Do not manually edit this table.
Title
Keywords
Description
Author
Organisation
BSBMGT516C Facilitate continuous improvement –
Part 1
Continuous improvement, quality, customer, surveys,
analysis, total quality management, Deming
This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills
and knowledge required to lead and manage
continuous improvement systems and processes.
Particular emphasis is on the development of
systems and the analysis of information to monitor
and adjust performance strategies, and to manage
opportunities for further improvements.
Susan Brown
Swinburne University of Technology
Lead continuous improvement systems and processes
In order to lead a team to undertake continuous improvement in a
workplace it is important to have strategies that ensure that all team
embers are actively encouraged to participate in the decision making
processes of their role, assume responsibility for their work and exercise
initiative when completing tasks.
Mentoring and coaching allow you to ensure that individuals and teams in
the workplace are able to implement and support your organisation’s
continuous improvement processes.
Workplace systems should be in place to ensure that your organisation’s
continuous improvement processes are communicated to all concerned.
In this learner guide, you will learn to:



develop strategies to ensure that team members are actively
encouraged and supported to participate in decision-making
processes
establish systems to ensure the organisation’s continuous
improvement processes are communicated to all stakeholders
develop effective mentoring and coaching processes to ensure that
individuals and teams are able to support the organisation’s
continuous improvement processes.
As you work through this learning guide you will find a number of activities
designed to reinforce your learning. It is recommended that you complete
these activities as they are opportunities to practice the skills and apply
the knowledge needed to complete the assessments tasks for this unit.
Total quality management philosophy
Total quality management (TQM) incorporates the concepts of product
quality, process control, quality assurance and quality improvement. As a
result it is the control of all transformation processes of an organisation to
better satisfy customer needs in the most economical way.
TQM is based on internal control, which is embedded in each unit of the
work system, both technology and people. Pushing problem-solving and
decision-making down the organisation allows people who do the work to
both measure and take corrective action in order to deliver a product or
service that meets the needs of their customers.
Total
Involving everyone and all activities in the
organisation
Quality
Meeting customer needs
Management
Quality can and must be managed
TQM
A process for managing quality – it must
be a continuous way of life and a
philosophy of perpetual improvement in
everything we do
TQM is the foundation for activities that include:
meeting customer requirements/needs
reducing development cycle times
just-in-time or demand flow manufacturing
improvement teams
reducing product and service costs
improving administrative systems training.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for additional information:
Total Quality Management
Introduction to TQM
Readings
Review the following document and web pages for additional
information on the History of TQM and the researchers who
developed and expanded the concepts of total quality
management.
See also the information relating to TQM in the workplace
Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a process originally developed by Motorola to systematically
improve processes by minimizing variation. The term "Six Sigma" refers to
the ability of a highly capable process to produce output within
specification.
In particular, processes that operate with six sigma quality produce at
defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). A defect
is defined as nonconformity of a product or service to its specifications.
The key concepts supporting Six Sigma are:
 Continuous effort to reduce variation in process outputs is key to
business success.
 All processes can be defined, measured, analysed, improved and
controlled (DMAIC)
 Succeeding at achieving sustained quality improvement requires
commitment from the entire organization, particularly from top-level
management.
Six Sigma is a registered trademark of Motorola, Inc.
LEAN SIX SIGMA is a business improvement methodology which
combines tools from both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.
Lean manufacturing focuses on speed. Six Sigma focuses on quality.
By combining the two, the result is better quality faster.
Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that maximizes
shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in safety,
customer satisfaction (quality), delivery, cost reduction, process speed,
and invested capital.
The combination of Lean and Six Sigma improvement methods is required
because:
 Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control
 Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or
reduce invested capital
 Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for additional information on the
concept of Six Sigma
ISO Quality Standards
The ISO 9000 family addresses "Quality management". This means what
the organisation does to fulfil:
 The customer's quality requirements, and



Applicable regulatory requirements, while aiming to
Enhance customer satisfaction, and
Achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of
these objectives
The ISO 9000 section provides a concise overview of ISO's best known
management system standards and their impact on the world.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for additional information on the
concept of ISO Quality Standards
See also Quality Management Principles
Activity 1.1
Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:
You are required to identify a small to medium organisation that
you are familar with. If you are not working select an
organisation that you would like to work for or are interested in.
Develop a breif report for the senior management team
explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the continuous
improvement approaches identified in your reading.
You are required to make a recommendation to the leadership
team on the approach that you believe will be most appropriate
for the identified organisation to adopt to ensure that the
business develops a continuous improvement culture.
Strategies for involving team members in decision-making
processes
The world of work has changed in recent times. In the past, workers were
controlled and directed by managers, without opportunities to influence the
outcomes of their work. ‘Leave your brains at the gate because they’re not
needed in this job’ captured the attitude of many in operational roles.
Continuous improvement tools and techniques belonged to the realm of
management. Now workers are trained to do their own problem solving,
and the focus is on the problem itself rather than the worker as the
problem.
This approach encourages the exchange of ideas for improvement, which
feeds a virtuous circle of increased job satisfaction, leading to increased
motivation, productivity and ultimately, satisfied customers.
Video
Watch the following video for an example of total quality
management at work at Toyota
<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yv3SGr0naKk?version=
3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param
name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param
name="allowscriptaccess"
value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yv3SGr0naKk?version=3&
amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
width="425" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Common problem-solving tools for team members
A range of common TQM tools used to provide objective and systematic
ways of identifying and resolving problems, improving systems and
processes and building quality into them are listed in the table below.
Tools to help resolve problems and implement solutions
Analyse and resolve the problem
Implement a solution







Histograms
Scatter diagrams
Control charts
Process capability charts
The PDCA cycle
Force field analysis
Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats
(SWOT) analysis
The following you tube video from the Virtualstrategist explains the SWOT
analysis process
<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GNXYI10Po6A?version=3&amp;hl=en_
US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen"
value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess"
value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GNXYI10Po6A?version=3&amp;hl=en_US
" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="349"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Activity 1.2
Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:
Using the organisation you identified in activity 1.1
Use two of the problem solving tools identified to analyse and
resolve potential problems that might be encountered when
trying to implement a continuous improvement process into the
organisation.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for information relating to
problem solving in an organisation.
Stop & Think
Complete the how good are your problem solving skills quiz
when you have completed the review of the web pages
identified in the previous section.
Review the following information to gain a clear understanding
of total quality management
Decision making tools
Successful continuous improvement requires real information and data,
not guess work or estimates. Too often, hunches and gut feel address
symptoms of a problem or opportunity to improve, but donot address the
real causes.
Tools to help with analysis and decision-making
Identify the problem and decide
which to address first or next
Analyse the real causes of the
problem












Check sheets
Circling
Pie charts and flow charts
Control charts
Brainstorming
Nominal group technique
Pareto charts
Is/is not comparisons
Run charts
Stratification charts
Checkerboard analysis
Cause-and-effect diagrams
The following four-step decision-making process shows how some of the
most accessible of the tools can be used sequentially to involve your team
in identifying and solving problems, and developing plans to implement the
solution.
Each of the following tools/techniques can be applied to the problem to
assist in developing effective decisions.
 Brainstorming
 Nominal group technique
 Cause and effect diagrams
 Force field analysis
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a method of quickly generating many ideas about
problems, causes of problems, solutions or anything else. It can be done
alone or in groups. Group brainstorming can be done by asking the group
to call their ideas as soon as they come to mind. A scribe records the
ideas on a whiteboard or butcher’s paper. An alternative approach for less
engaged groups is for each person to take a turn to volunteer one idea,
and when an individual’s ideas pool is exhausted, he or she calls ‘pass’,
until everyone has passed. Rules for brainstorming include:

suspend judgement – don’t worry if ideas are good, bad or absurd –
sometimes what seems silly can lead to real insight to a problem;
try not to constrain thinking.

get as many ideas out as possible – they will be sorted and ranked
later.

write them down – good ideas can easily be lost if not recorded.

make sure everyone has a say.
Web Search.
<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QIGWIxp_Co?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><para
m name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param
name="allowscriptaccess"
value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QIGWIxp_Co?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425"
height="349" allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Nominal group technique
Nominal group technique is a technique for making sure everyone in the
team has the opportunity to contribute. It gives each team member equal
say in deciding which problems to work on, and in what order. This
increases interest and commitment. Nominal group technique also clarifies
the interests and intentions of the group. It involves:

Brainstorming problems that need to be resolved.

Specifying each problem clearly so all understand it.

Assigning a letter to each problem

Voting by each team member to identify which is most important,
using a ranking scale from one to whatever the number of problems
identified is. The most significant problem gets the highest number.

Counting the votes to determine which problem gets addressed
first.
Web search
Review the following web pages for additional information
related to nominal group technique
Cause-and-effect diagrams
Cause-and-effect diagrams are also known as fishbone diagrams. They
are used to help analyse problems and find their true cause. Diagramming
a problem allows you to see it from all angles and identify its most
important elements.
To make a fishbone diagram:
1. Write the problem at the head of the fish.
2. Decide the possible types of causes, of the problem and show them
as major bones off the central spine of the fish.
3. Look deeper into each possible cause by asking ‘why’ five times.
For example, asking why five times into the problem of ‘We need
more training for our people’ might lead to the following answers:
1. Why?
2. Why?
3. Why?
4. Why?
5. Why?
They aren’t doing what we want with the new system.
They don’t know what to do.
No one’s told them, and nothing’s written down.
I didn’t include user documentation or online help in the
system specifications.
We thought it would reduce the project cost
After reaching the end of the why chain, the solution for preventing this in
future projects becomes fairly clear.
The folloing you tube video explains how to use the cause and effect or
fishbone diagram.
<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bNDlg1hza0?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param
name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param
name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bNDlg1h-za0?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="349"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Web search
Review the following web pages for additional information
related to cause and effect diagrams
Force field analysis
Force-field analysis is borrowed from physics. It’s a useful way to reduce
the risks in decision-making and implement decisions in a way that will
optimise success. It involves:
1. defining both the current and the desired situation clearly.
2. identifying the driving and resisting forces that hold the team back
from reaching its goals.
3. deciding which are the most important or significant driving and
resisting forces – nominal group technique can help here.
4. planning how you will make the best use of the most important
driving forces in the implementation of your decision, and how you
will minimise or even remove the significant resisting forces to
maximise your chances of success.
The following you tube video explains the use of force field analysis to
assist in managing change in an organisation.
<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bBdq7cL5nO8?version=3&amp;hl=en_U
S"></param><param name="allowFullScreen"
value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess"
value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bBdq7cL5nO8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="349"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Readings
Read the information relating to decision making. When
you have completed the reading you should complete the
how good are your decision making skills quiz.
Read the following web pages for information regarding
decision making tools and techniques
Activity 1.3
Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:
Using the organisation you identified in activity 1.1
Use two of the decision making tools identified to
determine how the organisation can successfully
implement a continuous improvement process into the
organisation.
You should post your examples of the two decision making
tools to the wiki page available in the BB iLearn shell for
this unit.
You are required to comment on the posts of two of your
peers.
The role of leaders in implementing continuous
improvement initiatives
The first thing to change when implementing continuous improvement is
the behaviour of the organisation’s leaders. For many organisations,
implementing continuous improvement involves changing the
organisational culture – the accepted way of getting things done and
making sense of the world. This is a formidable challenge for any leader.
Continuous improvement risks being seen by employees as just another
management fad. Therefore, it’s essential that all levels of management
endorse, support and role model continuous improvement.
Leaders must help to provide an environment that encourages success
and tolerates taking risks. There is a level of organisational maturity
required, where leaders are willing to hand some responsibility to workers,
and where the causes of problems are examined, rather than blaming
individuals.
Leaders must:

empower employees to engage in continuous improvement – this
means allowing them to take more risks, learn more skills and
knowledge, grow and develop, take responsibility for their work, be
creative and make decisions. (bank p. 69)

ensure quality is incorporated in the organisation’s vision, mission
and values.

ensure responsibilities and authorities are defined and
communicated within the organisation.
•
make the time and resources available for all employees to be
involved in quality – this includes providing development for the
entire workforce in the use of quality systems and tools.
•
provide incentives that recognise the efforts involved in achieving
quality outcomes, and reward achievement effectively.
•
role-model continuous improvement.
This is far easier said than done.
Readings
Take the test to determine how good your leadership skills
are and then read the information relating to leadership
when you have completed the reading
Read the following web pages for information regarding
leadership tools and techniques
Activity 1.4
Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:
You are required to develop a job aid to assist managers
with leading continuous improvement in the workplace.
Your job aid should be a step by step process flow with
decision points. An example of a process flow diagram
with decision points is available here
Communicating continuous improvement processes
Communicate, communicate, communicate
In the following section of the learner guide you will learn to:
•
•
•
explain the critical importance of effective communication when
implementing a continuous improvement initiative
describe common systems used to ensure that your organisation’s
continuous improvement processes are communicated to all
stakeholders
consider the requirements for establishing systems to communicate
continuous improvement initiatives.
Communication is a critical deliverable of any continuous improvement
project, and should be an important part of any project plan. The
successful facilitation of a continuous improvement initiative requires
credible communication systems throughout the organisation.
Communication systems should not be limited to internal use – they must
extend to suppliers and customers. For example, if a team was about to
collect data from a working production line, team members should notify
all supervisors and operators in advance and tell them exactly why, how
and when data will be collected.
Similarly, a team studying how employees in an office use their time must
be able to allay any concerns that their goal is not to identify lazy people.
Effective communication is cited as a critical success factor by
organisations involved in continuous improvement.
Effective communication has a two-way flow – it involves sending
appropriately crafted and timed messages to the right audience through
the right media, and receiving (and acting on) feedback from the audience.
Communicating continuous improvement requires you to identify:

what to communicate

how to communicate

when to communicate

tools and techniques for communication
Each of these factors is explored in the following section.
Stop & Think
Review the following web pages for additional information
on communication and continuous improvement in the
workplace
What, how and when to communicate
What, how and when to communicate – strategies and requirements for
establishing systems to communicate continuous improvement initiatives
What to communicate
The choice of the information to be communicated cannot be made
without considering the project's tools and techniques for gathering the
information and vice versa. Project communications are not a key
deliverable of the continuous improvement initiative, but they should be
treated as a project deliverable.
Start with your project plan: does the project charter contain any
requirements for information? If it does, the information and its target
audience ought to be included in your Communications Management Plan.
After identifying all the needs already expressed in the project
documentation to date, you need to identify requirements from the various
groups of stakeholders. This identification should be done in the context of
what is feasible for the project to deliver.
Be prepared to meet with your process owner or project sponsor to identify
their requirements. Be specific as to presentation: should performance be
shown as a bar graph with a rolling six-week tally? Should it be shown as
a line graph with the benchmark line of 1.0 and a rolling six-month tally?
You may even want to mock up some sample reports to let them choose
the format.
A project dashboard is a popular instrument for communicating project
progress to sponsors and other senior executives. The dashboard is
meant to show the status of your project at a glance and may consist of
the project's performance measures. You may also want to include such
things as:
•
the top five risks
•
the top five outstanding issues
•
metrics on change (number of change requests, number accepted,
number of rejected, total costs)
•
quality (number of tests, number passed, number failed,
outstanding bug reports). You should try to keep your dashboard to
a handful of slides and provide supporting detail in text, or Excel
format as backup.
Repeat the requirements gathering exercise with each group of
stakeholders, weighing their need for information with the project's ability
to gather and communicate it. Share as much of the information reported
to the other groups with the project team (the people actually doing the
work of the project), as is possible.
Your organisation may have policies or guidelines around what can and
cannot be shared outside executive offices; share as much information
with the team as possible without violating these policies. You'll find
sharing positive reports will boost morale, while sharing negative reports
will stop the rumours that will further erode morale.
Be prepared to capture and report information by stakeholder group,
department, or sub-project. The individual groups on your team will want
the ability to view their progress in isolation from the rest of the team.
Make sure that you break the work down so that tasks performed by
individual groups or departments are identifiable. This will enable you to
report performance group-by-group or department-bydepartment and still
tally up totals to report for the entire project.
The information you plan to communicate will drive your activities
throughout the project. Your plans should include the metrics that must be
gathered in order to support the information you plan to communicate. You
will need to identify who is responsible for providing the information and
where the information is to be stored and reported.
There are two questions you need to ask yourself before you submit a
report:
1. How do I get this information? (i.e. what measures do I need to
capture and where will they come from)
2. Where will I store the measures? A failure to answer both questions
will mean that either you have to alter your plan to task someone to
gather the metric, identify a tool to capture and retrieve the metric,
or drop the requirement.
Finally, don't forget individual accomplishments and rewards when
reporting project progress. There's nothing like a good news story to keep
team morale high and the celebration of a team member's
accomplishment is something most sponsors enjoy hearing about.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for information related to
communication and communication skills
How to communicate
There are many different means of communication available: face to face,
email, intranet, internet, regular mail, phone, video conferences etc. etc.
These can be categorised into two groups:
•
‘push’ communications, requiring you to you to push the information
onto the recipient
•
‘pull’ communications, requiring the recipient to actively retrieve the
information from a central source.
Websites and centralised repositories are examples of pull
communications, while email and meetings are examples of push
communications.
Preference for either push or pull communications is often a personal
preference.
Some people deal with information best when it's presented to them and
some prefer to retrieve it at their own convenience. Be prepared for
conflicting requirements from individuals in your stakeholder groups. You
may have to make the final decision on which method to use if there are
conflicting requests.
If you determine that the project must have a new tool, such as a website,
to satisfy a stakeholder requirement, you'll need to justify the cost with a
business case. State the benefits to the project in business terms that
justify the costs. You can also include benefits that supersede your
project. For example a website or tool such as Lotus Notes could benefit
all projects your organisation performs, and may even provide a benefit to
operations.
The following video is an interview with a communication expert on how to
communicate with employees
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/s
wflash.cab#version=9,0,124,0" width="398" height="248"
id="ABCESNWID"><param name="movie"
value="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_69
.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param
name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param
name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="flashvars"
value="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&co
nfigId=406733&clipId=10213936&showId=10213936&gig_lt=13115576644
83&gig_pt=1311557954351&gig_g=2&gig_n=twitter" /><param
name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed
src="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_69.s
wf" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all"
allowfullscreen="true"
pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?
P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwaveflash" width="398" height="248"
flashvars="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig
&configId=406733&clipId=10213936&showId=10213936&gig_lt=1311557
664483&gig_pt=1311557954351&gig_g=2&gig_n=twitter"
name="ABCESNWID"></embed></object>
When to communicate
Your communication schedule will be driven by the needs of your
audience and the availability of the information to be communicated. For
example, you could report on any measures managed by a MS Project
plan file daily. Alternatively, you can't report on the results of your project
milestone approval meeting until the meeting has occurred.
There is also no reason that a report communicated to one stakeholder
group biweekly, can't be communicated to another group every week.
Consider the logistics and costs as well – if you choose to use a mass
meeting to communicate to all stakeholders, don't schedule the meeting to
occur weekly. You won’t be popular!
Calculate the cost of your communications – when planning a meeting that
involves you or another team member communicating information to an
audience, count the audience, multiply that number by the number of
hours the meeting lasts and multiply that number by the loaded labour rate
for that group. Avoid spending large amounts on frequent
communications.
Other meetings, such as status review meetings with project teams must
be done more often to avoid the continuous improvement project going off
the rails.
When the project is on track, weekly status review meetings are sufficient.
When your project encounters problems, you might want to increase the
frequency to better control the work. In extreme cases such as a project
rescue, you may need to hold them daily.
Tools and techniques
Tools and techniques include tools you'll use to convey the information,
tools you'll use to gather the information, and tools you'll use to store and
retrieve the information. Conveyance tools include:
•
email
•
websites
•
webcasts
•
conference calls
•
video conferencing
•
public directories
•
small group presentations
•
mass meetings.
What you're communicating, how you need to communicate it, and your
communication budget will determine which of these tools you'll use.
Lastly, remember that the accuracy of the information you communicate
about the project will have a profound effect, either positive or negative, on
your reputation. You need to do your utmost to ensure the information you
communicate is accurate.
Be open and honest with your communications – tell your audience where
the information comes from, how it was compiled, and how old it is. Be
forthcoming with any information that could impact on the accuracy of your
reports and let your audience form their own opinions of the accuracy and
value of your communications.
[Adapted from Nielsen, D. (2008) ‘Project Communications: How to Keep
Your Team Engaged and Informed’ in The Project Management Hut. 13
November 2008.]
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for information about
communication tools and techniques. See also the
following web pages for additional information related to
effective communications and the following discussion on
tips for better communication in the workplace
Activity 1.5
Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:
Using the information from earlier activities and the
information about the organisation you selected you are
now required to develop a commuication plan to enable
you to communicate the continuous improvement process
you have recommended to your team members.
Your communication plan must include:
 What you will communicate
 How you will communicate and
 When you will commuticate
An example of a communication plan template is available
here.
Using effective coaching and mentoring to support the
team
The difference between coaching and mentoring
Coaching addresses two specific goals:
1. to solve problems
2. to improve performance.
Mentoring is less goal-oriented and focuses on supporting ongoing
learning and development. Mentoring involves the establishment of a
relationship between a person requiring development and an experienced
individual in a program that can be formal or informal. The mentor’s broad
focus on the person, their career and support for individual growth
contrasts with the coach’s job-focused and performance oriented
approach.
The table below outlines the key differences between coaching and
mentoring.
Mentoring
Coaching
Focus
Broad: the education and Specific: solving
development of an
problems and/or
individual
improving performance
Role
Facilitated by an
experienced role model
with general or
unspecified outcomes.
Facilitated by a
workplace leader or
expert with a specific
agenda and outcomes
Relationship
Often self-selecting
Part of the leader’s job
Source of influence
Perceived value of the
mentor’s experience
Position and/or expertise
Personal returns
Personal development
Problems solved,
improved performance
Environment
Can encompass
development not
Work-task related
necessarily restricted to
the workplace
A mentor is like a sounding board, they can give advice they often are less
directive. The context does not have specific performance objectives, but
broader goals.
Contrastingly, a coach is trying to direct a person to a measurable end
result, and while the person may choose how to get there, the coach is
assessing and monitoring the progress and giving advice for effectiveness
and efficiency.
Essentially, mentoring is biased in the learner’s favour. Coaching is
impartial, focused on improvement in behaviour.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for information about
coaching and mentoring.
When to use mentoring and coaching
Coaching is appropriate for addressing problems or improving
performance by addressing a specific skill and/or knowledge deficiency.
It’s the appropriate response to a problem that needs immediate attention.
Mentoring is appropriate for longer-term goals, and is particularly valuable
for developing people’s potential for future roles. It can include everything
done to support a protégé’s orientation and professional development. It’s
arguable that coaching is one of the sets of strategies which mentors must
learn and effectively use to increase their protégés' skills and success.
However, you need to be sure that any gap in performance or problem is
really due to a skill deficiency, and not a problem with a work system. For
example, a call centre that demands sales consultants complete a high
number of calls per hour may be wasting its time trying to coach them in
better customer service.
The goals of better customer service and high call volume could be
incompatible. Spending time and resources on coaching perpetuates the
problem, while avoiding the real issue.
Actions required to develop effective mentoring and coaching
processes to support continuous improvement
The coaching model shown in the diagram below illustrates the
relationship between the three key activities involved in coaching:
1. Plan: involving needs analysis to clarify the problem or opportunity
for improvement, whether it is a skill and/or knowledge deficiency,
and if so, what actions should be planned to address the issue. The
measures of success must be specific, measurable and achievable.
The coaching action plan documents the actions that will be taken
to achieve the measures of success. It’s important that both coach
and learner reach agreement on the issue to be addressed, the
measures and the action plan.
2. Implement: the action plan is implemented by the coach and the
learner.
3. Monitor: Like any continuous improvement initiative, the coaching
process must have inbuilt mechanisms to evaluate progress and
modify strategic intentions and desired outcomes where necessary.
The process must be able to track the learner’s progress towards
the measures of success is regularly monitored, and feedback
provided to either recognise achievement and reinforce the desired
behaviour, or further coaching provided if the measures are not yet
achieved.
Source: http://www.aimqld.com.au/coaching/model.htm
In any coaching activity, the following fundamental events of instruction
should occur.
1. The coach and learner agree to the expected outcome of the
coaching process.
2. The coach demonstrates or arranges demonstration of the required
performance.
3. The learner has the opportunity to practice the performance.
4. The coach provides feedback on the practice.
5. The learner has the opportunity to incorporate the feedback in
further practice.
6. The learner attempts the performance on the job.
7. The coach provides feedback.
8. Arrangements for the next coaching session are agreed to.
These events are scalable – they can occur in minutes, for learning a
minor skill, or over weeks, if the skill is complex.
Mentoring can follow a similar process to coaching, but is less focused on
specific goals and skills coaching, and may be conducted very informally.
Mentoring strategies will often involve reflection on real workplace issues,
where the mentor’s role is principally listening, helping to clarify issues,
and providing advice only when requested.
Mentors do not necessarily have to provide solutions – a good mentor is
skilled at asking questions to surface assumptions and issues in the
protégé’s thinking, and in doing so, allow the protégé to find his or her own
solutions. The mentor-protégé role requires considerable trust and
respect. As such, mentoring relationships can be encouraged.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for information about
coaching and mentoring.
Training, coaching and mentoring
Training
Training refers to the skill building and staff development that is required
for a continuous improvement process. New competencies are necessary
if employees are to identify and solve problems as a team. If any of these
elements are missing, the change process will break down.
Therefore, as employees engage in continuous improvement, they need to
acquire additional skills or be cross-trained to perform new or expanded
roles and jobs. For example, members of a team may require some
training in problem-solving, statistics and data collection techniques to
analyse work-related processes, or exposure to group dynamics so that
they can run more effective meetings.
The importance of training cannot be underestimated. If training strategies,
methods and materials are not congruent with the target audience,
negative outcomes are inevitable.
Therefore, if an organisation is to derive the benefits from work redesign,
all employees must be properly and thoroughly trained. For example, an
organisation may have used consultants to provide the employee training
required to support the continuous improvement system.
Later, the training programs could be internalised by developing trainers
from among the previous graduates.
Coaching and mentoring
TQM is built around the idea that individuals can always improve their
work by learning new techniques and applying them within the workplace.
As people gain experience in a job they will see ways of doing it better,
cutting costs and saving time. As a coach and mentor your can encourage
staff to come forward with such ideas, which in turn will improve
performance and raise morale.
Some of the ways of doing this are through:
• regular ideas meetings where people can make constructive
suggestions in a stress-free environment
• one-on-one meetings or coaching sessions where ideas can be
further developed.
By modelling commitment to TQM, managers who are able to coach and
mentor can have a profound and long-lasting effect on their team’s
willingness to embrace TQM and make it part of their organisational
culture.
Web Search.
Review the following web pages for the complete
guidelines to developing your training plan
A thorough review of this material will assist you in
developing your training plan
Activity 1.6
Complete the follwoing activity to reinforce your learning:
You are required to develop a training plan to
demonstrate how you will train your team members to
ensure a continuous improvement culture is
implemented into the workplace.
Develop a checklist for a manager to use when
designing a coaching program for the team to reinforce
training in continuous improvement
Summary
TQM incorporates the concepts of product quality, process control, quality
assurance and quality improvement.
TQM is the foundation for activities that include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
meeting customer requirements (needs)
reducing development cycle times
just-in-time or demand flow manufacturing
improvement teams
reducing product and service costs
improving administrative systems training.
Self-check questions






What concepts does TQM incorporate?
TQM is the foundation for what activities?
What are Deming’s fourteen points?
What are Juran’s ten steps?
What are Crosby’s fourteen steps?
What is the simplest way of rationalising TQM? 7 To successfully
implement TQM what are the eight key elements?
Assessment Task
Assessment 2
You are required to commence the first assessment for
this unit.
Details of the assessment task can be found in the
Assessment tab in BB iLearn.
Select Asessment 2 and follow the instructions provided
in the word document.
This assessment task is worth 35 marks.
The assessment task must be submitted through the
Assessment tab in BB iLearn. You must also submit
your assessment task in either Microsoft Word or PDF
format.