Responsible Towards Self

This morning I decided to go for my complete medical check up. I was amazed to see executives from various companies queuing up right from 7am in the morning.

What further surprised me was the fact that about 20% of the population were men aged between 60 - 70 years and quite a few between 35-50 years.

I wondered why there were only 1 woman in every 10 men in the 35-50 category.

Flash back - some 5 years ago, women were more conscious about their health. In the wake of diversity inclusion more and more women are aspiring for careers in senior positions.

As women are growing in their careers their sanity in maintaining health is surely becoming an outlier management.

So what would a women do to be responsible towards themselves:

1. Don't ignore health. Health is Wealth. A cliche but carries weight. Ensure once a year a thorough health check up is a normal routine.

2. Just like you plan for your career, plan for your health. Opt for a general insurance / hospitalisation cover that assures you of its availability when you need it the most.

3. Insure your family. You never know when fate strikes. It's important to make sure people are secured after you've left abode.

Now that's what I call 'Being Self Responsible'

Your Stress Is Good !

There are various studies that have been conducted in linking 'Stress' to work related environment including job Satisfaction, organizational commitment and employee behaviour (Sullivan and Bhagat, 1992; Nauman, 1993; and Tett and Meyer, 1993)

However, there are some statistical studies that also indicate positive impact of Stress at Work.  I have briefly summarized some points as below:

 1. Results in Creativity:  An article in Journal of Psychology (2012) by March, Cynthia Neal and Patricia share a result from a study conducted on 30 participants engaged in creative tasks.  It indicated that activating positive mood had a stronger concurrent effect on Creative Process Engagement (CPE) and activating negative mood had a longer lasting effect on sustaining CPE across time.  Isn't this an interesting finding and something to ponder upon?


2. Results in Agile and Effective Decision Making:  In situations of stress, you may ponder over an action and its value addition to your profession.  If you view things in a positive light, you would end up assessing various alternative suggestions to a problem and arrive at a decision with a greater speed and effectiveness.  Your ultimate goal would be benefit the organization and mutually gain the same for self and others.


3. Results in a Sense of Urgency and Alignment to Goals:  Having implemented point 2 above, you would now step up the task of implementing the action and insist on faster delivery for results, thus creating a sense of urgency around for the team.  Once done, the team understands the importance of actions, the outcomes and will quickly align itself to the organizational goals.

Thus, Stress entirely is not bad.  It depends on whether you use the stress to become more productive or burn out and quit.


References:

• March L. To, Cynthia D. Fisher, Neal M. Ashkanasy and Patricia A. Rowe (2012) ‘Within-Person Relationships Between Mood and Creativity’ Journal of Applied Psychology . Vol 97, No. 3, 599 -612.

• Sullivan S C and Bhagat R S (1992), ‘Organizational Stress, Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: Where Do We Go From Here?’ Journal of Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 353-375

 

R.O.P.E In:Anger At Work - You Must Be Insane !

One of my team members recently asked me, 'You know what! I just can't stop getting angry with people asking stupid questions.  How do I help myself?'

'Help?', I laughed. In a split second, I re-pondered over the question and thought to myself, there are times when I do the same.  Perhaps, most of the executives in their extremely busy schedules only want people who are 100% efficient and work with fewer instructions.

 

A study conducted by Brescoll (CNN.com, 2007), indicated that the average salary assigned to an angry man was almost $38,000 and that to a woman executive was about $23,500.

So I wondered – ‘Is it insane to get angry?’  

I gave a decent corporate spiel to my colleague on how could this be prevented from my experience. And was I truly convinced if the advice offered made sense?  Was there a need to develop anger management group in the office?  Would it make sense that such behaviors are handled by these professionally managed groups?   

I then started digging deeper to seek an answer to these questions.  Isaac Burt (2013), states that aggression has increased in schools in the last decade and as such implementing anger management groups in schools is commonplace (McCarthy, Van Horne, Calfa, Lambert and Guzman, 2010).

(Burt et al., 2010) state that traditional anger management groups do not prevent aggressive behavior.  Orpinas and Horne (2004) state that traditional anger management only focuses on aggressors, thus ignoring the environment in which the aggressive behavior occurred.

Seril, Gobeil, & Peterson (2009) indicate the need to develop prosocial behavior rather than emphasizing on negative behaviors.  

French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre wrote, ‘Hell is Other People’.  However, the other half is ‘Heaven is other people, too’ (Metcalf and Gallagher 2012).  They state that it’s rather funny that some people think other people are the problem.  Bosses complain about their employees and vice versa.

Top Three Implications of Being Angry At Work

 1.      Anger in Business definitely has negative implications on decision making.  Moreover it veils up the ethical awareness and sensitivity towards employees (Mickel & Ozcelik, 2008).

 2.      Anger creates more hostility at work place (Miron & Rafaeli).   Trust vanishes in an environment where hostility exists against each other.  This leads to reduced productivity, less team work and increased people issues.

 

3.      Aggressive and anti social behaviour (Inc.com)

Conclusion:

• With the above findings it is evident that anger at workplace only works against one’s growth and prosperity.  You would be able to extract work from your colleagues to an extent beyond which the work environment will become hostile and distrustful.

 

• This would create a discord between long term organization goals and your short term achievements.

• Burt, Patel, Butler & Gonzalez (2013) proposed Leadership Implementation Training (LIT), a counseling model that integrates the recommendations made by Finn and Willert (2006).  As rightfully stated by Kellner, Bry, and Salvador (2008), working on Leadership development of an individual is crucial for counselors engaged in Anger Management. 

• Organizations must consider setting up Anger Management Committees with Leadership Development being their core theme.  Ongoing trainings must be provided to leaders to help them develop their emotional quotient and leadership skills. 

     

Possible Suggestions:

Clearly with the listed implications above, one must take the following measures to prevent being angry at work.  I call it the ROPE approach:

 

1.      Be Rational.  Respect Other’s Perspective

2.      Be Open.  Ask questions to clarify your doubts / queries.  Be accepting to feedback and providing a constructive one

3.      Be Positive.  What you may see as Glass Half Empty may be Glass Half Full for the other/s

4.      Be Elaborate.  Don’t shirk away people / ideas.  Learn from other’s experience.  There is something that one can always learn from the other.  Elaborate on your views and present them firmly yet subtly if needed

 

 

A wonderful extract from the eBook - 'Being Buddha at Work (2012)'.

 

References and Bibliography:

Reuters (2007) 'Workplace anger...who wins?' CNN.com/living 

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/08/02/angry.men.women.reut/index.html?iref=mpstoryview [accessed 25 December, 2013].

 

Burt, Patel, Butler & Gonzalez (2013) ‘Integrating Leadership Skills Into Anger Management Groups to Reduce Aggressive Behaviors: The LIT Model’ Journal of Mental Health Counseling. Vol 35/ Number2/April 2013/Pages 124-141.

Metcalf, F. & Gallagher, BJ Being Buddha At Work: 101 Ancient Truths on Change, Stress, Money, and Success: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 2012. eBook., Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).

Mickel & Ozcelik (2008) ‘Chapter 6 When Executives get angry: the importance of anger and its triggers to ethical awareness and sensitivity’ Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Vol. Iss: 4, pp.  131 – 154.

Miron-Spektor and Rafaeli, ‘The Effects of Anger At Workplace: When, Where and Why Observing Anger Enhances Or Hinders Performance’ http://ie.technion.ac.il/Home/Users/anatr/Anger_Effects_Miron-Spektor_Rafaeli-RPHRM.pdf [accessed 25 December 2013].

Workplace Anger, Inc.com http://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/workplace-anger.html [accessed 25 December 2013]. 

Email vs. Email

 

Wondered if time spent on reading / exchanging emails is pro productive at work?

Time spent on emails may yield good results only if they add value to your organisational goals.

Some studies reveal -

• Organizations lose around $1,250 per user in annual productivity because of time spent dealing with spam, $1,800 unnecessary emails from co-workers, $2,100 - $4,100 due to poorly written communications.

               (Tom Pisello, ITBusinessEdge.com, 12/2008)

• Almost all work emailers (88%) check their inboxes at least once a day, and most of those (70%) check at least several times a day. Thanks to the popularity of email software with an always-on feature that leaves inboxes open, nearly a quarter of work emailers say they “constantly” check their email.

 

Not only this, checking emails more often starts seeping into one's personal life. Do you hear your wife calling out to you - C'mon honey', or your kids yelling - 'dad stop bugging'.

 

• 62% of at-work email users check work email over the weekend, and 19% check it five or more times in a weekend. More than 50% said they check it on vacation, with the highest amount coming from mobile device users at 78%.

          (Statistic, 45th Annual Email Addiction Survey 2009, AOL)

 

Having said that, to make productive use of email try the following:

 

1. Check emails only thrice a day - one, after one hour of your log in time post you've planned for the rest of the day, once at about 3pm or midday and one at the end of the day before leaving.  Well there is no thumb rule !  The idea is to spend time on working effectively, to lead the game rather being led by the hamartia that email checking / exchanging adds to our lives .

 

 

 

Restrict checking email for an interval of half an hour for each time slot recommended above

 

2. Throw your blackberry away when on holiday - Well, not literally. Check only if needed.  You'd not enjoy either - holiday or work !

 

 

 

 

3. Balance your personal life. Value your relationships over being regular with your emails. Trust me, having a nudging wife is much better than having a nudging phone

 

 

 

4. And yes, stop playing ping pong on emails. Pick up that phone and speak to your colleague. This way you make more friends than foes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

( I certify that I am the author of this paper.  I have cited any sources (footnotes or endnotes) from which I used the data, ideas, theories, or words, whether quotes directly or paraphrased.  I further acknowledge that this paper has been prepared by me specifically for this blog. )

Does Mirroring a Successful Leader help?

Have you ever been a part of the group murmuring about an attractive, intelligent, know-it-all leader whenever he/she passes by?

Did you ever want to imitate a successful leader, be it an immediate senior or the BIG BOSS?

Most successful leaders have role models who they wish to imitate and become like one someday.

Take a look at an article by *Time Magazine which defines Barack Obama’s role model as President Reagan. He admired the persona and policies followed by Reagan and is believed to have a Reaganesque approach in managing his government.

Or, for that matter Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft who diligently followed Warren Buffet, an American Investor, Industrialist and Philanthropist.

At some point in time, we all seek success and one of the mantras to savour success in today’s accelerated business environment is to trace the footsteps of a successful leader.

Three Ways to Start This Journey towards Mirroring Successful Leaders are:

1. Plan what you want to achieve: Lay down your career path. Be clear in what you desire in 5 years / 10 years from now, select a role-model for yourself to keep yourself constantly inspired and research on your role-model to get good background information on how he/she accomplished their dreams. Use this information as reference point whenever you digress from your path.

2. Talk to your role-model: Having a role model within your reach is easier than having a one who belongs to another place/country/industry. Though this is a very personal choice. Speak to this person, learn the tips and tricks of becoming successful and constantly share your achievements with him/her. This would ensure that your exemplar sees your resolve in learning from your examples.

3. Talk about your role-model: ‘There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude. - Robert Brault’. While you continue to gain insights to successful working from your role model, you are on the path of becoming one for someone else. A simple thank you at one point in time from your admirer would make you feel having lived a life worth ploughed for. Do not hesitate to borrow time from your model just to say ‘Thank You’. It would also be worthwhile to share examples of what you did and who helped you achieve it. Give due credit to one who truly deserves it.

• Tina Arora

* http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2044712,00.html

Speaker at Gripel Conference

Hi,

Please check this link for my Presentation as a Guest Speaker on ' Leadership Strategies for High Performance Contact Centres' at a Conference on Customer Experience and Service Quality Excellence, organised by Gripel (http://www.gripel.com/).

http://www.slideshare.net/tinaarora12/leadership-strategies-for-high-performance-contact-centres

Feedback welcome !

Regards,
Tina

3 Ways To Manage Appreciation

We all yearn for appreciations in whatever we do - a regular chore, a distinctive task or rendering a help to someone.

Receiving appreciations requires you to put in a lot of effort as much as managing them by you do.

Three ways to manage Appreciations are:

1. Classify Appreciation and Flattery separately:  Flattery is a cheap form of appreciating someone.  You would come across people in life who would flatter you with personal aim in mind and ones who genuinely appreciate your efforts.  Recognise the difference between these two kinds.  A light nod on flattery and a firm handshake on appreciation will set the person passing on one of the two gestures, right in place.
2. Accept without shying away:  I have seen people shying away from receiving appreciation they truly deserved and worked hard for.  Appreciations help us complete the cycle of growth.  The cycle of growth comprises of  'Do - Receive - Give - Do'. Receiving appreciation will only help you perform better and thank back the society for the trust they showered on you.
3. Acknowledge the appreciation:  A mere smile is not enough! It puts your appreciator in dilemma of whether something wrong was said.  Acknowledge the appreciation with an open heart and mind.  Give a big broad smile, reach out your hand and say 'Thank You'. 

So the next time, when someone says, ‘Wow, you did very well in that meet!’ – Notice your reaction !

For those scared of Multiple Regression Analysis

Apologies, I will get a bit statistical this time to share with those practicing six sigma tools and techniques.

One of the techniques used by a Six Sigma Practitioner is the Multiple Regression Model.

This Model involves the analysis of two or more independent variables (Xs) for a Dependant Variable (Y).



Many Six Sigma Practitioners avoid using this model due to the complexiities involved in designing it.

The purpose of sharing this blog is to benefit those who know what multiple regression is and even for those who do not how it works.

If one wants to build a Multiple Regression model, follow the simple steps designed by me to reach an inference and make appropriate recommendations:

Step 1: Identification of Dependant (Y) and Independent Variables (X’s)



For example, if we wish to analyze the factors influencing overall customer loyalty, then our Y (Dependant Variable) will be Overall Loyalty and our X's (Independant variables influencing our Y) are as listed below 
Y = Overall Loyalty


X1 = Customer Satisfaction


X2 = Value for Money


X3 = Product Range


X4 = Service Quality


X5 = Car Parking


X6 = Staff Friendliness



Step 2: Shortlisting important X’s which impact the Big ‘Y’ i.e – Overall Customer Loyalty


We will follow step wise regression in selecting the most important variables for our analysis.  One can use Minitab to do this analysis.

Step 3: We check for Pearson’s Correlation coefficient to see high correlations in any of the X's.

For eg:  If we see there is high correlation between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction variables then we know that Multicollinearity exists in our model.  Multicollinearity can have significant impact on the quality and stability of the fitted regression model.

A common approach to multicollinearity problem is to omit explanatory variables. For example if x₁ and x₂ are highly correlated (say correlation is greater than 0.9), then the simplest approach would be to use only one of them, since one variable conveys essentially all the information in the other variable.

Step 4:  Determining Standard Error Of Estimate (S)

The Standard Error of estimate is the measure of dispersion around the multiple regression plane.  In multiple regression the estimation becomes more accurate as the degree of dispersion around the regression gets smaller.  This ‘S’ value indicates the extent of error in our estimation of the value of dependant variable (Y).  If the multiple regression equation fits the entire data perfectly, then our prediction of Y is most accurate and there is no error.  

Step 5:  Determining Coefficient of Determination (R²)

In regression, the R2 coefficient of determination is a statistical measure of how well the regression line approximates the real data points. Adjusted R2 is a modification of R2 that adjusts for the number of explanatory terms in a model. Unlike R2, the adjusted R2 increases only if the new term improves the model more than would be expected by chance. The adjusted R2 can be negative, and will always be less than or equal to R2. Adjusted R2 does not have the same interpretation as R2. As such, care must be taken in interpreting and reporting this statistic. Adjusted R2 is particularly useful in the Feature selection stage of model building.

Adjusted R2 is not always better than R2: adjusted R2 will be more useful only if the R2 is calculated based on a sample, not the entire population. For example, if our unit of analysis is a state, and we have data for all counties, then adjusted R2 will not yield any more useful information than R2. The use of an adjusted R2 is an attempt to take account of the phenomenon of statistical shrinkage

Step 6: Determining Coefficient of Correlation(R)

R = Square root of R²

An R = 1 would mean perfect correlation and R = 0 means no correlation at all. The value of R between 0 and 1 measures the degree of correlation.



The coefficient of determination is a much more precise measure of the strength of the relationship between the two variables and is subject to more precise interpretation because it can be presented as a proportion or as a percentage. It can be defined as the proportion of variation in Y that is explained by X.


Step 7: Test of significance for Regression Model



We will now test if the given regression model is significant for our analysis.

For the same, we conduct a Hypothesis test called the ‘F’ Test.



F- ratio is given by Explained variance divided by unexplained variance.


Our Null and Alternative Hypothesis are as stated below:


Ho: Null = The regression is not significant


Ha: Alternative = The regression is significant

If the calculated value > critical value at 0.05 level of significance, we cannot accept Null Hypothesis and vice versa equation results in acceptance of Null Hypothesis.

How to include a variable which cannot be quantified



Multiple regression allows the use of technique called Dummy variables or Binary Variables. With these in place, we can even include qualitative factors like gender. Binary variables are coded 0, 1


For example:. For example a variable x1 (Gender) is coded, male = 0 female = 1. Then in the regression equation:


Y = β0 + β1x1 + β2x2 when x1 = 1 the value of Y indicates what is obtained for female gender; and when x1 = 0 the value of Y indicates what is obtained for males.


If we have a nominal variable with more than two categories we have to create a number of new dummy (also called indicator) binary variables.


Dummy Variables also help us in increasing the accuracy of our estimating equations.


I'd be more than happy to help anyone build a multiple regression model for their processes.

Please feel free to write to me at tinaarora12@rediffmail.com

Until then,
Chao

Oxygen Pockets in a Corporate

You must be wondering this post is about a Yoga or a Fitness centre in a company.

This post is about the important functions in a corporate which equate to the mangroves in a real world scenario.

Just like the mangroves inhale the various unhealthy and waste gases released in the air to exhale fresh oxygen for our survival, functions like Operational Excellence or Business Improvement Teams perform similar functions for us.

• So what happens when your company wants to improve its reduced bottom lines?
• A company which wants to increase its throughput?
• An organisation who wants to cut waste and rework?
• A start up which wants to identify new opportunities for growth?
• An firm which believes in propelling innovation and promote out of the box thinking?

The epitomized answer to the above is 'Effectively driven Business Improvement Teams' which not only help achieve these objectives for an organisation but also identify these opportunities for a firm.

The techniques adopted by these units may include Six Sigma, Lean, TRIZ, Kaizen, ISO and so on.

So do you believe that these units become unequivocal Oxygen Pockets for a corporate and if these are necessary to have in a company?

Cheers,
Tina

Do You Have The Bullets But Not The Gun ?

I saw this movie called 'The Burning Bride' a while back, an absolute must watch for thrilling movie lovers.  A lady is trying to save herself from a ferocious and hungry tiger lurking in the house as a part of a conspiracy by her stepfather to kill her. 

Wait on! This post is not about movie lovers but an example for working executives.

A scene in the movie triggered a thought in me.  The girl in danger of being eaten alive by the tiger finds some bullets in one of the rooms amidst all the drama and voila the audience feels she will have her way through, but guess what !

She has the bullets but cannot find the Gun.

 

Does this example relate to your working lives as well?

 

Take an example of a busy work morning.  A Business Operations Executive walks up to his desk, looking worried.  He hasn' t slept through the night, upset with something. He continuously vacillates with a cuppa coffee in his hands and you know what's troubling him?

 

He has the bullets, but doesn't have the gun!  Well, before your mind starts wandering elsewhere, the bullets in this example represent the process data available to him, a whole load of it, but he doesn't know what to do with this data.

 

A few questions rattling his mind since night:

• How does he utilise the data to identify why his process is not performing well?
• Which factors in the process are impacting his Service Levels the most? 
• Which team members are consistently performing and must be recognised?
• Which factors should he work upon to improve his service levels even if he identifies them?

Well, it is always better to investigate rather than discover; to infer rather than conclude; to prevent rather than control !

The Big Gun in this case is an adept knowledge of basic statistics and tools to calculate results for you.

And for all the executives who hate to do maths, the good news is a basic understanding of Six Sigma concepts and knowledge of tools which automatically work out the desired statistics for you will help you in taking precise data driven decisions rather than go by hunch !

So are you prepared to get your GUN in place and fire the Bullets you have ? 

Always here,
Tina

On Examiners Panel - QIMPRO CONVENTION 2010

Hi,

It was a pleasure to be on the Examiners Panel for QIMPRO CONVENTION AWARDS 2010.

http://www.bestpraxclub.com/convention/examiners2010.aspx




About QIMPRO:

http://www.bestpraxclub.com/convention/index.aspx

Regards,
Tina Arora

Measurement system analysis

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Measurement system analysis

View more presentations from Tina Arora.

NLP and Project Management

• Do you think Neuro - Linguistic Programming has any role to play in managing projects ?
• In which phase of project management does NLP help the most?

The answer to the above two points are:

NLP is a skill which allows mastery over understanding human behaviour.  It can only be learnt by application.  A person who understands NLP has a higher chance of clicking with people more adeptly as compared to someone who doesn't know what NLP is all about.

NLP can be successfully applied while managing projects.  Projects is all about people management.  A debatable statement, isn't it? I say so because with my experience I realised that though a project is a temporary endeavour to achieve a result, product, or service, it wouldn't be possible for a project manager (PM) to achieve these results unless he clicks with people who are suppose to act or deliver.

While a project passes through Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Control and Closing phases, a savvy NLP project manager can use his skills dexterously in all the stages.

Fathom this !

In Initiating stage unless the PM senses through his NLP tact what the sponsor is looking for to be undertaken as a project, the project charter may go in infinite cycles of getting approved.

In Planning Stage - unless the PM senses those weird reactions coming through stakeholders in developing the Project Management Plan, the project may fail to take off !  Sad...hmmm !

In Execution Stage - the most important area of showcasing people management skills by a PM, wouldn't you agree that NLP combined with this skill can be killer combination?
" Boss, done".  How much you wanna listen to these words as a PM.

In Monitoring and Control Stage - NLP would help to develop relationships with Quality Auditors.  How would they ever understand and accept the technical deliverables unless you catch their nerve !

And, finally, in Closing Stage - A Big Party for all, though is a partial display of NLP, but ofcourse persuading the team to share their individual learnings while in all stages wouldn't be entirely possible for a PM.  You get them to talk through your NLP skills.

Wow ! Isn't the skill amazing to have.

Try blending NLP next while managing projects and share with me the difference you experience.

A good definition of NLP could be found on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

A great reading on NLP which prepares you in 7 days can be found on my reading list.

Cheers,
Tina Arora

What and How of Operational Excellence?

Dear All,

I have prepared a presentation on 'Operational Excellence (OE)' - A hot topic of success stories in today's competitive industries.

This presentation talks about -

What is Operational Excellence?
Why OE?
Benefits of OE?
How do we introduce OE?

This is available on your right hand side under Section - Presentations for Sharing.

Happy to receive any comments.

Wishes,
Tina

Do we delegate tasks to our customers?

Very often while the companies are facing excessive load as against the capacity planned for, the companies tend to pass some of this load in the complimenting direction - which is to the 'Customers' themselves.

Focus on the below statements:

''Dear Sir, The following information is available under section ..... on our website.  Request you to check the same''

''I request you to callback later as our systems are not working and we cannot access the information requested.  Alternatively you could retrieve this information through XYZ channels''

''Sir, the following information is available on our IVR.  Request you to access the same through the TPIN assigned to you''

''Dear Mrs.CCC, as we are facing huge call volumes, we request you to call back later or leave a voice message and we will call you back''

Please think - Has any one of the above approaches ever been adopted by you / your process ??

Given the above statements, what do you think is correct -

A.  Is it right to redirect your customer to another channel of communication when what the customer wants the most is a human voice at the other end?

B.  By providing the customer with alternate channels of communication is the customer happy with this agility offered ?

C.  When the volumes are high it is okay to divert customers towards self - help options?

D.  Are we right in saying - ''We offer Quality services?''


Request comments from the members.

Wishes,
Tina

Links added

Dear All,

I have added two links for your review under the section - Presentations for sharing. 


These are available in the right window.


I believe knowledge only multiplies by sharing and hence the objective of adding these links.

Happy to receive any comments from you.

Regards,
Tina

Fusion Quality and Statistics

Have you heard about Fusion Data Analysis?


For many decades fusion techniques have been experimented in many European countries. Fusion data is very efficient to recover information in many cases. It's a simple 3 step procedure:

1. Extract a sub-sample from the large respondents data which is split in 2 halves
2. Use these two sub-samples to produce a fusion of a third sample
3. Run your calculations with his fusion data

Then we can compare the results issued from the fusion data set and the ones coming from the observed dataset.

The fusion algorithm involved is the latest available, including the use of a new distance to evaluate the similarity between donors and recipients.

According to Procustrean Fusion Algorithm - Sample 1 is called the donor sample and sample 2 is called the recipient sample.

The Procustrean Fusion Algorithm (PFA) obeys five principles :

1- Each recipient should receive data from a single donor.

2- The data collected for a donor is transferred as a whole to the linked recipients.

3- Any donor already linked should be highly discouraged to produce further links

4- The cross-distributions between common and additional variables should be preserved unchanged by the ascription process.

5- The similarity between two respondents should be evaluated globally.

The rational underlying the first two principles is to avoid breaks of the inter-correlations between the
additional variables during the ascription process.

The third principle protects against a decrease of the effective sample size.

The fourth principle refers to one of the basic requirements for a good fusion..

The last principle is somewhat more subtle. The idea behind is that if one considers that two donors are close (i.e. similar) they need to be so, not only on the basis of the common variables but also on the basis of the additional variables, otherwise the fusion process could distort the dependencies existing among these variables

Altogether the five previous principles are useful to protect the fused database against distortion of the relationships existing between the variables

This article may be useful for you while you undertake to manage any project (six sigma or otherwise) which requires analysis of huge database.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,
Tina

Fusion Quality

Dear All,
I have conceptualised a thought called 'Fusion Quality'.

Since I have graduated myself in various areas of study, I realise every subject has something to offer to the subject - 'Quality'

I'd soon be starting a discussion on 'Fusion Quality' - a concept that will allow us to merge multiple areas of quality with other areas of study to bring out the best deliverables for the end customer.

Follow this loop!

My Introduction

Dear All,
You could view my detailed profile at - http://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaarora
I have recently completed my Master Black Belt Certification and a sneak peek of my thoughts and implementation of six sigma could be viewed at - http://forum.benchmarksixsigma.com/post/participant-interview-tina-arora-avp-kotak-securities.

I hope to see more colleagues joining me in my endeavour to spread the knowledge of propagating service quality in organisations through six sigma initiatives.

Best Wishes,
Tina Arora