Critical Process Improvement (Strategic Study Groups

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Critical Process Improvement (Strategic Study
Groups EUP)(Action Teams UCO)Thursday,
March 2, 2006 300 - 430 p.m.Friday, March 3,
20061000 1130 a.m.

• Dr. Erinn D. Lake, Edinboro University of
  Pennsylvania

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Introduction

• A critical component of institutional
  effectiveness is process improvement reform. This
  session will focus on the development of study
  groups for critical processes on campus. The
  purpose of these study groups will be to reduce
  cycle time and increase constituent satisfaction.
  Discussion will focus on the selection of topics,
  the proper mix of membership on teams, the
  development of improvement statements,
  flowcharting, and the appropriate formulation of
  recommendations.The session will conclude on
  how these recommendations become part of the
  planning process as well as how the advancements
  are communicated to the campus community. 

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The Power of Improvement
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Why critical process review?

• June 2004 NACUBO Business Officer The Skinny
  on Getting Lean
• Article features University of Central Oklahoma
  and VP for Administration Steve Kreidler
• Getting a key made required seven signatures.
• Generating one work order took 19 pieces of
  paper.
• Resources were too slim.
• The Lean University was born the idea is simple
  Get rid of everything that doesnt have value
  and identify world-class practices to solve
  problems.

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Dr. Mary Thornley, President of Trident Technical
College, SC

• 13 PITs Process Improvement Teams. Finalist
  for RIT/USA Today Quality Cup Award.
• Have TQM failures in higher education resulted
  more from flaws in the philosophy , or more from
  flawed application of the philosophy?
• Organizations that adapt to change better have an
  advantage over competitors in the face of five
  economic trends
• Rising expectations.
• Increased globalization.
• Increased competition.
• Burgeoning e-commerce.
• Increased technical ability.
• http//www.tridenttech.edu/

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Give these questions some thought

• How many signatures are required to process a
  work order? A key request?
• How long does it take to obtain course or program
  revision/approval?
• How satisfied are students with the master
  schedule? Campus parking? The health center?
• How many admissions applications exist on campus?
  How long does it take to process an application?
• How much does your campus spend a year on
  postage?
• How much does your campus spend on
  duplicating/printers/copiers/toner/paper, etc?

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Our 9 Priorities

• 1. Increase enrollment to 8,000 students in the
  next several years through enhanced enrollment
  and retention strategies.
• 2. Enhance academic quality.
• 3. Enhance technology campus-wide.
• 4. Create a just community that is
  student-centered.
• 5. Enhance the Advancement arm of the
  institution.
• 6. Create a collaborative administrative team
  both on and off campus.
• 7. Create an inclusive planning process that ties
  budgeting to planning.
• 8. Increase diversity.
• 9. Enhance Graduate Studies.

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Process Identification

• Strategic Study Groups 2004-2005 - Call for
  Proposals
• Once again, it is time to call for proposed
  topics to be examined by new strategic study
  groups during the 2004-2005 academic year. Study
  suggestions focusing on key University processes
  may be emailed to mmogavero or lakee or may be
  mailed to the Office of University Planning,
  Institutional Research and Continuous
  Improvement, Reeder Hall, Lower Level. It is
  necessary that suggestions be received by Friday,
  October 1, 2004, to allow sufficient planning
  time to organize the study teams.
• Annually, the outcomes of the strategic study
  groups are examined at our summer planning
  retreat while the on-going implementation of the
  study group recommendations are shared with the
  campus community via the periodic planning
  reports.

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Ingredients of a Process Improvement Team

• Charge
• Description of current process
• Baseline data describing activities and current
  length of time to complete process
• A recommended strategy to streamline process
  which protects the academic and fiscal integrity
  of the University and respects all agreements
  with the unions that represent members of the
  campus community and
• A recommended policy or set of procedures that
  will produce results which are quantifiable in
  nature.

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Ingredients of a Process Improvement Team
(Continued)

• Team Composition
• Team Members (no more than 9)
• Guidance Team (1 or 2 individuals w/stake or
  responsibility in process)
• Quality Advisor (Director of CI/Asst. VP)

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36 Study Groups Completed/In-Process at Edinboro
University
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Study Groups
1997 Curriculum Committee Faculty Hiring Technology Procurement
1998 Classroom Utilization Expenditure Requests/Purchasing Parking
1999 Accessibility of Audio-Visual Equipment Admissions Applications Duplicating Financial Aid Service/Loan Grant Refunds/Work Study
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Study Groups
2000 Graduate Admissions Process Graduate Assistant Award Process Student Recruitment Student Scheduling Parking
2001 Academic Advising Course/Program Approval Process Grant Writing
2002 Awarding of Scholarships Facilities Communication Life Experience Credit Mass Mailings
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Study Groups
2003 Honors Award Process Master Schedule Process Monitoring Student Progress Practices Used in Recognizing Retirees Parking
2004 Processing and Resolution of Complaints of Harassment Targeted Recruitment of all Students Work Study Awards Process Master Schedule Part 2 Student Satisfaction
2005 Second Year Persistence/Retention Evaluation and Awarding of Transfer Credits
2006 Healthy Campus Community Residential Living
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Strategic Study Groups(SSGs)

• Waiting lists of volunteers to be on teams.
• Over 50 of total team composition is now
  faculty.
• 99 of recommendations accepted by the President.
• 85 have been implemented to date.
• Goal To increase constituent satisfaction and
  reduce cycle time.

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• The wearer best knows where the shoe pinches.
• - Irish Proverb

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Or as Walt Disney put it

• I happen to be kind of an inquisitive guy and
  when I see something I dont like, I start
  thinking why do they have to be like this and
  how can I improve them?

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An Example Official Business Card Process
Primary Goal Technical Quality
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Underground Business Card Process Primary
Goal Speed, Ease
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Revised Official Business Card Process Primary
Goal Technical Quality Speed Ease
The Communications Department and the printer(s)
develop specifications and contracts. The list
is then distributed to faculty and
staff.

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Tools for Quality Improvement

• 12 minute video on Flow Diagrams from the
  American Management Association
• http//www.crmlearning.com/education/

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Improvement Statements

• Whats an Improvement Statement?
• The improvement statement assists the members of
  the SSG in identifying the goal(s) of the
  project. Statements should be clear, objective,
  and should not include an implied solution.

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Improvement Statements from 2000-2001.

• Course/Program Approval Process
• Reduce the period of time for course/program
  approval from Department to President while
  retaining quality and relevance of courses and
  programs approved.

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Improvement Statements from 2000-2001.

• Grants

Increase the number of grants received at
Edinboro University by simplifying the grant
writing process in order for faculty and staff to
be more interested and productive in generating
proposals, and to be more satisfied with the
overall process.
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Flowchart Example
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Results

• Each quarter action steps, costs and timelines
  are noted.
• Periodic Planning Reports become the Presidents
  Annual Report to the campus community.
• The campus community must know the successes and
  failures in order to re-focus our efforts.

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Example SSG Recommendations
Work Study Awards Process Charge The issue
presented to the SSG was How do we employ
students? The team was also charged with
working closely with the Targeted Recruitment SSG
team in order to determine how students get here
and how they secure work on campus. Improvement
Statement Define the student employment process
in an attempt to increase campus (student and
campus employer) satisfaction while maintaining
compliance with Federal regulations.
Recommendation Implementation Status Responsibility
1. Provide mandatory training for all employers on campus. (One designee from each employer site must attend.) March of each year. Cost minimal staff time. Student Financial Support Services Financial Operations and Technology Communications
2. Create and maintain accurate, online Student Employment Eligibility List accessible by campus employers. Weekly. Cost minimal staff time. Student Financial Support Services Financial Operations International Student Services and Technology Communications
3. Create two online Student Employment Procedural Manuals (1) for students and (2) for employers in a printable format. Updated each March - create for August 2004 - provide link to students with application materials. Cost minimal - creation of manual, staff time, and posting to web site. Student Financial Support Services and Technology Communications
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Post-Dissertation Thoughts on CI Implementation
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Cross Case Study

• A Cross Case Study of Continuous Improvement in
  Two Universities of The Pennsylvania State System
  Of Higher Education.
• The study findings related to the broader
  research question of how two selected
  universities in the Pennsylvania State System of
  Higher Education successfully implemented
  continuous improvement (CI) on their respective
  campuses.

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CI Implementation

• University 1 and University 2 both implemented
  continuous improvement in terms of service.
• However, critical processes reviews focusing on
  teaching and learning did not occur on either
  campus, which may attribute to the lack of
  faculty participation on the CI teams.

• Spanbauer explains that the process of Continuous
  Improvement involves total commitment to
  reviewing and reengineering all aspects
  administration, student services, and most
  importantly, the teaching process, while
  transforming the culture of the institution
  (Spanbauer, 1996, p. xiv-xv).

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CI Implementation

• Both universities implemented CI on their
  campuses using an assumption of event change
  versus process change.
• Local CI champions were appointed and training
  sessions were held on campus.

• Employees either volunteered or were appointed to
  various process improvement teams. Reports were
  prepared and presentations were given to
  executive management.
• The State System of Higher Education seems to
  have driven much of the CI effort on the two
  campuses.

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CI Implementation

• It seems to the researcher that the initial
  implementation stage was not as problematic for
  the institutions as sustaining the momentum
  surrounding continuous improvement proved to be.
  

• There are a variety of reasons why the
  institutions struggled to sustain CI on campus
  such as personnel changes, administration
  changes, resource scarcity and a new chancellor
  being appointed for the System which
  significantly altered the environments in which
  the universities functioned.

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CI Implementation

• A transactional leadership model seems more
  closely matched to the leadership styles both the
  president of University 1 and University 2
  employed when implementing CI on their respective
  campuses.

• Both universities ranked high in terms of
  employee perceptions of continuous improvement
  during the quantitative Benson dissertation which
  took place in 1998.

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CI Implementation

• However, long-term resource support was not
  identified and when the CI champions left
  campus or had a change in major job
  responsibilities, no one was identified as the CI
  successor or CI was added on top of other
  responsibilities which left employees feeling
  overwhelmed or burned out.

• Hall and Hord state that most changes in
  education take three to five years to implement
  at a high level and failure to address key
  aspects of the change process can possibly
  prevent successful implementation.

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Change

• Kanter (2001) optimistically states that my
  personal law of management, if not of life, is
  that everything can look like a failure in the
  middle. Every new idea runs into trouble before
  it reaches fruition.
• She explains that one of the mistakes leaders
  make in change processes is to launch them and
  leave them. This results in people giving up
  and chasing the next enticing rainbow (p.
  274-275).

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How to promote CI on campus

• Kanter advises leaders to
• stay with change through the initial hurdles,
• make appropriate adjustments midcourse
• stay on the path to success, all the while
  staying attuned to the environment, planning
  assumptions, while paying attention to the
  long-term mission/vision.

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Edinboro Universitys SSG Publications

• Course Development Cycle Time A Framework for
• Continuous Process Improvement, Journal of
  Innovative Higher Education, Fall 2003, Volume
  28, Number 1.
• Cost Reduction 101. Quality Progress, October,
  2003.
• Strategic Planning and Quality Improvement
  Edinboro Universitys Triangulated Institutional
  Effectiveness Model with Dr. Michael A.
  Mogavero, Proceedings of the Middle States
  Association of Colleges and Universities 2001
  Annual Meeting.
• A Case Study of Process Improvement at a
  Pennsylvania University (with Dr. Michael A.
  Mogavero). Quality Progress, July, 2000.

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Works in Progress

• NSF Grant Proposal on Group Decision Making
  software in an environment of accountability and
  high risk.
• Strategic Planning Better Allocating University
  Resources to Create On-line Learning Environments
  for Non-Traditional Students in Underserved Rural
  Areas

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A Deming sentiment often used to close his
seminars

• You have heard the words you must find the
  way. It will never be perfect. Perfection is
  not for this world it is for some other world.
  I hope what you have heard here today will haunt
  you the rest of your life. Then, I will have
  done my best.
• Quality Progress, August 2004, pg. 35.

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Overcoming the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

• A Leadership Fable
• Patrick Lencioni

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Additional Resources

• Edinboro Universitys SSG Web Page
• http//www.edinboro.edu/cwis/admin/upirci/finalweb
  /CI/SSG.htm
• Penn States CQI Team Database
• http//www.psu.edu/president/pia/database/index.ht
  m
• Good to Great, by Jim Collins
• The Dance of Change, by Peter Senge.
• Evolve, Rosabeth Moss Kanter

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Additional Resources

• The Executive Guide to Improvement and Change
  ASQ Beecroft, Duffy and Moran, Editors.
• Failure is NOT an option Six Principles That
  Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing
  Schools Alan M. Blankstein.
• The World is Flat A Brief History of the
  Twenty-First Century Thomas L. Friedman
• Execution Larry Bossidy Ram Charan.

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MicroSoft Visio
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SNAP On-Line Survey Software

• http//www.snapsurveys.com/demos/

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Gestalt Organizational Resistance Theory
It isnt the changes that do you in...its the
transitions.
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Gestalt?

• The German word gestalt means a complete pattern
  or configuration. A gestalt is a perceived whole.
  
• GIC faculty and graduates innovatively apply
  Gestalt principles to psychotherapy as well as to
  business, health care, educational, governmental,
  community, and religious organizations.

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Assumptions About Change

• Forces for Forces for
• Change Persistence

Interplay of Forces New what is
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Paradoxical Theory of Change

• Change occurs when one becomes what one is, not
  when one tries to be what one is not.
• Change does not occur through coercion,
  persuasion or effort to be something else
  requires acceptance of the status quo.
• When one is involved in a conscious and chosen
  change effort, resistance must be expected and,
  paradoxically, supported.

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Paradoxical Theory of Change

• Use intervention to heighten awareness around the
  interplay of the forces-- the resistance must be
  met.
• For every proposed change, a polarity, an
  alternative exists (look at the other side).
• Exploration of the polarity provides
  understanding of both current and future state
  (the desired change).

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Learning to Dance with the Energy of Resistance
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Awareness

• Awareness growing consciousness or
  comprehension
• Thinking, feeling, sensing, intuiting, in the
  here and now, based on what individual(s) is
  (are) saying
• At times, providing whats missing
• what Im not hearing
  is

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Awareness

• Cant change things of which you are not aware.
• Cant change patterns that are out of your
  awareness.
• Cant do clear directive change until you
  understand what is.

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Resistance

• Resistance is not an absence of energy, but
  energy/drive in a different direction.
• Resistance should be respected, and not regarded
  as something to be destroyed.
• Resistance serves the functions of defense,
  protection, healing creation.
• The Gestalt approach helps one to experience
  what is. A change agent must help the
  organization see what is.

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Consequences

• There are consequences of non-negotiable change.
• The aim is to help the system resolve the dilemma
  rather than annihilate it.
• Stay in the solution, not the problem.

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Self-Regulation of Resistance

• Keeps us from being hurt.
• Prevents commitment to things we dont believe to
  be in our best interest.
• Keep us from overreaching our current level of
  effectiveness.
• Keeps us from being inundated.

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Resistance as an Asset

• It provides new information.
• It produced ENERGY!
• It makes the organization safe. People will
  protect themselves as best they can.
• Dont ignore what the resister is saying.

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Dealing with Resistance

• Acknowledge surface it as safely as possible.
  Ask for all of it.
• Honor it listen, acknowledge, reinforce it as
  OK, then explore it.
• Recheck How ya doing? Tell the group.
• Those not involved in planning view the plan as a
  plot.

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Acknowledging Resistance

• Acknowledgement does not imply that you agree or
  disagree.
• Make eye contact.
• Ask non-judgment questions Help me understand
  or I wasnt aware of that aspect, tell me more.
• Restate and reflect.
• By acknowledging, you are taking seriously what
  the other person says.

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Reinforce the okayness

• Its really OK not to like all of this.
• I can see and understand how you could be
  angry.
• Resistance is not a bad thing.

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Explore the Resistance

• Ask for concrete information.
• What is your objection?
• What tells you this?
• What would you prefer?
• Avoid why questions they elicit
  defensiveness. Instead ask what and how
  questions.

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Re-check

• There is a high probability that both your
  perception and the resisters will have changed
  somewhat. Check it out.
• Explore positive aspects of proposed change Is
  there any aspect of the proposal which you like?
• Closure to such issues is important.

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Resistance Power

• Resistance is an expression of personal power.
  The ability to NOT get what you DONT want.
• Individual will resist what they believe is not
  in their best interest.
• Be attentive to non-verbal cues, body language,
  message repeats.
• Focus on the here and now.

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Story of the Nun in a Silent Order

• Vow of Silence 2 words every 10 years.
• bed hard food bad I quit!
• Mother Superior Im not surprised. Youve
  done nothing but complain the whole time youve
  been here!
• Morals of the Story
• Resistance will EVENTUALLY come out as a
  protective force for the individual.
• People sometimes harbor resistance for years.
• Managers are prone to ignore and/or overact to
  resistance.

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Questions?