Group Facilitation Organization Using the Theory of Term Paper

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group facilitation organization using the theory of constraint as portrayed by Eliyahu Goldratt. It uses 3 sources in MLA format.

The purpose of any management theory is to achieve maximum productivity out of limited resources. This could be done through process management and inventory management. There have been many studies conducted on this topic but Eli Goldratt provides a comprehensive background for management application. The reason being that he provides practical solutions to management problems from the viewpoint of a manager. Any one in a supervisory level will understand how management works and could easily adapt his theory of constraint to their own situation and finally resolve the situation according to the organization need. After having studied his theory of constraint as portrayed in the Goal and Its Not Luck, I have also endeavor to apply it to my organization. Its analysis is as follows:

group facilitation consultancy service company

Group Facilitation Consultancy Company is a group facilitation consultancy service company since 19- . The company has - members that provide consultancy services to its various clients. The company believes in providing enabling management solutions to its clients and not just merely solutions to their problems. Of course this risks the loss of clients completely but the company's mission right from the beginning has been to resolve problems for its clients comprehensively so that there is little recurrence of the same problems. In this it depends on its learning experience from the various client groups and facilitates this learning experience to future groups by expediting consultancy services. Group activities include directing planning process, resolving disputes, solicit input and brainstorming. The facilitation service usually takes from one day to one week or even more depending on the project nature.

Goals of the company

The goal of the company is basically to provide group facilitation and other management consultancy services. However, to differentiate itself from its competitors, the company believes in focusing on client relationship as a whole team. Whenever a project comes our way, we believe the company and the client work together to resolve the problems as a team and not as a consultant-client. The bottom line is still the money that counts but overall the company's goal is to achieve customer satisfaction. At times the "goals" of the clients is too complex that often result in compromise of our own goal. They do not achieve full customer satisfaction. I believe this is the main problem.

Application OF THEORY OF CONSTRAINT

The role of the consultant in the company is to become part of the group and direct their thought process without engaging in leadership position. This is acquiesced to the project's original leader so that members do not find it offensive to consult external members to direct their company's operations. At times however, we have to take over the leadership position when directing their thought process according to the desired course of action.

I often observe groups facing "bottlenecks" simply because they neglect to identify the "goals" of their companies. Many groups do have goals in mind but they often deviate from the "process of management." The deviations often lead them away from their goals and in the end they face resource constraints. When they turn to my company, all we do is provide the key path to their problems and they are happy with the results that they managed themselves.

The theory of constraint as explained by Goldratt is meant for boosting performance of any process that has a series of interdependent steps. Unlike boosting performance of the whole process, Goldratt teaches us to take measures to eradicate bottlenecks and hence improve efficiency of the process through increased output. At Group Facilitation Consultancy, we have been too busy facilitating solution to client's problems that we neglect our own. My application of the theory is by applying measures to decrease bottleneck at the front level to increase output at the end level of the company so that it would be able to increase its ability to facilitate to more client groups.

Although our goal is to achieve customer satisfaction but it is difficult to gauge what is meant by customer satisfaction when clients vary from team to team. The bottom line has been outlined and the company has identified a vague goal. There is no clear direction as to how the consultants are to achieve it. If one were to enter Group Facilitation Consultancy, one could see that everyone is over worked. There is no break time. Everyone has five to six projects per week. The consultants have been busy to end resolve problem to meet target requirements instead of focusing on quality management of their clients.

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Hence as a result everyone is frustrated with the clients they have at hand. Of course they do not show their frustration but it is obvious that their performance affect the client's own performance.

Here, I see there is a problem of goal identification and achievement process. Although the company is a group facilitation consultants but our own internal management framework is dwindling. The organization is supposed to be working at a lateral level and each employee is a member of the team. However, the kind of work entrust their way does not allow them to mingle or even brainstorm for solution. Each one deals with their problems on their own. In the end the goals of the project is not met as effectively and efficiently as required and clients get affected.

Upon inquiry, I have found that my colleagues feel bogged by the multiplicity of projects handed down their way and they do not have enough time to give attention to their clients on a case by case basis. It becomes difficult to show and brainstorm effective solution to their client's company. Often clients return with the complaint that they followed the advices of Group Facilitation Consultancy during the group orientation but these prove impractical because they have "glitches." The consultants come back with the answer that it was originally their leader's ideas. As a result of such complaints the "customer satisfaction" could not really be achieved.

The theory of constraint could be applied here where the focus of a particular problem that affect the end result. For instance team members at Group Facilitation Service are over worked. Their productivity is getting lower and lower since they are given work over their maximum capacity. The demand for group facilitation services in the industry have increased due to change in management style and that mean business flow is constant and increasing. The company on the other hand is operating at short resource capacity. In other words they have lesser group facilitator and more work. As the company take on more and more cases, the capacity to produce will become slow down even more. They need to focus on the real problem of providing more facilitator or limit the cases they take on for group facilitation. If it follows Goldratt's theory of constraint then the first task is to slow the flow capacity to the level of production. This means lessening down the work flow, minimizing cases. As soon as the capacity flow matches those of the facilitators then the company can focus on its goal- to maximize customer satisfaction.

Here, it needs to divide the process of goal attainment into several steps. First of all, group facilitating is a process of creating trust between the client and the facilitator so that they are willing to share their problems with the company. Then the facilitator induce resolution services by participate in group meetings, brainstorm for the solution. Group Facilitating Consultancy, needs to allow the facilitator enough time to direct their clients and to achieve the desired results. After the brainstorming session, there has to be enough time for implementation and feedback as well. In the previous model, facilitators had to cut short of this process and move on to newer projects. In the end they neglect to participate with the clients in implementation process which is as crucial to the client company as in group facilitation services. It is this process which makes or breaks a client-company relationship and this is where customer satisfaction is achieved. Hence, the facilitator should be given time to transition from one case to another. This means that the process of facilitation will have to slow down to 2-3 cases per weak and over lapping time should also be given.

Of course following this bottleneck would mean that the company loses out on business profitability but it will increase on customer satisfaction level. Next, it needs to focus on hastening the transition process without bottlenecking the goal attainment process. This means that it would need to increase minimally the number of cases assigned to each team member, say one and see what happens. If the process is accomplished without any "glitches" then the company could increase more provided that they detect overburden on time. This means that the company will have to hire at least one….....

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