Quality Tools and Resources for Virtual Learning Teams
Eileen M. Dittmar
A Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements of
ED8004: Societal and Cultural Change
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616.617.7864 |
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Dr. Christine Jax |
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Develop Processes and Procedures with Quality Tools
Continuous improvement methods from David Langford (1998) can be applied in education, government, and corporate environments. Langford training and seminars focus on analyzing processes for learning organizations and he believes that all organizations are learning organizations (Langford, 1998). Teaming concepts with quality tools have significant value to a learning organization including Probletunity, Nominal Group Technique, Deployment Flow Chart, and Process Decision Program Chart (Langford, 1998).
Probletunity. Probletunity is a tool to document a problem statement and create a desired opportunity. The problem statement is divided into three parts: the current situation or existing state of the problem, the impact the problem has on the organization, and the desired state one would like to achieve by solving the problem or improving the process. Probletunity is used to bring clarity to an existing problem and to identify a vision of what is hoped to be achieved. It focuses on the problem without stumbling over possible causes or jumping to conclusions. Probletunity creates a mechanism to communicate to the outside world what a team is working on and provides focus for a team.
Nominal
Group Technique. Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is used to find
problem areas and generate a course of action. It gives each member of the team
equal opportunity to state a problem or solution without intimidation. NGT not
only takes away the power of strong personality, it also removes the stigma
that the voice of leadership is the only voice heard. NGT gives everyone a
feeling of importance. All suggestions are equal, all people are equal. It
speeds up the decision process, giving concrete evidence of where the group as
a whole is headed. NGT can be used to find problem areas and, by using the same
process, gives the group a point of focus fo
Deployment Flow Chart. Deployment Flow Chart (DFC) shows the flow of a process and the people involved in each step. It provides a graphic representation of a given process or system. DFC helps everyone involved in a process to see how their responsibilities relate to the whole process. It defines work processes and helps people to realize that there is indeed a process or system or lack thereof.
Process Decision Program Chart. Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC) is a tool that reveals unplanned events that are unlikely or unintentional. PDPC then identifies ways of preventing these events. It gives an overview of a project with potential problems that could occur, therefore saving time and money.
Facilitation of Square Wheels™
Organizational change efforts that focus on participative involvement, process improvement and customer relations are most successful when they promote learning throughout the entire organization. Learning in the form of facilitation rather than teaching has been proven effective with Square Wheels™ (Simmerman, 1988). Team facilitators, team leaders, and team members have been engaging in effective performance improvement strategies.
Illustration 1 Square Wheels One™, if used in the appropriate
activity, effectively facilitates performance improvement. The goal of this
illustration and its accompanying activity is to provide a practical and
pragmatic approach to engaging and enlisting team facilitators, team leaders,
and team members in performance improvement. Although this approach is
specific, the skills learned inductively as this activity is facilitated
(listening, discussion, reframing, summarizing and prioritizing) are easily
transferred to other leadership opportunities.
Virtual Teams Resources
StartWright™ offers an online reference site for the information needs of information technology project managers and support staff traveling to, starting up, and working on remote, dispersed or virtual projects. StartWright.com has assembled comprehensive list of links and articles on virtual teams and virtual team management. Among its exhaustive list of contents include Startwright's Project Management Tools for collaboration.
Project Management Templates.
Project Management templates (Method123) provides documents, processes, tools,
templates and methods required for virtual management team. The following plans
and processes offer deliverables pertinent to virtual management teams as they
work to produce results: