Workshop Pre-Study Materials and Exercises

Workshop pre-study materials and exercises

Class on 5 June – Leadership, Human Resource Focus of Total Quality, Empowerment, Team Building and Training

Beyond Total Quality Management – Learn to LIVE the talk

We go to class and listen and discuss, we debate with our friends, our colleagues and family, we complain to our selves and others and then we do the same old thing day after day after day.

My challenge to you is to not only learn the theory, but to experiment and explore and make a commitment to yourself to constantly collect data about what is happening; prioritize your actions and take action not only for your self. You really need to cause others to take effective action. We need to… Learn to live the talk ! Agree ? …… So how to get started ?

I. Reading materials (the more you read the more theory you will have)

Introduction to Dr. Deming’s concepts and the RED BEAD Experiment prepared by Michael Arthur Johnson and excerpted from the following sources:

1. W. Edwards Deming Web site -- http://www.deming.org

2. Information on Tom Peters author of book In Search of Excellence -- http://www.tompeters.com

3. 7 Basic Habits of Highly Effective People - http://speakers.com/covey.html --http://www.franklincovey.com/training/business/7h_workshop.html

4. Newspaper article 19 November 1998, Indian Express Newspapers, Bombay, India entitled “Of red beads, white beads & professional management, Written by: Manjari Raman -- http://www.redbead.com/expressindia19111998.html

5. What would you do – if you knew you could not fail? -- http://www.tonyrobbins.com/

8. Creating world class relationship skills -- http://www.dale-carnegie.com/

9. Resume Mike Johnson -- http://www.redbead.com/images/mike_johnson_cv.PDF

II. Pre-class brainstorm exercises (the more you do the more you will grow)

1. Describe yourself as a person in terms of a “product for sale” similar to any other commercial product such as a bottle of Coca Cola or a package of breakfast cereal or a large screen television. Develop a marketing slogan; summarize your features and benefits and perhaps even prepare a one page brochure.

2. Think of yourself as a person in terms of being a small business. Outline your business strategy incorporating your product description information (item 1 above). Identify who are your customers for your product/service and who are your key suppliers. Summarize in outline form what each is expecting from you and you are expecting of them.

3. Consider that since the world is a never ending source of problems you will always have more to do each day than there is time to do it. Identify your set of priorities that allows you to determine which tasks you work on first, second, third, etc, and which tasks you decide not to work on at all.

4. Brainstorm with your self; your friends; and co-workers, the top ten items that you would like to improve in your professional life. After developing the list, use the set of priorities developed in item 3 above and prioritize your items for improvement.

5. Think of yourself as a saw blade (used to cut wood or other materials). Use this as a metaphor for you as a person in your business life. Describe the importance of a saw’s condition in comparison to your condition as a person. What is important and not important for you as an individual?

6. Make a list of the items or concepts that you want to obtain from this class and/or me as your discussion leader. Be as specific as possible. Limit to ten prioritized items.

7. Describe in three to five sentences, the relationship and differences between the meaning of the words: 1. knowledge; 2. theory; 3. experience

8. From the word pairs listed below, select two to five word pairs and describe in three to five sentences the relationship; the differences and the common element to the meaning of these words.

desires / expectations

dreams / aspirations

discussion / planning

fear / trust

spending / investing

repair / solution

think / analyze

problem / roadblock (broad sense)

ask for / negotiate

telling / leading

commitment / decision

communication / talking

goals / objectives

permanent / temporary

repair / prevent

create / invent / innovate

criticize / condemn / complain

live / exist

transform / change