discussion

WCM 610 ANALYZE Supplementary Document

Because of the complexity of conflict, particularly conflict in a systems setting, you must be sure that you move to

analyze the presenting situation accurately. As the SMART goals example of Organization A shows, while the root cause

of the conflicts appear to emerge from the organizational structure, the chairman is highly unlikely to support a

recommendation to restructure the entire organization. You should be able to see how this conflict situation moves back

and forth among the DMAIC phases. Accuracy in the Define phase and rechecking the problem definition in the Measure

and Analyze phases are accompanied by considering the Improve recommendations and how you might control your

recommended improvements. As what you might wish to recommend to improve Organization A cannot be

implemented, you may find that you need to return to the Define and Measure phases, to redefine the problem,

measure, and then analyze, while also looking ahead to recommend a viable improvement that can be subjected to

genuine control.

Deconstruction using the SMART goal table can help you understand what the problem is and what can actually be done

to create changes.

When you reach the Measure phase, you may make use of the statistics shown in the Six Sigma text. You can also

interview key individuals in the organization (e.g., leadership, employees, and other internal stakeholders), as well as

external stakeholders (e.g., customers), to obtain verbal data information. All data, whether statistical results or

interview findings, is then subjected to the Measure phase, so that the information has actual value.

In the Analyze phase of DMAIC, the researcher moves from the problem to the solution to the problem. As was shown in

the SMART goals table concerning Organization A, solutions must be informed by the actual problem, and must be viable

for genuine implementation. However, many people tend to resist change; Kanter presented the top ten reasons that

cause individuals to resist change. Part of your job as an analyst in the Analyze phase is to recognize that the changes

you are going to recommend in the Improve phase may be difficult for people to adopt, even if the need for change has

been established.