MLDR 6905 Week 8 Capstone Progress Post Example

Week 8 Discussion: Capstone Progress and the Weakest Joint

Where the College Case Stands and the Joint I Trust Least: A Progress Post Asking Classmates to Argue the Rural Director's Side, With a Reply Arguing Against a Classmate's Cross-Training Case

Position and Status

My position has held since Week 2 without a word changed: a single shared-services team for registration, scheduling and billing across the four campuses inside twelve months, with campuses keeping program design and employer ties.

Status by section: topic and position, drafted; literature, drafted; organizational context, revising; stakeholder case, drafted; implementation plan, drafted; measurement plan, planned. The measurement plan waits because its baselines depend on the two early wins, of the kind Weick (1984) recommends, that open the implementation plan.

The Joint I Trust Least

The weakest point is a promise in the stakeholder case. I told the Linden director that hours saved on processing would give her office about 200 hours a year for employer outreach in her county. Nothing in my implementation plan guarantees it. The shared-services unit would control those clerks' time, and the plan does not say who decides how freed hours are used. In practice, the promise rests on the dean's goodwill, and a future dean could spend the hours elsewhere. Toulmin (2003) would say the claim lacks a backing for its warrant; I would say I have promised something I cannot deliver.

My Request

Would one or two of you spend a single paragraph arguing that the Linden director should refuse the proposal? I do not want advice on how to persuade her. I want the best case against me, written as she might write it, so I can see whether my stakeholder case answers it or only talks past it. Nemeth et al. (2001) found that authentic dissent stimulated better thinking in groups than a devil's advocate who was only playing a role, so if you actually find her side more convincing, please say so, and tell me which of my three commitments you think she would trust least.

Reply to Priya

Priya, you asked for the opposing case, so here is my paragraph against cross-training the front desk at your dental practice group. Cross-training each receptionist to handle scheduling, insurance verification and billing questions at all three offices sounds efficient, but it will lengthen calls in the first months and may lengthen them permanently. A receptionist who verifies insurance twice a week will be slower and less accurate than one who does it all day, and patients waiting on hold will not care that she can also schedule. Your figures show the billing specialist at the main office resolves insurance questions in about four minutes; a cross-trained generalist might take ten. The practice group could end up with three desks that do everything adequately and nothing well, and the best specialist may leave if her expertise no longer sets her apart.

That is the strongest version I can make. Does your plan show how the practice group would know, within the first quarter, whether call times were rising? If it does, my paragraph is answered; if not, a single measure of average call length per office might settle it.

References

Nemeth, C. J., Brown, K., & Rogers, J. (2001). Devil's advocate versus authentic dissent: Stimulating quantity and quality. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31(6), 707-720. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.58

Toulmin, S. E. (2003). The uses of argument (Updated ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Weick, K. E. (1984). Small wins: Redefining the scale of social problems. American Psychologist, 39(1), 40-49. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.39.1.40