DCA – a versatile and quick diagnostic tool

DCA – Diagnose problems quickly to lay the ground for changes

As a manager, you are used to find solutions – it is part of your daily job. However, not all problems are equals. Some problems are easy to fix, some others are hard to even pinpoint. Sometimes the solution you propose are not well accepted by the team and the problem might stay and even get worst. Somethines you fixed the problem but the situations does not get better.

It is not easy to take enough distance and change your analysis grid to think outside of the box, to federate a team to take actions or to agree on the first step towards a better situation. The DCA approach helps you do all of that in a quick and methodical way.

Table of Contents

What is DCA?

DCA (in French: Diagnostic Court Appliqué that could be translated by “Quick Applied Diagnostic”) is a diagnostic tool that has been developed by the IFEAS (Institut Francophone d’Etudes et d’Analyses Systémiques, Montreal). It can be described as a particularly rich and rapid method for analysing a situation, a team or service and solving a problem or building an improvement plan (Kaizen). It is a tool that allow managers to structure their strategy design process and overcome recurrent flaws in the way to define them.

What is DCA suitable for?

The DCA tool is particularly useful:

  • When you want to analyse a problem
  • To regularly share information with your team
  • When you want to build a service project
  • To look for new avenues of improvement
  • To prepare for a change
  • When taking over the position of manager

However, please note that the DCA is less effective :

  • in conflict situations
  • for purely financial approaches

How is it possible?

Going through several short phases of analysis and syntheses from different angles and perspectives, the methodology guides you on an innovative path of reflection. By the end of the process, you will have reassessed your context, organisation and capabilities, established a vision for the next periods of 3 to 5 years and defined a contextual strategic and action plan.

The system diagnosis is very pragmatic. It provides you with a set of 40 concrete scenarios with different pragmatic and empirically-based ideas to help you start the reflexion phase. It also helps you decide on what to focus on first and make a synthesis of your own perceptions. The result can then be submitted for review and feedback can be used to make more sustainable decisions. If the exercise is quick, it deserves to be nuanced, relativised and above all shared.

Core elements of DCA

A DCA workshop is carried out in three phases:

  1. Information gathering in six rounds (about 2 hours).
  2. Six analyses combined (count half a day).
  3. Which produce the inputs needed for an action plan.

Strategic workshops and consulting with DCA

The ability to adapt and act requires a quick and solid analysis. In just a few steps, we effectively support you in bringing about and introducing pragmatic solutions!

Book your workshop online now or get in touch with us!

Who developed the DCA?

The DCA methodology was developed by two teams from the IFEAS (Institut Francophone d’Etudes Appliquées en Systémique), a department of the Collège Polytechnique International.

The main authors are: Charles-Henri Russon, Odile James, Pierre Bufferne, David Mullender and Daniel Giguerre.

Official website (in French): https://www.polytechnique.education/dca-systeme

 

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