subject: Strategic Approach is Half the Battle, Where You Start and End Can Be a Variable In Itself [print this page] There are tons of business resources available to corporate America, including resources for every aspect of business, from starting a business to recruiting staff to performance reviews. Performance reviews, for example, can cover the gamut of top-down to bottoms-up of topics. A company might receive an audit. The audit would analyze business practices, including personnel practices.
"Balanced Scorecard," for example is still floating out there in the business community. Down in the details are performance processes, and "process engineering." For example, there is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which is a highly competitive annual award in six different industries. Another globally esteemed audit body is the International Organization for Standardization that establishes international standards for business, government and society. The organization issues audit seals indicating compliance with strict standards, or "ISO certification". Many businesses use this compliance certification when conducting business and it's often a requirement or selling point for certain government contracts. These internationally coveted awards highlight the importance of base lining, process audits, and tying in objectives for success. These same types of organizations and corporations provide gainful and lucrative positions to successful students, with expectations that employees will become contributing members of this culture.
Common to all these business topics and discussions is methodology. How to approach your topic is critical to a process. An adage is that you have to know where you're going before you begin, and plan accordingly on the best method to reach your destination. In any mall, "You are Here" is mapped on the mall layout map. Map quest, Map Expedia and other online direction services further illustrate the practicality of base lining and setting goals.
In approaching study, while all students may be handed a syllabus, a common text, and are faced with the minimum objective of a passing grade, all students do not start on the same footing. Every student is unique. In fact, all students do not come from the same city, state, school or educational background, when they arrive in a common location. In the mall illustration, a student may arrive through Barnes & Noble, while another may come in through the food court. But they are all trying to leave the mall with the best value item for what they're pursuing.
Just as in other aspects of life, and in business, how you reach your destination is not rigid. There are as many ways to reach a destination as destinations and travelers. Students have to baseline where they are, where they need to be, and take measures to reach their destination. In process engineering or other business methods, you break down the steps within an objective on a continuum to reach higher objectives.
A student has to determine not only where he or she is going but map forward based on their origin. How is a student approaching a course? How is a student approaching study requirements? What are the results of what the student is doing and not doing? How do successful students approach the class? How do successful students approach study requirements? Does the student take advantage of study recommendations offered by a textbook, such as topic breakdown, bold text, end of chapter quizzes, supplemental resources?
A student syllabus can be equated to a process engineering road map. The work breakdown is essentially listed in variable detail on the syllabus. Students can take certain steps to attain the end goal, a passing grade or specific grades. In business, problem resolution involves identifying "root causes". Problems are then broken down for example by brainstorming without reservation potential sources of trouble by asking "Why?" something is happening. The troubles are then targeted with solutions and monitoring for improvement.
If a student is encountering problem(s) and needs help the questions to drill down for solutions and for risk management to prevent troubles is, "Why?" In math or science for example, a student may have difficulty. Producing the appropriate word problem might require the student understand what the answer unit of measurement is, back track to the starting information, and fill in the gaps to convert one unit into another. When a student understands the language of their study, and understands where they start, and what gaps to troubleshoot in their translation, then he or she can move forward in a given process of understanding and reach higher comprehension and capability levels.
Students can approach study by understanding where they come into a given process, how the process works, tools to trouble shoot, tools to improve, and enhancing their capabilities. Even if a student does not have within class supplemental recommended resources, it's incumbent on a student to map out their own future and not become sidetracked by a few bumps in progress toward goals. All methods do not work for all people, but true to form, it's not how you get there from where you are, but that you make concerted efforts that work for you to arrive successfully at your destination.
Strategic Approach is Half the Battle, Where You Start and End Can Be a Variable In Itself
