Who else could we help by using our core competencies? • What small problems do we have which could grow into bigger ones? And where could failures arise in our business process? • What slows our work or makes it more difficult? What do we often fail to achieve? Where do we have bottlenecks? • How can we improve quality? • What are our competitors doing that we could do? • What is frustrating and irritating to our team? • These questions deal with problems that exist now. It's also useful to try to look into the future& explore different perspectives involved. • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

2- Fact Finding • Research the problem as much as possible: • Understand fully how different people perceive the situation. • Analyze data to see if the problem really exists. • Explore the best ideas that your competitors have had. • Understand customers' needs in more detail. • Know what has already been tried. • Understand fully any processes, components, services, or technologies that you may want to use. • Ensure that the benefits of solving the problem will be worth the effort that you'll put into solving it. • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

3- Problem Definition • By now, know problem & have facts. • Identify exact problem or problems that you want to solve. • Make sure you are at the right level of problem solving. • Min Basadur, who created the Simplex process, suggests saying "Why?" to broaden a question, and "What's stopping you?" to narrow a question. • For example, if your problem is one of trees dying, ask "Why do I want to keep trees healthy?" This might broaden the question to "How can I maintain the quality of our environment?" • A "What's stopping you?" question here could give the answer "I don't know how to control the disease that is killing the tree." • Big problems are normally made up of many smaller ones. • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

4- Idea Finding • Generate as many problem-solving ideas as possible. • asking other people for their opinions • Programmed creativity tools • Lateral thinking techniques • Brainstorming (Blamestorming) • Other perspectives • Don't evaluate or criticize ideas during this stage • concentrate on idea generation • impractical ideas can often trigger good ones • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

5-Selection & Evaluation • Select best possible solution. • Develop the solution as far as possible. • Evaluate it to see if it's good enough to be considered worth using (ego vs. common sense) • If it doesn’t work, start over! • Risk Analysis: helps you explore where things could go wrong. • Impact Analysis: gives you a framework for exploring the full consequences of your decision. • Force Field Analysis: helps you explore the pressures for and against change. • Six Thinking Hats:helps you explore your decision using a range of valid decision-making styles. • Use of NPVs and IRRs:help you ensure that your project is worth running from a financial perspective {Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) } • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

6- Planning • Plan its implementation. • Action Plans: help you manage simple projects • Project Management Tools: larger, formal projects • Change Management • where your implementation has an impact on several people or groups of people • Why? You are the boss… • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

7- Sell Idea • Sell the idea to the people who must support it. • These may include your boss, investors, or other stakeholders involved with the project. • Address its practicalities, internal politics, and hidden fear of change • Book: Who Killed Change? (Ken Blanchard) • How? • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

8- Action • Pay off! • Change management skills • Once the action is firmly under way, return to stage 1 to continue improving your idea. • Case Study: TWC Residence Life

Strengths: Standing Out “You either have to be first, best or different.” -Loretta Lynn

Core Competencies • Something that customers uniquely value • Customers will want to choose your products • Customers will be willing to pay more for them. • “These {core competencies} are the things that a company can do uniquely well, and that no-one else can copy quickly enough to affect competition. “–Gary Hamel

Core Competency Test • Hamel and Prahalad give three tests to see whether they are true core competences: • Relevance • must give your customer something that strongly influences him or her to choose your product or service. • Difficulty of Imitation • difficult to imitate (better products & sustainability) • Breadth of Application • opens up a good number of potential markets

Identifying Core Competencies • Brainstorm factors that are important to your clients. • Brainstorm existing competences and the things you do well. • Use the Core Competency Test to screen 1 & 2. • Find factors that are important to clients & screen them. • Review the two screened lists, and think about them. • Think of the most time-consuming and costly things that you do either as an individual or a company. If any of these things do not contribute to a core competence, consider pairing them down or outsourcing.

Assessment: Critical Success Factors “Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. ” David Frost

Critical Success Factors (CSFs) • The idea of CSFs was first presented by D. Ronald Daniel in the 1960s. It was then built on and popularized a decade later by John F. Rockart, of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has since been used extensively to help businesses implement their strategies and projects.

CSF Definition • Rockart defined CSFs as:"The limited number of areas in which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful competitive performance for the organization. They are the few key areas where things must go right for the business to flourish. If results in these areas are not adequate, the organization's efforts for the period will be less than desired." • He also concluded that CSFs are "areas of activity that should receive constant and careful attention from management."

Identifying CSFs • In order to identify possible CSFs, we must examine the mission and objectives and see which areas of the business need attention so that they can be achieved. • Numbers…

Final Thoughts “If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” -Albert Einstein

Your Homework Identify 3 Core Competencies for the Bulldog Classic (5 points). Identify 3 CSFs for the Bulldog Classic & Fun Run (5 points).

Strengths & assessment