Focus group
Little City currently has a set of values that are not consistent within the organization and the values are also very dated and need to be restructured to fit into the strategic plan. The stated values are Results, Innovation, Quality, Choice, Compassion, Teamwork, and Decisiveness. During a meeting, Leadership came up with a set of 19 values and delegated to the marketing team to chose 5 to 7 value using a focus group.
The focus group project intends to find out what words best represent Little City and align those with the strategic plan. The strategic plan consists of 5 categories. Financial Sustainability, Programs, Operational Excellence, Engaged Workforce, and Community/External Relationships. I would like to note that the strategic plan is currently being modified, however, it will stay within this theme. By developing and executing a focus group, the newfound values will support the vision of Little City and help shape its culture.
The first task I completed before starting this project was to develop SMART Goals. This set me up for success because I was able to develop objectives for this project. I then spent some time doing in-depth research due to not having any professional experience on this topic. With the notes that I took from doing this research and some direction from my preceptor, Tina, I then created an agenda.
This agenda laid out the key information needed to run the focus group. To elaborate, There were to be 2 focus groups of 10 different individuals attending each. The individuals consisted of Little city’s stakeholders and a member with no affiliation to Little City for an unbiased opinion. I was tasked to be the one to bring the unbiased individual. This was going to be my cousin and father in law. The focus group was scheduled for the 24th and 26th of March to fit into my internship schedule. We also chose 2 separate times on those days to allow for more participation and flexibility. My preceptor thought that It was important for me to attend the focus group and to assist with moderating. Unfortunately, this has been postponed due to COVID-19 and will not be scheduled until after my internship has ended.
Before Loyola instructed students to stay at home and I was still working on this project. I drafted out an email that was sent to all potential focus group participants. This task helped me in refining my skills with professional email writing. It was then my duty to keep track of all the participants in an excel spreadsheet and to let my preceptor know if there were any issues with scheduling conflicts. An example of an issue would be when a participant stated that she was attending but could not stay for the 90 mins. This caused my preceptor and I to rethink the 90 mins to 60 mins to allow for more flexibility.
Diving further into the agenda. I created an activity that was going to be used during the focus group and it consisted of break out group discussions and a questionnaire to get more quantitative data. Some of the discussion questions included
1) How would you describe Little City to other people?
2) How does an organization’s Values influence employees?
3) How do you define success?
a. What qualities do people need to have to be successful at Little City?
And The questionnaire was going to include the suggested value words that leadership presented in a meeting before the focus group. It was going to be my responsibility to take notes of the discussion and then to take the data from the questionnaire and to transcribe it for my preceptor to use and present the finalized set of core value terms to the board.
This focus group is essential in developing the values of Little City to shape the culture of the organization. Although I did not have the opportunity to finish out this project I did provide my preceptor with all the materials that I have been developing which will aid in future focus groups.
The focus group project intends to find out what words best represent Little City and align those with the strategic plan. The strategic plan consists of 5 categories. Financial Sustainability, Programs, Operational Excellence, Engaged Workforce, and Community/External Relationships. I would like to note that the strategic plan is currently being modified, however, it will stay within this theme. By developing and executing a focus group, the newfound values will support the vision of Little City and help shape its culture.
The first task I completed before starting this project was to develop SMART Goals. This set me up for success because I was able to develop objectives for this project. I then spent some time doing in-depth research due to not having any professional experience on this topic. With the notes that I took from doing this research and some direction from my preceptor, Tina, I then created an agenda.
This agenda laid out the key information needed to run the focus group. To elaborate, There were to be 2 focus groups of 10 different individuals attending each. The individuals consisted of Little city’s stakeholders and a member with no affiliation to Little City for an unbiased opinion. I was tasked to be the one to bring the unbiased individual. This was going to be my cousin and father in law. The focus group was scheduled for the 24th and 26th of March to fit into my internship schedule. We also chose 2 separate times on those days to allow for more participation and flexibility. My preceptor thought that It was important for me to attend the focus group and to assist with moderating. Unfortunately, this has been postponed due to COVID-19 and will not be scheduled until after my internship has ended.
Before Loyola instructed students to stay at home and I was still working on this project. I drafted out an email that was sent to all potential focus group participants. This task helped me in refining my skills with professional email writing. It was then my duty to keep track of all the participants in an excel spreadsheet and to let my preceptor know if there were any issues with scheduling conflicts. An example of an issue would be when a participant stated that she was attending but could not stay for the 90 mins. This caused my preceptor and I to rethink the 90 mins to 60 mins to allow for more flexibility.
Diving further into the agenda. I created an activity that was going to be used during the focus group and it consisted of break out group discussions and a questionnaire to get more quantitative data. Some of the discussion questions included
1) How would you describe Little City to other people?
2) How does an organization’s Values influence employees?
3) How do you define success?
a. What qualities do people need to have to be successful at Little City?
And The questionnaire was going to include the suggested value words that leadership presented in a meeting before the focus group. It was going to be my responsibility to take notes of the discussion and then to take the data from the questionnaire and to transcribe it for my preceptor to use and present the finalized set of core value terms to the board.
This focus group is essential in developing the values of Little City to shape the culture of the organization. Although I did not have the opportunity to finish out this project I did provide my preceptor with all the materials that I have been developing which will aid in future focus groups.