August 2018 Newsletter
Our August Status Quo Breaker is...
Katie Shearer, Information Support Specialist, is being recognized as our August Status Quo Breaker! Katie is the embodiment of continuous improvement and is looking at everything she does (and what the rest of the team does) with a Lean perspective. As a result, she is going above and beyond to make Technology better every day. Thank you Katie and keep up the great work!
The Status Quo Breaker is a monthly traveling trophy recognition of an employee for their contribution to process improvement, to say thank you for being Lean and/or for helping make DMPS Leaner. Do you have someone you want to nominate for the Status Quo Breaker? Contact Emma Knapp.
Katie Shearer, Information Support Specialist, is being recognized as our August Status Quo Breaker! Katie is the embodiment of continuous improvement and is looking at everything she does (and what the rest of the team does) with a Lean perspective. As a result, she is going above and beyond to make Technology better every day. Thank you Katie and keep up the great work!
The Status Quo Breaker is a monthly traveling trophy recognition of an employee for their contribution to process improvement, to say thank you for being Lean and/or for helping make DMPS Leaner. Do you have someone you want to nominate for the Status Quo Breaker? Contact Emma Knapp.
Updated! Opportunities to Learn
Choose from the options listed to get started:
1. NEW! Introduction to Continuous Improvement training will be offered four times throughout the year. Register for the classroom training here.
2. Dive into the Leaner Everyday! course at https://dmschools.instructure.com/enroll/J9A3GC. It will allow you to learn about Continuous Improvement as a student while thinking about how you might use it.
3. Head over to the @DMPS Continuous Improvement (Lean) page and browse the available resources and videos.
4. Check out the latest Continuous Improvement newsletter right here each month.
Choose from the options listed to get started:
1. NEW! Introduction to Continuous Improvement training will be offered four times throughout the year. Register for the classroom training here.
2. Dive into the Leaner Everyday! course at https://dmschools.instructure.com/enroll/J9A3GC. It will allow you to learn about Continuous Improvement as a student while thinking about how you might use it.
3. Head over to the @DMPS Continuous Improvement (Lean) page and browse the available resources and videos.
4. Check out the latest Continuous Improvement newsletter right here each month.
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Parking Lot
The Parking Lot tool is a place where group participants can "park" notes suggesting positive comments, needs for improvement and general concerns, questions or insights for review later. This provides feedback to the facilitator or leader and also is used as a placeholder for ideas, questions and comments that emerge at times when they cannot be explored. To set up, divide a chart paper or white board into four quadrants and label with a +, ∆, ? and !. Participants place positive comments on what is going well in the section marked +. They place suggestions for improvements in the section marked ∆ for deltas. Questions are placed in the section marked ? and ideas or general comments are placed in the section marked !. This tool is great for use in team meetings to generate ongoing feedback or in the faculty lounge as a feedback loop for administrators. The Parking Lot tool described is from Tool Time for Education by David P. Langford. |
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Prioritizing
The whirlwind of day to day work makes it difficult to know what to focus on. Here are two options to help prioritize your whirlwind: 1. Filter out the quick successes on your list and get them done. Your Clear Next Step offers four questions to help filter your work (see image to the right). 2. Categorize your work by the difficulty of it (think resources, time, resistance) and it's impact to the organization (think alignment to mission, number of students, families, staff affected).
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Shout Outs!
Thank you Business and Finance and Human Resources for taking an interest in establishing personal Kanbans!
Thank you to the Office Mangers and Bookkeepers who attended the small group trainings on Continuous Improvement in July!
Excellent work Emily Behrens, Jen Hahn, Jon Mendoza, Sarah Dougherty, Katie Shearer, and Kate Pool for organizing Technology Thursday this summer for our new teachers!
Thank you to the Office Mangers and Bookkeepers who attended the small group trainings on Continuous Improvement in July!
Excellent work Emily Behrens, Jen Hahn, Jon Mendoza, Sarah Dougherty, Katie Shearer, and Kate Pool for organizing Technology Thursday this summer for our new teachers!
