I just finished facilitating a workshop with stakeholders of an end-to-end enterprise process. In one day we were able to get some fairly deep insight as to some of the problems of the process. Some of the issues identified probably are very similar to many processes at other companies:
- No end-to-end owner of the process.
- No formal communication platform.
- Goals are based on functional areas without alignment to corporate strategy.
- IT systems inadequacies.
- Redundancies.
These are just a few.
Although the workshop participants participated in heated discussions (all constructive) and did a thorough job mapping the processes, they couldn't come up with specific action items.
This is my first time doing this type of facilitation, so it was quite a learning experience. My next go at this I will try the following:
- make the workshop 2 or 3 days. One day is just to short to digest the concepts. It's also very tiring.
- challenge the group to develop specific solutions. General solutions (e.g. define an owner) helps get the ball rolling, but I was hoping to come away with a list of projects to implement.
- harp on outside-in approach. It really helps to focus on solutions in if we are asking ourselves "How does this add value to our customers."
