Facilitating the UCO Action Project Process – Part 4 Analyzing Data – Office of Planning & Analysis University of Central Oklahoma

UCO Action Project Process Based on PDCA cycle – Walter Shewhart (Bell Labs); W. Edwards Deming Managed by the UCO CQIT – Continuous Quality Improvement Team – Cross-functional 5 to 10 projects per year

PDCA Cycle

Present findings – Benchmarking results – Interview results – Focus group results – Flowchart results ID common issues/problems Analyze Data

Root cause analysis (RCA) Process problems Analyze Data

What is Root Cause Analysis? You can easily see problems and (sometimes) symptoms Can’t easily see the underlying “root” causes very easily

Lack of Training Human Error Act of God Equipment failure Unknown Inattention to detail Asleep Too Simple Root Cause Analysis What happened? Find someone to blame the same way …

Ed Find someone to blame the same way … Too Simple Root Cause Analysis

Real Root Cause Analysis Seemingly disparate issues and problems may be arising from common underlying root causes. Root Cause Analysis (RCA)is a process: – Reveals underlying root causes (often more than one). – Limits attempts to latch on to simple, quick fixes that don’t address underlying root cause. (Problems will be like weeds – they keep coming back.) Common uses: – Incident investigation – Problem solving – Quality control

RCA: Basic steps Define Analyze Solutions Understand the full scope of the problem Why does this problem occur? Develop corrective solutions to prevent problem from recurring.

Some RCA Techniques 5-Whys – Start w/ problem or incident. – Keep asking “Why?”. Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagram – Start w/ problem or incident. – Ask “Why?” in categories. Factor Tree Analysis – Start w/ problem or incident. – Use tree structure to trace actions and conditions that led to problem. Many others + hybrids

5-Whys Facilitator writes group’s issue or problem on board. Facilitator: “What causes this problem?” or “Why does this problem exist?” or … Team members give a reason. Facilitator: “Then what causes that problem?” or “Then why does that problem exist?” Keep working down to underlying problem or until reason is beyond control of group.

5-Whys Example ↑↓ Very simple. Easy to facilitate. May only expose one root cause. Easy to get diverted to a symptom. Make sure you get down to root cause. (If reason is outside control or influence, good point to stop.) (Interesting ideas or symptom solutions can be stored in “parking lot” for possible later use.)

Five Whys – Useful questions What could be causing that? What underlying skills might he/she be missing? What has kept the typical interventions from working? What is interfering with… ? What is a cause that we can influence or change in school? Why are we continuing to use this strategy? What else could be causing or influencing this problem? Do you think “x,” “y,” or “z” could be the cause? Why is “X” stopping him/her from learning? Why do you think he/she is or continues doing that? What could be the motivation for doing that? What do you think is happening that keeps him/her from solving this problem?

Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram Cause Categories: Manufacturing (4 M’s): Machine, Method, Material, Manpower Service(4 S’s): Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills Many others. These can be anything that makes sense to the team. Still using 5-Whys questioning

UCO Fishbones (from NSSE Action Teams)

Why a fishbone? ↑↓ Still fairly simple. Provides pathways to more than one potential root cause. Categories can sometimes be restrictive – or you may waste time arguing about which category. Perceived need to find something in every category sometimes limits ability to dive down to root cause level.

Modified “5 Whys” (factor tree analysis)

↑↓ Still simple. Easy to get folks to do. Provides pathways to more than one potential root cause. Categories no longer restrictive. Tree structure is very easy to see and work with. No categories, so facilitator may need to stretch people’s thoughts.

Activity Modified 5-Whys

NSSE 9C: About how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing each of the following? 1=0 hrs/wk, 2=1-5 hrs/wk, 3=6-10 hrs/wk, 4=11-15 hrs/wk, 5=16-20 hrs/wk, 6=21-25 hrs/wk, 7=26-30 hrs/wk, 8=more than 30 hrs/wk UCO URBAN 2009 UCO CARNEGIE 2009 UCO NSSE FY SR According to NSSE, both Freshmen and Senior UCO students spend more hours working off campus than: students at other schools, students at Carnegie peers, and students at urban peers

Activity – Modified 5-Whys UCO’s overall retention rate is only 53% while our peer average is 74%.

Immediate solutions Long range solutions Process improvements Analyze Data

The End (last CIF is Apr 16)