Presented by Anna Voight, Associate Director of Student Life, Dakota County Technical College - Continuous improvement is a focal point in higher education and other industries, but what does it mean and how can you apply it in your student leadership role to positively impact your senate and campus? In this workshop, students will learn to apply a continuous improvement model in their student leadership role to maximize the efforts of their team, achieve group goals, and effectively transition knowledge gained to future senate leadership teams.

1. CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
101
Presented by
Anna Voight
Associate Director of Student Life
Dakota County Technical College

2. Questions to consider
1. How do you know when a project or event is
successful?
2. If a project or event is successful, does that mean
there is no more room for improvement?
3. How do you feel when a goal is not met?

3. Strive for continuous
improvement instead of
perfection

4. Continuous improvement is the
ongoing improvement of products,
services or processes through
incremental and breakthrough
improvements
(The American Society for Quality)

5. Why is Continuous Improvement
important to my college?
■ A focal point at the Minnesota State system
level
■ Beginning July 1, 2016, 5% of base funding is
reserved until institutions meet 3 out of the 5
performance goals
■ The Minnesota State system places a high
emphasis on continuous improvement

6. Why is continuous improvement
important as a student leader?
■ The same models used by the college to
achieve goals can be applied to your daily
work as a student leader
■ Continually improve student life-related
events, programs, and processes from year
to year
■ Apply model to academics to improve
grades

8. W. Edward Deming’s Continuous Improvement Model
1. Plan
Design or revise
business process
to improve results
2. Do
Implement the
plan and test its
performance
3.
Check
Assess
measurements
and report results
to decision
makers
4. Act
Decide on
changes needed
to improve the
process

9. National Voter Registration Day
How could this process be used for the
National Voter Registration Day initiative
for a Star Campus point?

10. Plan
Design or revise business process to improve
results
■ Group meetings to talk about plan
■ Delegating tasks to group members
■ Getting information needed from others
■ Brainstorming ideas for a success event
■ Following up with people / group members for updates
■ Creating to-do lists to ensure work gets done
■ Reporting back to group on progress made on tasks
■ Set a goal of the event or initiative
■ Academically: What study habits to I need to incorporate to do well on my tests?

11. National Voter Registration Day: Plan
■ Set meeting for group
■ Recruit members to be a part of planning committee
■ Create agenda for meeting with topics needs to be covered
■ Determine a location for booth, delegate task to reserve space
■ Delegate tasks to create flyer, promote via social media, talk to other groups on
campus
■ Delegate tasks to create sign-up sheets for day-of volunteers, and recruit volunteers
■ Delegate task to create script with talking points for volunteers
■ Delegate tasks to make copies of voter registration forms

12. Do
Implement the plan and test its performance
■ Implement the plan with a mechanism to know if the goal was accomplished
– Program evaluations
– Surveys
– X number of something
■ Hold the event
■ Complete the initiative
■ Academically: Take the test

13. National Voter Registration Day: Do
■ Post flyers
■ Set up table day of
■ Staff the table at the event
■ Talk to students about registering to vote; collect voter registration cards

14. Check
Assess measurements and report results to decision
makers
■ Was the goal met?
■ Review mechanism used to track goal
■ View surveys
■ Get feedback from people involved
■ Have a “after-action” meeting to discuss with committee
■ Document feedback and suggestions for the future
■ Academically: what grade did I get on my test?

15. National Voter Registration Day:
Check
■ How many registration cards were collected?
■ Did this meet the goal set by LeadMN or your senate?
■ Did you plan work well, or are there suggestions for improvement next year?
– Enough volunteers?
– Good location?
– Enough supplies?

16. Act
Decide on changes needed to improve the process
■ Afterview reviewing feedback from the “check” phase, decide what needs to
change next time
■ Document feedback and discussion
■ Ensure future leaders or advisors have documentation on what can be improved
next time, so it can be used in the future
■ Academically: Decide what to do differently, if anything, to improve on your test
test

17. National Voter Registration Day: Act
■ Make decisions on what needs to change for the next event
– Make more voter registration copies
– Table in a higher-traffic area, table in multiple locations
– Visit classrooms to promote next time
■ Involve advisors or newer senator’s if possible to ensure this information carries
forward

18. What else could this model be
applied to?
■ Student Leader transitions
■ Recruiting students to join the Student Senate or other clubs
■ Student leader training
■ Programs or services
■ Communication methods

19. Activity
Think of a challenge you are having right now in
your leadership role, your senate, or academically,
and consider steps you could go through using the
PDCA model to make progress in resolving it.

20. Closing Thoughts…
What is one take-away you have from this
session?
How can you incorporate a continuous
improvement model in your student leadership
role?