By Mary Jo Frank
Seven University staff members are donning additional work hats these days, playing a key role in spreading the M-Quality message on campus.
The newly certified M-Quality team leader instructors come from a number of departments, including Human Resource Development (HRD), Plant Operations, Plant Extension, Purchasing and the University Library.
The team leader instructors are certified by Qualtec, the Florida-based firm from which the U-M has purchased materials for M-Quality, the U-M’s approach to incorporating the quest for continuous improvement as a part of everyday life.
The new certified trainers are: J. Annette Bardouille, Deborah A.W. Nystrom and Jane W. Pettit from HRD; Armando A. Lopez, personnel officer, Plant Business Office; Virginia L. Geren, supervisor of photographic services, Purchasing and Stores; Marsha L. Hanna, architect, Facilities Planning and Design, Plant Extension Office; and Jean L. Loup, head of the Document Center and librarian, Univer-sity Library. Three other staff members will be working toward certification as trainers.
According to Sally M. Johnson, the certification process includes team leader training in Ann Arbor, experience in leading a team, an additional week of instructor training at Qualtec, another additional 80 hours of preparation of training techniques and tools, and then a week of instructing team leaders under the guidance of a Qualtec instructor. Johnson is assistant director of Personnel-Support and Development Programs and is responsible for M-Quality training on campus.
Team leader instructors were tapped by their departments because of their ability to make group presentations and their background in M-Quality.
Working in their current positions and at their current salary levels, the team leader instructors can expect to spend 25 percent to 30 percent of their work lives for the next several years training team leaders, Johnson says.
The 40-hour team leader training course, which trains potential team leaders in the steps of the quality improvement process, is being offered on a monthly basis. The 10 team leader instructors (the seven who are already certified and the three preparing for certification) will work in groups of three, each group conducting three or four sessions per year. The 8-hour “Concepts and Practices” workshop is a prerequisite.
The enrollment fee for team leader training is $400 per person, an “incredible bargain,” Johnson says. Currently there is a waiting list for team leader training.
Two other staff members, Warren E. Cohen of HRD and Alan T. Stevens, coordinator of plant customer services, Maintenance Services and Renovations, Office of the Plant Director, have received parallel Qualtec training qualifying them to instruct team facilitators.
Johnson reminds departments planning to establish M-Quality teams that they will need trained facilitators to help those teams succeed.
Enrollment in the 32-hour facilitators classes is limited to persons who have taken team leader training, ideally have been part of teams and can be spared from some of their regular responsibilities in order to assist teams in their area. The next course for facilitators will be offered June 14–17.
Johnson says there are a number of staff members who are eager to start incorporating M-Quality principles in their work for whom there is no immediate team assignment. Johnson urges signing up for the “Concepts and Practices” class, which is being given twice a week.
Johnson also encourages units to investigate other forms of “quality” opportunities such as the Deming Seminar offered at Ford Motor Co. or the 4-hour HRD class “Quality in Daily Life,” which will be offered fall term.
HRD will offer a new curriculum this fall focusing on team development and group dynamics. Although the classes are not part of the formal M-Quality sequence, Johnson says, individuals and departments will find them useful in acquiring, refining and using quality improvement tools.
Johnson predicts M-Quality will grow on campus, unit by unit, with “real and meaningful involvement of individuals taking place when they work together on M-Quality projects within their units.”
“In the short term, we realize we won’t be able to provide every M-Quality class to every staff member who is interested in it,” Johnson says.
“We will start by providing training for staff members who have been asked to perform specific quality improvement roles in their own departments, and we are working to include everyone in the introductory course, ‘Concepts and Practices,’ as soon as possible.”
