Reference no: EM133175915
Assessment Task: Project Portfolio
Information for students
In this task, you are required to demonstrate your skills and knowledge by working through a number of activities and completing and submitting a project portfolio.
You will need access to:
• a suitable place to complete activities that replicates a business environment including a meeting space and computer and internet access
• your learning resources and other information for reference
• Project Portfolio template
• Simulation Pack for this unit (as relevant). Ensure that you:
• review the advice to students regarding responding to written tasks in the Business Works Student User Guide
• comply with the due date for assessment which your assessor will provide
• adhere with your RTO's submission guidelines
• answer all questions completely and correctly
• submit work which is original and, where necessary, properly referenced
• submit a completed cover sheet with your work
• avoid sharing your answers with other students.
Information about how you should complete this assessment can be found in Appendix A of the Business Works Student User Guide. Refer to the appendix for information on:
• where this task should be completed
• how your assessment should be submitted.
Note: You must complete and submit an assessment cover sheet with your work. A template is provided in Appendix B of the Student User Guide. However, if your RTO has provided you with an assessment cover sheet, please ensure that you use that.
Activities
Complete the following activities:
1. Carefully read the following:
This project requires you to lead a strategic business transformation for an organisation or large work area. You will be required to analyse and lead organisational transformation and learning for strategic outcomes based on either a real workplace or a case study scenario which you can access in the Simulation Pack for this unit.
Vocational education and training is all about gaining and developing practical skills that are industry relevant and that can help you to succeed in your chosen career. For this reason, we are giving you the choice to base this project on your own business, one you work in or a familiar with, or you can use the case study provided. This will mean that you are applying your knowledge and skills in a relevant, practical and meaningful way to your own situation!
It is important that you are able to access enough information for your chosen business in order to be able to do your assessment. As a minimum this should include organisational objectives and need for change along with policies related to managing the change.
You will need to communicate with people who work for, or are involved, in this business or work area several times. Your communication may be either directly with actual staff members or fellow students/your assessor can play the roles of relevant people/parties. Communication can be in any appropriate format (e.g. face to face, video conference, email) as long as it meets the requirements outlined below, and in the Project Portfolio.
You will be collecting evidence for this unit in a Project Portfolio. The steps you need to take are outlined below.
2. Preparation
Make sure you are familiar with the organisation you are basing this assessment on and have read through the necessary background information. For the case study business, this is all of the documents included in the Simulation Pack.
If it's your own business or a business where you are working or are familiar with, have your business approved by your assessor as it must be based on a whole organisation or large work area and there must be a need for strategic change that has been identified. For the purposes of this assessment, your busines or work area must have more than 5 employees.
If you are using the case study, you will assume the role of the Change Agent as per the case study provided.
3. Preparing for strategic change
Complete Section 1 of your Project Portfolio.
To complete Section 1, you need to work through several steps to prepare for organisational change.
Make sure you have answered all questions in Section 1. Submit to your assessor for review.
You are also required to attach certain documents as part of your evidence - review the documents you need to attach as outlined in Section 1 of the Project Portfolio and make sure you attach these upon submission.
You will use the work done in this section of the Portfolio to consult with others in the next activity. In preparation, read through step 4.
4. Stakeholder consultation
You now need to conduct stakeholder engagement and interviews to gather valuable insights to help inform your strategy. Conduct 3 short one-on-one interviews with three identified key stakeholders (at least one internal and one external) and then document your findings.
If basing this on a real business you can use real stakeholder if you have the opportunity or have fellow students role play - you must brief the students about the type of stakeholder they are and give them background information to read prior.
If you are using the case study business, you can use other students who are working on the same case study as you will all be familiar with the scenario and you can draw from each other's unique perspectives and ideas. Arrange for three other students to play an identified role - this can be anyone from the case study that you choose, for example, a graphic designer moving from permanent to contract, a head office staff member staying on and a reader of the magazine. The role player has licence to make up their answers based on their own ideas and experiences. As everyone's ideas and situations are unique, even if playing the same roles your answers will be different. It's very important that you develop your own set of questions to ask the stakeholders and that these are not the same as anyone else working in your small group. You are all being assessed individually.
Your assessor will be looking to see that you can:
• express your opinions and information to the stakeholders when interviewing them
• respond positively and respectfully to their views using language appropriate to the audience
• adapt your personal communication style as necessary to build a positive working relationship and show respect for the opinions, values and individual needs of others
• demonstrate effective communication skills including:
o Speaking clearly and concisely
o Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
o Asking questions to identify required information
o Responding to questions as required
o Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
The meetings should last for approximately 15 minutes each. After the meetings, complete Section 2 of your Project Portfolio.
i This can either be viewed in person by your assessor or you may like to video record the session for your assessor to watch later. Your assessor can provide you with more details at this step. Make sure you follow the instructions above and meet the timeframes allocated.
After the stakeholder meetings, complete Section 2 of your Project Portfolio. As part of this step, you are also required to develop written communication to both internal and external stakeholders affected by the change to inform them of the change and how this may affect them. Choose the internal and external group of people based on two of the stakeholder engagement meetings. Attach the communication developed to your portfolio.
5. Develop a change management strategy
Develop a change management strategy for the business. You can use an organisational template if you have one or you can use the Change Management Strategy template provided in the simulation pack. If using an organisational template then you must ensure it includes as a minimum what is included on the template provided. Ensure you complete all parts and that you use appropriate vocabulary, grammatical structure and conventions when developing your strategy.
Attach this to Section 2 of your Project Portfolio.
6. Develop a communication and education plan
Develop a communication and education plan to be used in conjunction with the change management project plan.
This plan should show how the change will be managed, including the provision of information to staff about the proposed changes and benefits.
Ensure that the strategies you develop are designed to promote the benefits of change to staff and to reduce the likelihood of a negative response/adverse outcomes.
Your communication and education plan should also show the communication and reporting process to senior management, which will be required on a regular basis.
Use can choose to use an organisational template or the Communication and Education Plan Template provided in the simulation pack.
7. Request feedback from staff
Assume a month has passed and you need to collect feedback from staff about how the change is being managed by the leaders. Develop an email, memo, survey or request for feedback that can be sent to staff. You can do this anyway you like as long as you include at least three questions that cover their experiences of the processes implemented, their thoughts personally on resistance to change and how they believe the communication is that management has had with staff.
Attach this communication in Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.
8. Carefully read the following (applies to all students even if using their own business example):
Assume that the following change management objectives are included as part of the change management process that was implemented:
• Employees were satisfied with information provided as part of the change management process
• Communication occurred through multiple channels
Assume that the following communication activities were implemented:
• Weekly staff meeting
• Newsletter updates through staff email
Assume it is 1 month into the change process and a Staff Survey of the remaining staff has been conducted.
9. Reflect personally on feedback
Review the change management objectives, communication activities implemented, and the Staff Survey Results. You need to reflect personally on the feedback received so you can identify areas for improvement.
Complete Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.
10. Write a change management review
Evaluate the effectiveness of the change management process and provide recommendations for improving communication activities to further mitigate the risk of change resistance.
Develop a short brief for the CEO of the organisation that includes your review. It should also recommend updates to the change management plan through relevant communication activities.
Your change management review should include the following:
• What the change management objectives are
• What change management communication activities took place
• Recommended changes to the change management plan and the communication and education plans
Your review should be between half a page and one-page long.
Use the Change Management Review template to guide your work. Attach this to
Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.
11. Update staff on change management processes
Make some changes to your Communication and Education Plan based on your own recommendations and inform staff of what these changes are. Changes must be around the communication processes instituted. You can develop a memo or staff email to communicate these changes to staff.
When developing your communication, ensure you apply the feedback received and from your own self-reflection to your leadership style.
Attach your updated Communication and Education Plan and developed staff communication to Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.
12. Submit your completed Project Portfolio
Make sure you have completed all sections of your Project Portfolio, answered all questions, provided enough detail as indicated and proofread for spelling and grammar as necessary. Remember to submit all necessary attachments as indicated.
Attachment:- Case Study.rar