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Hello, dear readers of Valery Kharlamov’s blog! Today we will talk about what the case method is. Indeed, in fact, it is very effective, as it helps to reveal the potential of the person who uses it, teaches you to rely on yourself, take initiative and activity.
A little about what this method is
It was developed long ago, back in 1920 at Harvard, in order to facilitate the process of teaching students the basics of management and business in general. The main characteristic is that it helps a person learn how to use theory, find problem areas and find ways out of them.
That is, for example, students receive tasks that are in a case, folder and do not have certain solutions, and sometimes problems. Therefore, they must first understand what is wrong there and creates an imbalance, and only then outline a plan for how to deal with this situation. Sometimes the problem is identified, and they just have to overcome it.
Method goals
Let’s take a look at the goals of this method:
- To increase the efficiency of the learning process, to make it better and more effective.
- Motivate students or employees to work process.
- To teach how to work with information, quickly find the necessary material and process it efficiently.
- Make education and the process of obtaining knowledge more attractive and interesting.
- Develop the ability to analyze the problem and on its basis the correct conclusions.
- To teach to look at the situation through the prism of criticism and question the opinion and point of view of even authoritative people who know their job perfectly.
- Encourage the person to independently analyze their actions, control them and be able to give an objective assessment.
- And most importantly, to support the desire for self-improvement, achievements, and also teach to defend one’s point of view and boundaries, no matter in what form, written or oral, the main thing is to convey one’s idea clearly enough to overcome the doubts of others.
Case types
Let’s now look at what types of cases are and their features:
Practical. They reflect the most reliable and real information. Usually with their help they model some kind of historical course of events, or a technical complexity that needs to be dealt with. They are based on some reliable data, whether it is a preserved artifact or records.
Research. For example, a folder with tasks is issued, which includes some preserved materials of famous scientists, historians, artists, and so on. And students will need to reconstruct events based on the data provided, or develop some new way of presenting them. For example, when studying the basics of economics, a teacher can acquaint students with information about local companies and firms, their success and business style.
Teaching. I think it’s clear that the main goal is education. In the process of finding a solution to a problem, students are looking for information that will help them in this, respectively, they process a lot of material, which has a positive effect on the level of knowledge. But this is in cases where time is not limited and students have access to other sources.
Cons of the method
But, as it usually happens, there are also “pitfalls” in this method, let’s look at them in more detail:
- Students do not always come up with constructive ideas. Usually, a teacher or leader involves a group of people in the work on cases, the competence and level of knowledge of which can vary significantly. In addition, internal conflicts, the passivity of some participants and the struggle for leadership only slow down the work process.
- In most cases, teaching is based on the materials that the teacher provides. That is, sometimes the amount of information is very limited, if only because the teacher himself does not have it, and the use of additional sources is impossible. All this significantly reduces performance. For example, he cannot have any information about the internal politics of a corporation in order to analyze its activities.
Step by step guide
If there are 10 people or more in an organized group, then it should be divided into subgroups of 5 people. With a large number of participants, not everyone will be able to express their thoughts due to their individual character traits, disputes and conflicts may arise, and the most active, and perhaps not the most competent, will generate ideas. And in small subgroups there will be no opportunity to quietly “sit out” and relieve yourself of responsibility for the final decision.
To start, a task is given. For example, if you organized a training with a work team, then it might look like this: Describe a case from your experience related to the topic of sales (for example, you use effective sales techniques, present the product in an accessible, voluminous and interesting way, but the buyer still does not purchase it) .
Requirements:
- Must be a true story
- The exact information, place, name of the participants in the situation (sellers) are indicated …
- We need only facts, without including feedback, that is, without judgment and without indicating the emotions experienced about this.
Next stage – exchange of stories between subgroups. Now their task is to come up with a solution or discover a likely problem. In our example, it is necessary to analyze why this product is not in demand.
And the last step – you should present your conclusions, argue them and evaluate the decisions of the subgroup that dealt with your situation. By the way, regarding the successful defense of my opinion, I would like to recommend the article “How to argue and prove the correctness of your opinion to any person?”.
Examples
In order to make it clearer what we are talking about and how tasks are formed, let’s look at case examples.
«Gallery Lafayette»
One woman created eau de toilette, but she did not have the funds for a quality presentation and advertising of her product. Therefore, she offered it on her own, traveling around Europe and looking into different stores. Once she got into the Lafayette gallery, but the manager did not want to not only buy the product, but even look at it. But the heroine turned out to be a creative person, with the help of one action she convinced not only the manager as her spirits, but also gallery visitors.
Task: What exactly did the heroine of the story do?
Answer: She took a bottle of eau de toilette from her purse and smashed it on the floor of the gallery. The aroma was so liked by the visitors that over time the world recognized and fell in love with the ingenious creations of Estée Lauder.
«Methods of influencing Kochetkov Yu.A.»
Objective: to analyze the situation and find out the reasons why the work efficiency of an employee Kochetkov Yu.A. decreased, as well as to develop ways to influence it in order to improve the activity and quality of the goods.
Description of the situation: Kochetkov Yu.A. has been working in the Shedevr company since 2012 as a process engineer. The technologies he developed were of high quality and efficiency. But, starting in 2015, his relationship with his colleagues deteriorated, with whom he stopped even saying hello. The quality of his work has also changed for the worse. Over the past year, the percentage of defective products from 1% has increased to 5%.
What led to such cardinal changes in the personality and quality of the work performed, and also, what actions should be taken in relation to Yu.A. Kochetkov?
Possible options that influenced such significant changes:
Options for the development of events:
Conclusion
And that’s all for today, dear readers! Finally, I would like to recommend that you read the article about the Ishikawa diagram, which may also be useful in your work. Good luck and creative solutions!
The material was prepared by Zhuravina Alina.