Sydney Business & Travel Academy

1. Sydney Business & Travel Academy Contribute to workplace improvements with Sue Cameron Session 9

2. Agenda • Revision Q&A • The five elements • Develop ideas for improvements • Time management • Activity • Review processes for proposing improvements

3. Revision Q&A • What does continual improvement mean? • What are the stages of continual improvement? • What sort of feedback should you get on your new ideas or innovations? • What are the 2 types of feedback?

4. Revision Q&A • It is a system of continually improving your workplace practices, products and services • See the next slide • Feedback should come from customers, colleagues and everyone involved in the improvement • Informal and Formal

5. Continual Improvement Stages

6. 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

7. Develop ideas for improvement • Explore processes to implement suggested improvements to work practices, services or products • These processes may involve: • Identify all steps required to implement the ideas for improvement • seeking technique advice • indentifying physical and human resources required

8. Develop ideas for improvement • Identifying how long it would take to make changes Based on the Kiazen theory remember the following: • Improvements are based on many, small changes rather than the radical changes that might arise from Research and Development (R&D)

9. Develop ideas for improvement • As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement • Small improvements are less likely to require major capital investment than major process changes • The ideas come from the talents of the existing workforce, as opposed to using research, consultants or equipment – any of which could be very expensive

10. Develop ideas for improvement • All employees should continually be seeking ways to improve their own performance • It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can help reinforce team working, thereby improving worker motivation

11. Videos on Ideas • IDEA Cube.mp4 on YouTube (June 2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmunUwJl4TA • Kaizen and Kaizen Events http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an8bBghPoHE • Mind maps (Mind Tools website) June 2013 http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm

12. Develop ideas for improvement • Here are 6 tips for implementing continuous process improvement: • Solicit feedback. You’ll almost always see the results of failing processes, but you may not necessarily be able to identify the root causes.

13. Develop ideas for improvement • Solicit feedback from your team on an ongoing basis • Make sure you’re open to suggestions about how things are being done

14. Develop ideas for improvement 2. Share more, not less. Even in a small company, silos emerge A policy of more sharing will help everyone stay in touch with what others are doing, and create a collective expectation

15. Develop ideas for improvement • Silo mentality is an attitude found in some organisations that occurs when several departments or groups do not want to share information or knowledge with other individuals in the same company • A silo mentality reduces efficiency and can be a contributing factor to a failing corporate culture Reference: Investopedia Website (June 2013) http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/silo-mentality.asp

16. Silos

17. Develop ideas for improvement • Keeping everyone pointed in the same direction is hard; sharing more about what’s going on, how you’re doing things, reasoning behind decisions, etc. will help

18. Develop ideas for improvement 3. Document ideas and improvements. This also helps people stay fresh on what you’re trying to accomplish and helps new employees What is your process for handling customer support inquiries?

19. Develop ideas for improvement • What is your process for designing new features? • What’s your communication process between developers

20. Develop ideas for improvement 4. Don’t automatically blame the tool. It’s not the hammer’s fault if the person swinging it uses the wrong end • It just won’t work well • Most tools are decent enough, they’re just used incorrectly • Rushing to change a tool because things aren’t working well may be a mistake

21. Develop ideas for improvement • Identify changing requirements Over time your needs will change • You need to stay aware of this, so you can change processes accordingly • Keep a list of your top requirements to help you make better decisions on tools to use

22. Develop ideas for improvement • Think Lean • When designing a process (and picking the appropriate tools), define the goal you’re aiming to achieve • Timeboxthe experiment (implementing a new/changed process) and measure the results qualitatively and quantitatively

23. Develop ideas for improvement • Timebox: • In time management, a time box allots a fixed period of time for an activity

24. Time Management • Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity • This encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organising, scheduling, and prioritising

25. Time Management • Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well • Reference: Wikipedia website (June 2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management

26. Time Management System

27. Time Management Videos • 7 Effective Time Management Techniques (June 2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM1A9zFkfHw • What Stephen R Covey Taught me about Time Management http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODyG5lKbH08 • How to manage your time better (June 2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUk6LXRZMMk

28. Group activity • In small groups select a team leader • Using Stephen Covey’s time management matrix write down your activities and things you need to do (both work wise and personal) and allocate them to one of the 4 boxes • You can use activities from everyone in the group • Share them with the class

29. 6 tips for implementing continuous process improvement • If you think of process changes as cycles rather than big, chunky steps, it keeps things rolling at a good speed • Reference: Instigator Blog by Ben Yoskovitz (June 2013) http://www.instigatorblog.com/6-tips-for-implementing-continuous-process-improvement/2012/02/13/

30. Review processes for proposing improvements • Review processes for developing, discussing and presenting ideas and identify how things could be done better • Reviewing processes may involve: • Communication problems that were encountered • Lack of access to appropriate information to develop ideas

31. Review processes for proposing improvements • Problems with own ability to present ideas and influence others • Aspects that worked well • Solutions for generation and presentation of future ideas

32. Next Session 10 • Revision for the exam • Any last minute questions • Please have a good night sleep • Be prepared for the exam – don’t forget to bring a black or blue pen