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September 2017
Newsletter Survey
Thank you to all of you who took the time last June to provide feedback
about this newsletter! We’ve made a few
changes and look forward to helping you on your “CI” journey:
- First, we are publishing each quarter: September,
December, March, and June.
- Second, we’ve added a bit more content: including a
tool spotlight, project focus, and a longer read.
If you enjoy reading some, part, or all of this newsletter, please share it!
2017 Governor's Better Government Awards
An announcement will be coming in later October about this year’s
awards. Minnesota state agencies,
boards, and commissions, get your projects ready! Will we be able to surpass last year’s record-breaking
63 nominations? Will your
project be one of the winners? Check here starting
in late October for up-to-date information.
In each
newsletter, we are highlighting a problem-solving project. This edition’s project is one that is being
led by Cathy Beil from our office.
We are in the
final implementation stages of a project with the Board
of Water and Soil Resources
to help the Board identify and eliminate barriers to attracting qualified applicants
for two important positions. We interviewed people recently hired in these
positions, managers, and long-time staff to gain insight about what knowledge,
skills, and experience applicants need to be successful. We also gathered
background on what BWSR was, and was not, doing to reach out to potential
applicants both for specific open positions as well as promoting their
organization among the population of potential applicants generally.
After detailed
analysis with managers and staff, we helped BWSR adjust minimum qualifications
to better match what new staff truly need to know and be able to do when they
start, without extraneous requirements that could prevent quality applicants
who could do the job from being deemed “qualified.” We also developed outreach
and posting standards to ensure that open positions reach as many potential
applicants as possible.
The positions
posted with updated minimum qualifications and the new posting standards have a
much higher number of qualified applicants, including one who was hired who
would not have previously met minimum qualifications.
What tools do
we use to solve problems that change lives?
That depends on the problem! We
use a set of tools that matches the problem and project goals. That can mean applying LEAN, Six Sigma,
Human-centered Design, Scientific Method, or others in our work.
In this issue,
we are highlighting some of the main tools used in Six Sigma. Here is a great article from our friends at
Quality Digest that
discusses:
- Pareto
Chart
- Histogram
- Gage
R&R
- Attribute
Agreement Analysis
- Process
Capability
These are
excellent statistical tools for your data-intensive projects.
Things We Found Interesting
Are You "S"-ing Your Team?
I didn’t start
my career leading teams. As a newly minted graduate with an Associate’s degree
in accounting, I started my first post-college job as a second-shift billing
clerk at a municipal bond firm in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. I wanted to
learn everything, do everything, and be a part of everything! This was “real”
work! And…I spent most of my time following specific directions on how to
process client billings, decipher what documents needed to be retained based on
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, and how to operate the big
paper shredder without getting my rayon Foreman and Clark tie caught up in the blades. Ok, that
only happened once.
When to Give Directions
After about a
year at this job, I was ‘promoted’ to first shift billing clerk. At the same
time, the firm hired a new chief financial officer. I was so used to the
micromanagement of the past, I was a bit lost. One of the first projects given
to me was to determine the cost/benefit of replacing old dot matrix printers
with new laser printers. “Imagine having new, quiet, cost-effective printers!”
said the CFO, "let's do that here at our office." That’s it. When was
the analysis due? Which printers are to be replace? What kind are we buying? What’s
the budget? I got nothing, just get it done! Instructions on ‘how’ would have
helped me a lot. The vision of having new and improved printers was compelling,
but not enough to help me get the job done. Directions.
When to Give Directions
Leading teams
provides us with the scary and exciting opportunity to share with others a
vision of what success looks like. At another job, later on in my career, I was
an account manager at a global fleet leasing company. One of my clients
was creating some significant challenges in helping me best serve the account.
I stormed into my boss’s office, asking her to either figure out how I
could work with this client, or take me off the account. Her words, and I
remember them to this day, were, “What do you want ME to do about it?
It’s YOUR account. You own serving that account and remember that
relationships drive results.” Relationships Drive Results was our company tag
line. What!? I left her office, left the floor, left the building. After
about a 30 minute walk outside I returned to my desk, my mind a bit clearer,
and wrote out three ideas I had that would help preserve and possibly improve
the relationship we have with the client. I went back to my boss and offered
the three ideas. With a big smile she said, “Sit down, let’s talk through these
and come up with a way forward.” And we did. The account became profitable
within three months and the client feedback scores were the best we’d had for
that client. Directions.
Choose your "S"s Carefully
Many of us
received the opportunity to lead teams due to our excellence as an individual
contributor. We spend many days as a leader of people, and sometimes a few
nights too, solving problems. When an employee comes to us with yet another
problem, sometimes we default to our experience and want to provide the
detailed answer. Other times, we give seemingly vague, high-level direction
without enough guidance.
Try to
use directions when it improves the understanding of the direction for
your team. Or, if it will prevent them from shredding their necktie.
– Joe
Raasch, Director of the Minnesota Office of Continuous Improvement
CI Training Courses
Sign up and learn time-tested CI methodologies and tools that will
help you to solve problems that improve work processes and service quality for
Minnesotans!
Our training courses are designed to provide you with the skills you
need and can easily put into action:
We Want to Connect with You!
- The Introduction to CI training
will show you the basics of CI principles. The hands-on simulation
activity will help you recognize that no process is perfect and most of
them can be improved.
-
The Problem Solving course
will help you recognize the root cause behind some of the work challenges
we face and offers useful strategies for identifying solutions. Much of
our work now requires us to show results.
-
The Process Improvement Measurement course helps you select
measures that matter and how to use data to guide and sustain the improvements
you make.
With all of these courses you can take the knowledge and skills
you learn back to your workplace to implement changes. These efforts have real
results, saving resources and staff time, while improving the quality of State
services.
For more information and
to register for these or other upcoming trainings visit our registration page!
Minnesota state agencies: Can't make one of our trainings? We'll come to you! You provide the space, date, and at least 20 participants, and we'll bring the training!
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- Follow @CI_Minnesota to keep up-to-date with CI news and examples of people using continuous improvement tools to "solve problems that change lives."
- Yammer
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