Responses 5
I have to respond to the following statements of my classmates. Please provide 75-100 words to each statement with a reference to each if applicable.
posted by ALESHA FLOYD at Mar 25, 2015, 8:40 AM
Last updated Mar 25, 2015, 8:40 AM
I think an important part of communication is to be clear, upfront, and specific in the voicing of the strategic plan. In all of the readings this week it seems to say how failure is often the result that a plan is not given in full detail but instead is presented to people with just their parts in it, which does not show how important their part really is. Also, this type of elimination is detrimental to employee buy in of the strategic plan which is crucial to its successes. So I think the first step is to hold meetings for each department where a printed copy of the entire strategic plan is given to each employee with their departments area of need highlighted and then verbally gone over. The strategic plan should be simply written in a way that is understood by everyone even if their reading level is not very high. Another way to address this would be to have visuals in the plan and even in flyer’s around the various departments that address different areas of the plan that pertains to that department. So if in a hospital. a poster could be given with hand washing, then check patient, then hand washing again. Simple yet could address an issue of cleanliness and patient protection as a quick and simple reminder for anyone who comes in contact with patients. Another idea is to create a strategy map and give it with the written plan for the employees who understand visuals better and for the managers to easily see what is really needed to be done , how, and in what time frame. “Strategy Mapping, advocated by Kaplan and Norton (1996), according to Scholey, 2005 is an approach to visualizing and communicating organizational strategy that can help organizations overcome the difficulties of communicating the strategy and its complexity by enabling the depiction of the organizational strategy in a picture format, or a ‘Strategy Map'” (Salas, & Huxley, 2014, p. 110). By giving them the whole plan as a visual they can see how their play in the plan is needed and why. Going over it verbally is important and in doing meetings by department can make them small enough to allow a question and answer session after the presentation. Having an open door policy for employees to go to managers if any issue or question arrives will allow for any adjustments or corrections to be done quickly before any major issue happens. I think if more effort was put into the communication process and was done so in a way that employees were able to understand, more successes would happen and have less issues along the way.
posted by Jasmine W. at Mar 25, 2015, 11:59 AM
Last updated Mar 25, 2015, 11:59 AM
There is no one size fits all answer to this question. There are many tactics I have heard and seen that demonstrates good communication with employees to get buy in on things. There is verbal communication, in person or not, and written communication. Persons who should be involved in implementing the strategy are the ones that the strategy will affect the most. However, the organization should not have those that will not be affected by the strategy be involved because they are unnecessary.
According to Hunger and Wheelen (2007), resistance and foot-dragging would occur if the importance of the strategy or if any changes arise are not properly communicated. The best way I know of communicating with employees is to have them involved in the process. That doesn’t every detail has to go by them but their concerns should be voiced and taken into consideration. Sometimes there are certain things in the strategy that would cause a problem with the employees, so those issues need to be solved. Weekly or Monthly reminders of what is being done in the strategy is also a good way to get support. This could mean sending emails, having meetings in which documents outline the strategies, and having an employee portal on the website where employees can access all the information pertaining to the strategy. By having all these avenues of communication, employees would more than likely feel in the know and would support the implementation of the strategy.
posted by KATRINA MIRASOLA at Mar 24, 2015, 7:32 AM
Last updated Mar 24, 2015, 7:32 AM
I believe the best communication methods varies between employees. While oral communication may be best to several employees, other may prefer a written communication they can refer back to at a later time to gain a better understanding. A mixture of the two is often the best way to communicate with employees to gain there support when implementing a strategy. This is done by explaining the strategy orally to employees and also providing them with an outline of the conversation they can look refer back to. This can be done using a printed handout even through an email. The mission must be made clear to employees so they can see the benefit in the strategy.
posted by ALESHA FLOYD at Mar 25, 2015, 9:11 AM
Last updated Mar 25, 2015, 9:11 AM
Six Sigma was designed to cut costs on production and improve quality in five steps.
1. Define a process where results are poorer than average. 2. Measure the process to determine exact current performance. 3. Analyze the information to pinpoint where things are going wrong. 4. Improve the process and eliminate the error. 5. Control the process to prevent future defects from occurring. (Hunger, & Wheelen, 2011, p. 134)
To use these steps to value and support the implementation should be possible since the strategic plans purpose is to do exactly what the Six Sigma was created to do; cut costs while improving quality. Finding a part in the facility or business that is not sticking with the budgeting or improving in quality at the rate the plan says it should can help find the weak links of the facility that need improvements. Measuring the process to find exact performance can be done by comparing shifts or departments to other similar ones to be sure the right ones of needing help are found. Analyze and research is important to make sure the why the issue is arising is understood so a plan can be created to correct the issue which is improving the process and eliminating the error. TO control would be to monitor and this could be done with keeping an eye on numerical data as well as conducting surveys of employees to see if they are satisfied or have an issue. Supporting the implementation is done through the management working with their employees and being there to aid in any issue in a timely manner as well as catching any issue with research and monitoring before it becomes a large or even detrimental problem.
