Practice Workplace Experimenting - Practical PDCA

This Quest is a sequence of AFT (Action, Feedback, Trigger) activities that will get you applying ‘practical PDCA’ to a real situation in your workplace – classic ‘learn by doing’.

A quest for supervisors, managers, HR people, support people and problem solvers.

By working through the logical and connected activities within each of the six levels of this Quest (see below) you will be well on your way to lasting ‘thinking pattern’ change.

Practice Workplace Experimenting – Practical PDCA Levels

Level	Description	Time
1. Practical PDCA means what	Understand what we mean by ‘practical PDCA’ and evidence to suggest it is important.	45 minutes
2. What’s your need?	Identify a business need for a workplace experiment thus giving a fulfilling reason.	1 hour
3. Plan (your experiment)	Give considerable thought - ‘research’ and discussion before doing anything!	3 hours
4. Do and Check (your experiment)	Do exactly as planned! While doing and afterwards, compare what happened to what was predicted. The degree of difference will determine what you learn!	2 hours
5. Act	Make use of the learning by considering the next step such that you and the business gain value from the experiment.	30 minutes
6. Reflect and commit	Commit to adjustments in approach to this aspect of your work so there is lasting value from doing this Quest.	30 minutes
Estimate of your total time investment		7 hours 45 minutes

Practice Workplace Experimenting – Practical PDCA Skills

See and experience through practice a very ‘real workplace view’ of Plan, Do, Check, Act (Adjust).
See how many actions may be better considered as experiments – experience ‘knowledge threshold’.
Learn that data alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
During ‘Plan’, practice making and measuring a prediction.

Hear from previous Quest participants

This QUEST module is fun!!! Definitely signing up more people from NORMAC for this one!!!

Level 3 Activities were the most beneficial, especially around Activity 7 – I was always good at planning, but adding a prediction was key in enabling me to learn more from my workplace experiment. Having a ‘Quest Coach’ was extremely beneficial in guiding me in the right direction and enhancing my learning from completing the Quest.