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Name and describe the LEADERSHIP approach taken. Your description should include:
Why this leadership approaches was unique and who designed this leadership approach.
Who were involved as leaders at NIBCO?
When in the life of the project was the leadership established.
How long was the leadership team in effect,
What was the leadership team’s most important accomplishment?
A. 1. Leadership approach known as Tiger triad leadership was adopted by the firm management to oversee the implementation of the project up to its completion. The leadership style was very unique given the objective of the project implementation. The triangle form of leadership comprising of the three highly qualified and experienced leaders was meant to demonstrate the three important responsibilities of Business coordination, Technology, as well as Change Management overseen by Beutler, Wilson, and Davis respectively. The three leaders performed their leadership management as a group and consulted as triad on a regular basis. More importantly, the leaders valued time compared to the other vital resources.
Moreover, the firm opted to reorganize the executive managers one year before the project implementation to take care of the project given the high risk and huge finances involved. The project was meant to improve the performance of the firm by upgrading all the departments at the same time. A project is always initiated to improve the firm’s performance by targeting a specific area. However, this project was aimed at converting all ten plants as well as four other distribution centers to SAP R/3 at the same time. The project was designed in by different professionals specializing in various fields.
The project was headed by the top managers at NIBCO INC. including Wilson; the Information Services director, Beutler; former VP of Operations, as well as Davis; the former quality management director. The leadership of the project was reorganized merely one year before the commencement of the project itself. For instance, Wilson assumed the role of new head of the IS department in May 1995 before becoming a member of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study team. On the other hand, Beutler who joined NIBCO in early 1990 as the retail business unit’s general manager later became the vice president of Operations after the restructure of the business unit. The leadership of the project comprised of highly qualified and experienced professionals as witnessed in the top management. Wilson for instance, had twenty years of experience working for the firm before the reorganization occurred. The leadership of the project was destined to be in control of the project for a period of fifteen months until its completion.
Name and describe one COMMUNICATION approach taken. Your description should include:
The importance of this communication approach to all the other communication approaches/techniques taken at NIBCO?
Who was involved in this communication approach?
When in the life of the project was this communication approach started and
How long was this communication approach used?
What did this communication approach accomplish?,
A.2. The project management team adopted a face-to-face method of communication in an attempt to enhance communication between members within the project as well as NIBCO Inc. in general. The change managers believed that it is important for an individual to whom a communication is directed to receive information from many sources and in varied forms so as to enhance communication. The communication plan was entitled to provide information to all the stakeholders in the project implementation. The communication plan which was developed by the change management project Co-Lead, Jim Davis proved important as far as the implementation of the project is concerned. The face-to-face session of communication were run regularly almost four times so as to give the audience a suitable time period to manage their schedules. The face-to-face approach was made open to the NIBCO associates during the project implementation. The summary of such communication was made available to all the stakeholders within an organization. The NIBCO team members also carried out a two to three months on site visit at the NIBCO plant. Such visits would ensure that the team members engage other people in meetings which in turn enhance face-to-face communication.
The aforementioned communication mode achieved important things including easy conveyance of information from one person to the other. Moreover, it necessitated physical interaction among team members thereby improving the relations between the members in the project implementation.
Name and describe one TRAINING approach taken. Your description should include:
The importance of this training approach to any other training approaches taken at NIBCO
Who is involved,
When in the life of the project the approach was started and
How long it was in effect,
What this approach accomplished,
How the approach worked, and the impact on NIBCO
A.3. Members of the NIBCO project underwent training on the project site to improve their ability to not only perform individual tasks but also prepare them towards confronting new process during project implementation. The user training is delivered to workers in different degree in respect to the type of job they are engaged in. In most cases, the training was offered to the workers in ranges of between 8 and 68 hours focusing mainly on the new products as earlier mentioned. Besides, the delivery of user training was carried out at three sites of NIBCO for more that 1200 hours. It is also worth mentioning that the aforementioned user training service that was carried out in a period of four months period before Go Live. Furthermore, individuals are issued with ID s upon completion of such training periods. The training sessions could enable the trainees to access areas of Sandbox which required some forms of things. This kind of training service was offered free of charge to anybody who required such training before the commencement of the project. The training of the user intended to enlighten the workers towards adopting positive attitude in an attempt to understand the new products as well as processes. The empowerment of workers therefore ensures that NOBCO is privileged currently and in the future as there would be an additional skilled labor following such initiative.
A.4. Overall, which one of the above Change Management Techniques/Approaches that you detailed above was the most important and detail why it was most important (that is, this approach was the antecedent to the other approaches) .
A.4. Change management has proven vital for the management of any project. The aforementioned forms of change are influential throughout the life cycle of a project. To begin, it is acknowledgeable that every project as well as business venture requires sound leadership in order to not only thrive but also progress. The Tiger triad leadership method adopted by NIBCO project is both unique and excellent. The participatory approach of leadership involves decision making process by all people thereby improving the quality of such decisions. On the other hand, user training is another equally important approach to change management. Individuals undergoing such training are transformed into potential subjects who will be helpful to the firm as far as project implementation is concerned.
User trainee equips an individual with relevant skills and expertise to execute any activity during project implementation. It is however note worthy to mention that adoption of a communication plan remains the highly valued approach that precedes the other strategies. Communication is very important as far as project implementation is concerned. Effective communication strategies employed by an organization during project implementation would highly affect the general performance of the project. Communication methods also enhance the relationship among subjects especially such methods as face-to-face communication improves relationships between individuals as both are able to see each other physically. It precedes the other change management approaches in that both training as well as the exercise of leadership can not occur without communication. In both cases, any form of communication especially face-to-face communication is fundamental to both the user training program as well as leadership approach execution.
5. Name and describe any course theories and approaches that were apparent in the NIBCO case using bullets.
A.5. A variety of approaches and theories have been employed in the NIBCO case of leadership and change management during the project implementation process. To begin with, the leadership method adopted by the firm during project implementation assumed a contingency theory of leadership. The leadership of the project including Davis, Wilson as well as Beutler isolated the key management factors in the project and embarked on the best possible way to address such problems. For instance, the three adopted the Tiger triad method of leadership where the management of the project was carried out in a participatory way and decisions made together. Davis lead the change management team, Wilson developed the technology sector as Beutler organized the business process unit. The three believed in the aforementioned approach as the best way to confront the project implementation. This is a suitable approach given the short lifespan of a project and the high risk involved thereby requiring sound management skills. Besides, communication plays a pivotal role in the development process and should therefore be embraced during any organizational management practice such as project implementation. The NIBCO case has cited the use of a variety of communication approaches including face to face communication as important facets in the project implementation. This is in line with Development Communication Theory which stresses the importance of communication in any organization’s development.
