Critical Process Improvement
(Strategic Study Groups – EUP)
(Action Teams – UCO)
Thursday, March 2, 2006
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Friday, March 3, 2006
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Dr. Erinn D. Lake, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
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.
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 doesn’t have value and identify
world-class practices to solve problems.”
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/
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?
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.
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 20042005 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.
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.
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)
36 Study Groups Completed/
In-Process at Edinboro
University
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
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
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
Strategic Study Groups
(SSG’s)
 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.
“The wearer best knows where
the shoe pinches.”
- Irish Proverb
Or as Walt Disney put it…
“I happen to be kind of an inquisitive
guy and when I see something I don’t
like, I start thinking ‘why do they
have to be like this and how can I
improve them?’”
An Example:
“Official” Business Card Process
Primary Goal: Technical Quality
Faculty/Staff
Comms. Dept.
Printer
Orders
Designs & Orders
Prints, Delivers, Bills
Receives & Pays
Checks, Delivers & Bills
Receives Payment
Receives & Forwards
Payment
“Underground” Business Card Process
Primary Goal: Speed, Ease
Faculty/Staff
Orders
Pays
Printer
Prints, Delivers, Bills
“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.
=================================================
Faculty/Staff
Orders
Pays
Printer
Prints, Delivers, Bills
Tools for Quality Improvement
12 minute video on Flow Diagrams from
the American Management
Association
http://www.crmlearning.com/education/
Improvement Statements
What’s 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.
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.
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.
Flowchart Example
Results
 Each quarter action steps, costs and timelines
are noted.
 Periodic Planning Reports become the
President’s Annual Report to the campus
community.
 The campus community must know the
successes and failures in order to re-focus our
efforts.
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
Post-Dissertation Thoughts on CI
Implementation
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.
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. xivxv).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Edinboro University’s 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
University’s 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.
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”
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.
Overcoming the 5 Dysfunctions of a
Team
 A Leadership Fable
 Patrick Lencioni
Additional Resources
 Edinboro University’s SSG Web Page
 http://www.edinboro.edu/cwis/admin/upi
rci/finalweb/CI/SSG.htm
 Penn State’s CQI Team Database
 http://www.psu.edu/president/pia/datab
ase/index.htm
 Good to Great, by Jim Collins
 The Dance of Change, by Peter Senge.
 Evolve, Rosabeth Moss Kanter
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 HighPerforming Schools – Alan M. Blankstein.
 The World is Flat – A Brief History of the
Twenty-First Century – Thomas L. Friedman
 Execution – Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan.
MicroSoft Visio
SNAP On-Line Survey Software
http://www.snapsurveys.com/demos/
Gestalt Organizational
Resistance Theory
“It isn’t the changes that do you in...it’s the transitions.”
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.
Assumptions About Change
Forces for
Change
Forces for
Persistence
Interplay of Forces
New “what is”
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.
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).
Learning to “Dance” with the Energy
of Resistance
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 what’s missing
“what I’m not hearing is…”
Awareness
 Can’t change things
of which you are not
aware.
 Can’t change patterns
that are out of your
awareness.
 Can’t do clear
directive change until
you understand “what
is.”
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.”
Consequences
 There are consequences of nonnegotiable change.
 The aim is to help the system
resolve the dilemma rather than
annihilate it.
 Stay in the solution, not the
problem.
Self-Regulation of Resistance
 Keeps us from being
hurt.
 Prevents commitment to
things we don’t believe
to be in our best interest.
 Keep us from
overreaching our current
level of effectiveness.
 Keeps us from being
inundated.
Resistance as an Asset
 It provides new
information.
 It produced ENERGY!
 It makes the
organization “safe.”
People will protect
themselves as best they
can.
 Don’t ignore what the
resister is saying.
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.
Acknowledging Resistance
 Acknowledgement does not imply that you agree or
disagree.
 Make eye contact.
 Ask non-judgment questions – “Help me understand” or “I
wasn’t aware of that aspect, tell me more.”
 Restate and reflect.
 By acknowledging, you are taking seriously what the other
person says.
Reinforce the okayness
 “It’s really OK not
to like all of this.”
 “I can see and
understand how
you could be
angry.”
 Resistance is not a
“bad” thing.
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.
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.
Resistance = Power
 Resistance is an expression of personal power.
The ability to NOT get what you DON’T 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.
Story of the Nun in a Silent Order
 Vow of Silence – 2 words every 10 years.
 “bed hard” – “food bad” – “I quit!”
 Mother Superior – “I’m not surprised. You’ve done nothing
but complain the whole time you’ve 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.
Questions?