|
||
To return to the Table of Contents click here. To print copies of the CAPS materials click here. |
Student name: _____________________________________Date: _____________
MODULE
34
Discuss
the importance to adapt to change.
Objectives:
To demonstrate understanding of
A. Continuous change
B. Why business and
industry needs to adapt to change
C. How the workforce
changes
D. The process of
brainstorming
E. Total Quality
and the need for continuous improvement
F. Cooperation
G. Adapting
to change by completing short answer segment
MODULE 34: INFORMATION SHEET
TO THE STUDENT: Read and study this information sheet and then
complete the student activities at the end of this module.
Keeping pace with change
I would like to start with a saying used in business and industry that reflects the need for change.
"If
you always do
What
you always did
You'll
always get
What
you always got."
Why
Change?
Change. If you made a list of words
that are “easier said than done” the word "change" would be at the
top of the list. One syllable, six letters, meaning to alter, vary, or make
different, the word "change" elicits a broad spectrum of conflicting
emotions from anyone who hears it. What happens to you when you think about
change? What are the first words or
images that come to mind?
Describe
several changes you have had to deal with within the last three
years
and how you felt about them.
Keeping the Pace With Change
"Your teacher's role is to
prepare you, the students, to succeed in a work environment where change is
continuous and adaptability an essential employee attribute." The work
environment has seen significant and experiencing rapid transformation in
recent years.
Why
has the work environment changed?
1. The incredibly fast evolution of technology.
2. The increasing cultural diversity of the
workplace.
3. The emerging global marketplace.
4. The changes in education itself.
What was appropriate just a few years ago must be continually evaluated and updated to keep pace with the rapidly changing workplace.
In addition to technological skills,
you need to develop the personal characteristics and basic workplace skills
that successful employees exhibit. While technical ability may help you land a
job, the ability to work harmoniously with others, to accept responsibility, to
follow directions, to behave in an ethical manner, to communicate effectively,
and to learn independently will help you keep the job and achieve your career
goal.
Employee/Workforce
change
Employers today are looking for
workers who are skilled at decision-making, time and task management (How many
times has your instructor or employer reminded you to get back to work?) and
project planning. They expect workers to be aware of their own strengths and
weaknesses, to want to "grow on the job" and to have well-defined
career goals.
Give
examples of decisions you have made during your work experience.
As change is planned you may be
involved in the process of brainstorming. This activity increases your
alternatives when you suspend judgment during the idea-gathering stage,
accumulate options, and evaluate them later.
People whose jobs require them to
solve problems, make group decisions, plan for the future, or be creative are
familiar with brainstorming technique. Advertising teams commonly use it to
generate ad campaign ideas. Brainstorming is used at work in union/management
meetings when ideas are needed to prevent a strike or in corporate board rooms
when sales need to be increased. Therapists brainstorm with their clients;
teachers with their students; supervisors with their employees; generals with
their staffs. There is no better way to increase alternatives.
How
to brainstorm
To brainstorm, you turn down the
volume on your inner critic and let the creative juices flow, freeing you to
seek out any and all possibilities. Brainstorming asks you to identify, without
evaluation, every conceivable alternative -- no matter how wacky, wild, or
improbable that alternative appears to be at first glance. Brain-storming can
be employed to generate alternatives to any situation. (Dr. Sidney B. Simon,
Getting Unstuck, pp. 100.)
How many times have you brainstormed with friends what to do on a Friday night?
Change is brought about in the
workforce to improve quality. Total
Quality is involvement of everyone in continuous improvement of systems to
produce products and services which result in customer loyalty now and in the
future.
Give
examples of what type of products or service you consider to be quality.
In order to accomplish goals, people in business and industry need to cooperate. To cooperate is to act together with another person or other people. People who cooperate join forces to reach a common goal or solve a mutual problem. They unite to emotionally support one another, share wisdom, and benefit from each other's experiences. Cooperation creates partnerships. Each partner brings someone into the cooperative effort and gets something out of it. They pull together and as a result achieve more than they could if they worked alone.
Cooperation provides you the
emotional support or practical assistance you need to succeed. It supplies
encouragement or backing from allies and it helps you deal with new or
unexpected obstacles and problems. On the other hand, a lack of cooperation
limits the help you receive and the success you are able to achieve. It leaves
you discouraged and often prompts you to turn back at the first sign of
resistance without having solved the problem. Ultimately, cooperation is the
difference between being supported or being sabotaged.
The involvement of everyone in the
changing process is important. Everyone must do his or her best and the system
that is in place must also help people do well. Everyone has a role in quality
improvement. Long-term success requires a never-ending journey of improvement
(through the application of theory and a systematic process using appropriate
tools).
Continuous improvement is vital for
all systems (design, production, delivery, service, learning, etc.) of
purposeful activities. All products and services that help achieve the
organization's purpose should be addressed through improvement activities. The
result is fulfillment of customer needs and expectations so well that customers
keep coming back for products and services and boast about them to their
friends and neighbors. Practice and improve this approach over the long-term,
even anticipating customer needs and expectations as they change, without
neglecting the realities of the present.
When we take a closer look at the chain reaction from the issues we see how change interacts with quality and how quality work effects lasting change.
Improve
Quality
Reduce Costs Provide
Jobs and
More
Jobs
Foundation
Principles
Improve Stay
in Business
Productivity
Capture the
Market
1. Improve Quality - Quality is the focus; all that follows in the Chain Reaction results from improvement of quality and will not be sustainable over the long term without it.
2. Reduce Costs - As quality improves,
costs are reduced because waste is minimized.
3. Improve Productivity - As costs are
reduced, fewer of the organization's resources are spent producing defective
goods and services, leaving them free to be devoted to work that adds value.
4. Capture the Market - Improved
productivity enables the organization to pass savings along to customers, thus
attracting more customers to the market through lower prices as well as
improved quality. New markets are created by producing products and services
that meet changing customer needs.
5. Stay in Business - Capturing the increasing
market helps ensure that long-term viability of the organization.
6. Provide Jobs and More Jobs - An
organization that focuses on quality and realizes the benefits that come from
continuous improvement will be able to contribute significantly to the quality
of life of an increasing number of people. It will contribute by creating jobs,
as well as creating the organization's products and services for customer use.
Tips
on Good Relations
Adapted from Dale Carnegie Course in Effective Speaking and The Art of Winning Friends and Influencing People.
How to Change People Without
Offending or Arousing Resentment
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes
indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing
the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct
orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement. Be
"hearty in your approval and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to
live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy
to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the
thing you suggest.
MODULE
34: STUDENT ACTIVITIES
TO THE STUDENT:
After reading and studying the Information Sheet, complete the following
questions.
1. Define the
following words:
a. change:
b. cooperation:
c. lack of cooperation:
d. brainstorming:
e. quality:
2. Describe in a complete paragraph what you
think of when someone mentions the word "change." Is it a positive or negative reaction?
3. Describe three
changes you would like to see occur at your worksite.
4. Interview
an individual, age 40 or older. Write a narrative essay about some of the
changes this individual observed in his/her lifetime. Include at least one
that was viewed as positive, and one viewed as negative, and how the individual
adapted to the negative change.
5. Write a persuasive essay about three changes
you anticipate facing in your next 5 years. How do you plan to deal with these
changes in a positive manner? What negative changes may impact you? How do you
plan to deal with these?
MODULE 34: STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN
THIS MODULE
Pennsylvania’s Academic Standards for Career Education and Work
13.3.11. Career
Retention (Keeping a Job)
F. Analyze the impact of change on the evolving world economy and the individual’s work.
Pennsylvania’s
Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening (RWSL)
1.1.11. Learning
to Read Independently
E. Establish a reading vocabulary by identifying and correctly using new words acquired through the study of their relationships to other words. Use a dictionary or related reference.
1.4.11.
Types of Writing
C. Write persuasive pieces.
· Include a clearly stated position or opinion.
· Include convincing, elaborated and properly cited evidence.
· Develop reader interest.
· Anticipate and counter reader concerns and arguments.
· Include a variety of methods to advance the argument or position.
1.5.11. Quality
of Writing
A. Write with a sharp, distinct focus.
· Identify topic, task and audience.
· Establish and maintain a single point of view.
F. Edit writing using the conventions of language.
· Spell all words correctly.
· Use capital letters correctly.
· Punctuate correctly (periods, exclamation points, question marks, commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, colons, semicolons, parentheses, hyphens, brackets, ellipses).
· Use nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections properly.
· Use complete sentences (simple, compound, complex, declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative).
1.6.11
Speaking and Listening
A. Listen to others.
· Ask clarifying questions.
· Synthesize information, ideas and opinions to determine relevancy.
· Take notes.
| ©
2003. The Professional Personnel Development Center , Penn State University. |
| To return to the Table of Contents click here. To print copies of the CAPS materials click here. |