1-2 pargraphs response to 2 Colleagues Assignment
Respond to 2 Colleagues Assignments. The assignments for each are attached. Assignment Instructions are attached also. Use APA citations and references. I have a attached a article just for reference also.
****you should review your colleagues submissions and provide feedback to at least two colleagues that have yet to receive feedback from two students. In your response, include whether you think the diagram effectively documents the case and whether the loops are self-evident and whether the diagram captures cause and effect. Provide an example to support your position. If for some reason your submission has not been reviewed, please either seek out a colleague to review your work or utilize peer reviews of other posts to help enhance your final submission of yourSystems Analysis Portfolio, due in Week 5.
Note
that an exemplary Peer Review post demonstratesall of the following:
Provides constructive, substantial, and meaningful input that is specific and directly related to the work-product of the colleague as it pertains to the assignment and weekly outcomes that will further assist your peer in developing his or her treatise
Provides comments on organization, grammar, and proper APA formatting
Remains professional in tone at all times
Note:
Comments such as Good Job or Interesting Project may be made as encouragement but will not count for credit toward your peer review(s).
General Guidance on Peer Feedback Length:Feedback to a peer will typically be 12 paragraphs, and may also include revisions to the diagram itself. Assignment: Creating Systems Diagrams Opportunity Consultants Inc.
9/16/2020
Summary
Utilizing the 5 Whys tool, I created a systems diagram to analyze why OCI was in danger of disbanding. Dardens reputation within the community is starting to suffer as a result of the poor performance of the student Opportunity Consultants Inc. (OCI) group (Landel & Reynolds, 2007). Given that Darden students are in the program for only 2 years, the leaders of OCI need to create a plan for resiliency with the naturally high turnover rate. Looking at the systems diagram it becomes clear that poor project outcomes and students having a bad experience participating with OCI are in a negative reinforcing feedback loop (Meadows, 2008). Poor project outcomes reduce student morale (Landel & Reynolds, 2007). Low student morale contributes to poor project outcomes (Landel & Reynolds, 2007). By going deeper into the causes (with the 5 whys), we can see that with limited student availability for scheduling and limited training, OCIs capacity is lower than the groups ideal project performance.
Recommendations
To encourage greater student commitment to OCI projects, Darden can involve faculty to provide continuity and resiliency within OCI systems. With faculty guidance and training, students can avoid making beginner mistakes as they reinvent the wheel every year. Students can gain valuable consulting experience. To improve project performance, OCI can limit student membership to a level where quality projects and the ideal number of student participants is in equilibrium. Limiting the number of students that can participate can have the effect of motivating students as it becomes an honor to be chosen to contribute. Motivation could increase further if students could earn credit. To improve project quality, OCI can shift the dynamic of client acquisition to putting out a request for proposals. A request for proposal would better define the type of projects OCI wants to attract instead of leaving the requests open-ended and initiated by potential clients. This would also reduce the disconnect between client expectations and OCIs resources and capacity.
OCI Disband
Negatively impacting
Dardens reputation
Students have a bad experience
participating in OCI projects
Poor quality of projects
Club policy to accept all
students, not enough quality
projects to pursue
Bad reputation with businesses
inclusivity
Mismatch in # of student
contributors and OCI leaders
Scheduling conflicts
2nd year students as leaders,
less enthusiastic
Poor project outcomes
Projects have to be completed
within school year
Difficult to recruit students and
assign to projects quickly
Limits scope
Poor quality of projects
Disconnect between client
expectations & OCI resources
Scope & feasibility beyond OCIs
capacity
Companies want cheap labor ECE LOGIC TREE DIAGRAM
Club was not improving year after year due to bad results
Application process was flawed
Disconnect between the expectations of a potential client and the resources of the club
Students had scheduling conflicts
2nd year leaders did not show as much interest
It was unpredictable to determine how many projects the club would have
Poor quality of work on prior projects
Dissatisfied clients discouraged others from using club
Club members needed better training
Quality of projects were low
Staffing vs number of projects was not managed properly
Leadership team was not effective
Student club has developed a poor reputation in the community
The student club for the Opportunity Consultants, Inc (OCI) at the Darden Graduate Business School was starting to concern the school due to the bad reputation that created. The purpose of the club was to provide free consulting services to the community, however the club started producing poor quality of work which created a negative light on them. The leadership team needed to think of ways to improve the work within the club so they would not have to be disbanded.
Some of the issues within the club included lack of leadership from the leadership team and too many club members with not enough projects. The leadership team consisted of 2nd year students because they had the experience and knowledge to know how the club should be ran. The problem from the leadership team is that some of the members were not as invested as they should have been due to being dissatisfied with the clubs prior results. It was club policy never to turn away members, the job of staffing projects required skill, (Landel & Reynolds, 2007). This created problems if there were not enough projects for the number of members that were in the club. This created low productivity and created dissatisfaction from the members. The club members also needed better training to eliminate any members not knowing how the club works. One of the ways I feel these issues could be solved is by providing training and creating a policy book that the club can follow. It would help eliminate a lot of the problems they seem to have.
Other issues the club has been faced with are low quality projects being offered to the club and the club having a bad reputation in the community. Since the club developed the bad reputation the amount of quality projects has decreased. This is due to the club producing poor work and former clients giving them bad reviews to their peers. The dissatisfied customers were telling others not to use the club because they were not providing services up to their standards. I think if the club shows they are able to produce better work it will help them to get better quality projects. Even though they offer pro bono work they are still required to provide the best service possible. Once their reputation improves in the community they will hear from more prospective clients. There should also be a clear understanding of what the club can offer their clients so there is no misunderstanding of what they should expect to receive.
I feel if the club follows the advice given, they can work there way back to having a good reputation and they can become a club that is looked at in high regard by the school. Having a strong leadership team is one of the first things that need to change. I feel that if there are 1st year members who show they possess the leadership skills needed then they should be allowed to become a part of the leadership team. The team should not consist of members just because they were on the team before. You need a leadership team that will dedicate the time needed to get this club where it needs to be. With these changes I feel the club could repair their reputation within the school year. By next year there could be way more projects available for more members which will allow the club to continue to grow.
Reference
Landel, R., & Reynolds, W. (2007).Opportunity Consultants, Inc., 2007[Case study]. HBS Case UV0833. Charlottesville, VA: Darden Business Publishing. UV0833
This case was prepared by R. William Reynolds (MBA 07), and Robert D. Landel, the Henry E. McWane Professor
of Business Administration. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or
ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright 2007 by the University of Virginia Darden School
Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to
[emailprotected] No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwisewithout the permission of the Darden School Foundation.
OPPORTUNITY CONSULTANTS, INC., 2007
The lackluster reputation of the student club Opportunity Consultants, Inc., (OCI) was
beginning to concern the administration of the Darden Graduate Business School. The poor
quality of the work produced by the club, which provided pro bono consulting services to local
small businesses and nonprofits in Charlottesville, Virginia, was negatively impacting the
schools brand within the community. Unless rapid and sustainable initiatives to improve client
satisfaction were implemented, the club was in danger of being disbanded. To avoid that
undesirable result, OCI leadership enlisted the support of a select group of second-year students
to help the club improve its performance.
The student turnaround team conducted multiple informal interviews with club
members and analyzed the processes driving client acquisition, project selection, member
recruiting, and project staffing, as well as the overall dynamics of project teams. The work of the
turnaround team revealed several factors that it believed limited productivity and interfered with
the quality of the work of the project teams. Based on these findings, the team proposed several
initiatives that it thought would significantly improve client satisfaction and begin to turn OCIs
reputation around during the next year.
Proposed Initiatives
Client acquisition and project selection
While advertising for clients drew a sizable number of applications, there were several
drawbacks. For one, the year-to-year response rate was unpredictable. In addition, there was a
frequent disconnect between the expectations of a potential client and the resources of the club.
Many applications were rejected outright because of scope and feasibility, while others were
discarded when it was obvious that the potential clients viewed OCI as a source of cheap,
worker-bee labor. Increased advertising improved the number but not necessarily the quality of
potential projects. Currently, OCI had accumulated $2,200 in its treasury. Next years treasury
would consist of the money not spent this year plus the income from completed projects
multiplied by the standard $300 fee; there was talk of changing the fee.
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The club credited a number of its applications to personal referrals from satisfied clients
in the community and to its reputation. One referral from a satisfied influential client would often
lead to numerous good referrals. Unfortunately, the reverse was also true, and dissatisfied clients
had discouraged their peers from utilizing the club. Compared to the rapid turnaround in the
performance of business clients served by OCI, improvement in the clubs reputation would take
longer by several years as many former business clients now had new, satisfied owners who
probably had neither knowledge nor need of OCIs services.
Under the current process of client acquisition, only a low percentage of inquiries were
considered for high-quality projects, and the large membership of the club required OCI to select
a minimum number of projects. As limiting club membership was not an option, in many cases,
projects deemed low in quality were selected. By accepting projects of poor quality, OCI was
forced to assign unappealing projects to club members, with the result that the projects were a
poor fit, adversely affecting not only the quality of the project work, but also the satisfaction of
club members. It was a vicious circle that the club wanted to break.
The turnaround team believed it would be unwise for OCI to even consider breaking out
of its current slump without first improving both the number and the quality of projects from
which to choose, and the quality of projects from advertising and personal referrals would
improve only after the clubs reputation had significantly improved. The team proposed two
initiatives. The first involved using faculty connections for quality leads, as Darden faculty not
only understood the capabilities of OCI, but also were connected to the local business
community. The team believed that faculty should be encouraged to recommend projects of high
quality that would fit OCIs requirements. The downside was that faculty members had their own
reputations to consider and were wary of referring business acquaintances to an organization
with a reputation for poor delivery.
The second initiative required a proactive approach by club leaders, who considered
actively soliciting Charlottesville businesses that had some personal appeal. They believed that
this effort would not only yield projects of better quality, but also increase the attractiveness of
and personal commitment to the targeted projects, which, in turn, would improve the
productivity and motivation of project team members. But there was a catch. Cold-calling local
companies needed to take place during August and September, months traditionally scheduled
for recruiting new members. If club leaders continued the practice of targeted cold-calling, they
would have to accept a trade-off owing to time constraints.
Member recruiting
Unlike other clubs, OCI had an extremely small window of opportunity in which to sign
up new and returning members. Under the clubs timeline, all OCI projects had to be completed
by the end of the school year, so staffing decisions were made by early October. Club
membership was highly erratic as several factors had an effect on first-year recruiting. Often,
prospective members conversations with former members impeded recruitment; it was a double-
edged sword that could either increase or decrease the sign-up rate, depending on a former
members experience during the previous year. Former members level of satisfaction with the
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OCI experience also directly influenced the second-year return rate as dissatisfied former
members not only tended not to return but also encouraged others to do the same. Club
leadership devoted a significant amount of effort and resources to recruit new members.
Currently, all resources in September were dedicated to recruiting, and the turnaround team
challenged the idea that it was the most efficient use of resources.
Offering course credit was the solution proposed year after year and was unlikely ever to
be approved. The turnaround team believed it would be valuable to model, however, because of
the insights into system dynamics that it might reveal.
Project staffing
Because it was club policy never to turn away members, the job of staffing projects
required skill. The standard staffing level for a project was seven (six first-year students led by
one second-year student). If there were not enough projects, however, staffing levels were raised
significantly, which often had an adverse effect on productivity and member satisfaction. The
only means of lowering the staffing levels was to accept more projects, but when the quality of
the projects was low, this decision led to the same negative results. Although club leaders wanted
to select only high-quality projects, they knew that, in the current situation, this initiative would
create unacceptably high staffing levels.
OCI leaders were responsible for overseeing the projects, but because there were only
five members on the leadership committee, their ability to provide effective supervision would
be severely limited if the total number of projects grew, as more than two projects per leader was
considered unwieldy.
Team dynamics
The turnaround team did not blame the low number of quality projects entirely for the
poor quality of the project work. In deciding to challenge OCIs long-held assumption that the
most effective staffing model was six first-year students and one second-year student, the team
had formed several conclusions.
The first concerned the assumption that returning second-year students made the best
project leaders because they had work experience and would be effective leaders owing to their
recent experience with OCI. Although the turnaround team generally agreed with this premise, it
wondered whether that was part of the problem because the low quality of last years work and
leadership example had resulted in team leaders with poor skill sets and expectations. In other
words, were the policies of second-year students leading individual teams to worsen OCIs rut?
Considering productivity to be as important as the quality of the work, the turnaround
team focused on the ideal size for a project team, keeping in mind that the more members
working on a project, the higher the scheduling conflicts, which was the greatest hindrance to
productivity. But there was a limit to reducing the size of a project team. The turnaround team
believed that fewer than four members on a project resulted in an overwhelming workload and
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UV0833 -4-
damaged both motivation and productivity. The most revealing insight concerned the second-
year students, who had different schedules than the first-year students. This difference
dramatically increased scheduling conflicts, so in that respect, second-year students position as
project leaders only exacerbated the situation.
Although motivation was hard to measure, first-year students appeared to be more
motivated than their second-year leaders because they were interested in learning about the
consulting experience and how to pad their rsums. And unless the second-year leader was
attracted to a particular project, he or she often showed less motivation than the rest of the team.
While this assessment usually applied, the overall motivation of the team fluctuated during the
academic year. In general, the higher the team members perceived the quality and productivity of
their work, the greater their morale. OCI suspected that offering course credit would improve the
motivation of second-year students, but was hesitant to use this rationale as an argument for
policy change.
Another idea considered by club members was whether to offer formal training in five
sessions based on portions of the one-week Darden Consulting Process course. It was hoped that
the training would improve the quality of OCI work, but finding enough time to fit in the five
sessions would be difficult, and the turnaround team worried that the sessions would aggravate
students scheduling conflicts.
Simulation Model Development
After gathering the data and considering the various proposed initiatives, the turnaround
team developed an interactive simulation model to help OCI leadership recognize how all the
system variables interacted. The team ran a base case to show the slow, subtle cycle of decay
within the organization and then proceeded to model several of the proposed initiatives. OCI
leadership was then be able to understand to what extent the current cycle needed to be broken in
order to set OCI on the path to a sustainable, high-quality level of performance. The model
would help club leadership decide on the various operational policy changes to make at the start
of a given year and other years by running the model over a series of four years. The goal was to
find the best way to effect significant turnaround improvement and to devise sustainable policies
for the long term.
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09/07-12/27-PT2 at Laureate Education – Walden University, 2020.
