Overview
PMGT 576
This assignment is a two-part comprehensive exam.
Agile Lean Transformational Leaders – Final Exam - Part 1
You have just been named to be the leader of a home health care agency. The agency employs 35 registered nurses, 3 intake agents, a receptionist/administrative assistant and an office manager. The previous leader led the agency for the past 25 years making very few changes - she was happy with the status quo. Upon assuming your leadership role you notice several alarming issues:
1. The culture of the organization is very set in its ways. Employees do not feel empowered and there is little to no communication among the staff and virtually no accountability.
2. It takes one nurse to complete 10 different forms all completed manually to admit a new person for services.
3. In the office, you see people waiting for service at different areas or points of service. For example, you also see people waiting for signatures and the real reason for the needed signatures is not known. People are being shuffled from one area to another with no logical flow.
4. Information is often entered on the forms incorrectly leading to work being passed on that is incomplete, incorrect, or requires clarification.
Utilizing your understanding of Agile Lean thinking, principles, tools, and techniques that have been discussed so far in the course, please describe one step or action that you, as the Agile Lean leader, would take in your transformation effort in addressing items 1 through 4.
Your answer to each of the four items above should incorporate the following information:
1. The specific action step you would take.
2. Explain why you selected this specific action and what you expect it to accomplish.
3. Explain how you would, as the leader, would gain staff buy-in.
4. What specific tool or technique would you use in addressing the item? Explain why you selected this tool or technique.
Agile Lean Transformational Leaders – Final Exam - Part 2
Ahmed is the new general manager of Harrisburg Ford. He oversees the sales of new and used cars and the follow-up service with customers. Since this is a highly competitive industry Ahmed is fully aware that it is imperative that he seize every opportunity to continuously improve the performance of his team members and the services they render. The specific areas Ahmed is responsible for managing include: the sales department, financing unit, service department, and the after-sales customer support unit.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, Ahmed and his team, conducted several activities to gather data for their improvement efforts. These activities included on-line customer surveys, in-person follow- up calls, supply chain analysis and the analysis of sales and service-related data. Several ideas emerged from these actions. These included:
- Potentially providing better financing rates
- Possibly adding more suppliers as options to purchase parts and materials
- Consideration of Introducing changes in the approach of salespeople in their selling techniques
- Possibly introducing a service called 'collect and return service' for businesspeople and business cars
- Potentially introducing a free shuttle van to connect with the nearby shopping center and adding a pick-up and drop-off service for customers who bring their own cars for service.
Ahmed recognizes that these improvements can be done all at once. Plus, he knows, being a smart Agile Lean leader that the improvements must be well-communicated to the team and properly documented for future planning. He realizes this is important and must be done regularly to facilitate continuous improvement efforts.
Place yourself in Ahmed’s position and understand the need to make some decisions. In this assignment you are to discuss the following:
- Determine and describe how Ahmed could select which of the five potential actions listed above should be undertaken first. Suggest different strategies Ahmed could use to examine which opportunity to select. Explain your reasoning.
- Using your selection in question 1 above, describe any data to be collected and how this data can be obtained.
- Which continuous improvement technique(s) should Ahmed use? How can Ahmed involve his team and gain buy-in for the selection of the continuous improvement effort?
- To facilitate identifying the progress, or lack thereof, regarding the selected continuous improvement project what monitoring systems should Ahmed use?
- Prepare a Lean Change Canvas illustrating the actions reflected in items 1 - 4.
- Describe the challenges you foresee in introducing the changes in the organization and how you would overcome these challenges utilizing ADKAR and Kotter’s Eight Steps.
The deliverable of the assignment is a 7-to-9-page paper that addresses all of the items listed above. You are to use at least 4 scholarly resources to support your work. Your title and reference pages should not be included in the page count. Proper APA citing and formatting is to be used.
Please Note: The level of performance expected for students on core competencies and program learning outcomes varies depending on the course. The numbers at the end of the key assignment name identify the expected level of performance for a specific key assignment. For example, for the key assignment entitled “HU14 GEND 201 Final Research Paper KA1 85%2,” the 85%2 part of the title means that 85% of students are expected to score a level 2 on a four-point scale where level 1 represents a novice rating, and a level 4 represents an advanced rating.