Week 7: The vital few: Setting priorities, decision making

Description

Not everything is equal. This may be obvious, however many managers and leaders act as though each problem, each opportunity, each customer, each employee has equal value or impact on the business. Unfortunately, if you act on each of the above as if the content had equal value, you will not be an effective manager or leader. In this module, you will learn about a fundamental principle of quality management and leadership, the Pareto principle. The terminology that you may have heard in the past is the 80/20 rule which is a rule of thumb for the application of the Pareto principle. You will not be caught in the trap of being ineffective after you learn this material. It is one of the most important principles you will learn.

Outcomes

• As a manager, you will analyze work, problems, or opportunities, and prioritize what is most important and what is least important. You will make decisions based on your ability to prioritize to improve the effectiveness of your actions.
• As a manager you will confidently talk about Pareto and the 80/20 rule and train others to use this concept as you are able to.

Performance tasks

• Choose one issue that seems complex to you. Pole those on your team about what they feel are the causes of the issue. It will be best to have a high number of responses. Tally the results. Arrange the results in frequency of response from highest frequency to lowest frequency. Determine which causes constitute 80% of the problem. Be ready to share at the workshop.

A good way to do this quickly is to get a group together and give all of them PostIt notes. State the problem. Then ask each of them to write down what they feel are the causes to the problem, each cause on a PostIt note. Should take no longer than 5 minutes. Collect the responses and tally on your own. You will not have time to collect data unless you already have it so this is the easiest way to do this.

•   Reflect on how the Pareto principle fits into what you have learned in the previous modules of this course.

Week 7 assignment

  Please read the following articles on "The Vital Few". Each will contribute to your understanding of this critical body of knowledge that will be necessary for you to lead and manage effectively. Read the articles in order as the complexity and demand on your understanding of basic principles will increase as you proceed through each reading.

• The Vital Few, an introduction
• The Vital Few, a brief overview
• A culture of contribution
• A history of Juran
• A 100 years of Juran if you have time

  For those of you who have a thirst for understanding how to apply this material, I encourage you to add to your reading "How to use Pareto". This will give you an excellent foundation for the use of Pareto in your everyday work.

  In one page or less, reflect on how you will use the Pareto principle to improve the way you work, manage, and lead. Be ready to share during the next workshop.

  "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
~ Mark Twain

Are you ready to move on?

When you are finished with the assignment from the week seven self-study learning assignment, please go onto the week eight self-study learning assignment. If you have any questions, please contact your instructor. 

We recommend that you build ongoing conversations with our fellow learners via the discussion board. 

 
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