Facilitate Continuous Improvement - Role Play, Communication Process, Strategies and Monitoring

Running Head: FACILITATE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 1
Facilitate Continuous Improvement

FACILITATE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 2
Table of Contents
Role Play..........................................................................................................................................3
Communication Process..................................................................................................................4
Follow-up Communication Document............................................................................................5
Summary Report..............................................................................................................................5
Communications Strategy................................................................................................................7
Leverage Technology..................................................................................................................8
Emphasize on Continuous Improvement...................................................................................10
Informing procedure......................................................................................................................10
Monitoring strategy for team performance....................................................................................11
Procedure for managers to run improvement sessions..................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Role Play
In an effort of improving the quality and performance of the operations of the business of
Australian Hardware and bringing about continuous improvement, as a continuous improvement
consultant, I would set up a team role-playing session. As an assessor, I would bring together all
the employees and quality analysts and representatives. The people brought together would then
be divided into two groups. Group A would represent the quality analysts and Group B would
represent the performance analysts. I would inform Group A that the quality of the products of
Australian Hardware is very important to its customers and clients. It is the product quality due
to which the company has been able to retain all its customers and attracting new ones as well.
Hence, it can afford to lose on its customers by compromising with the quality.
Then I would inform Group B that the performance of every individual employee of
Australian Hardware is very important to be improved in order to achieve the primary objectives
of the organization and attain sustainability in the long run. Better performance of every
employee would result in better performance of the organization as a whole.
After this I would allow the two groups to brainstorm for some time. Now, with this
specific approach of role play, each of the groups would send forth an actor for taking part in the
role play. One person from the quality and one from the performance would be selected. These
actors would coaching and support from their team members throughout the process of role-
playing. Each team is allowed for taking time-outs and would need to regroup in the earliest of
time.
I would then run through the scenario numerous times, beginning with communication
strategies and ending with monitoring strategies. Each time, a solution that suits the best would

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be found. I can also ask for additional suggestions and role-playing if I felt that the procedure
needs to be continued or if the teams are yet to discover better solutions and strategies.
The primary areas that would require primary attention to be paid by both the teams are
organizational sustainability, post customer interaction revenue, costs of operations, customer
service satisfaction across company’s products like electrical and plumbing, tools and
homewares, hardware, garden products, timber, etc. Possible improvements can be brought in the
areas mentioned above.
Once it becomes clear that the team can no more identify further strategies and solutions,
I would bring both the teams together and discuss the session further on. During this process, we
would discuss the solutions and strategies that had been implemented by the actors, and how
these could be applied to the company’s operations and situations. I would then ask each of the
two teams to write brief summary about their learning from the exercise. The summaries would
then be combined and a copy of the same that contains everything that has been learnt would be
provided to all the participants.
Communication Process
In order to communicate the outcomes and results of the role-playing session to the teams
and stakeholders, the communication processes that would be followed are informal and formal
communication. During the role-playing session, the gossip network of the informal
communication would be followed since here every individual would be communicating with
each other on a non-selective basis. When the reports of the outcomes are communicated to the
stakeholders and the company’s management, the free flow network of the horizontal formal
communication would be implemented. Every individual can communicate with another freely.