Cultivating the skills that enable and accelerate change and transformation is now, more than ever, critical to business survival.
While the covid pandemic saw most organisations undergo a period of rapid change, this was largely been forced upon them and as a consequence, activities were mostly reactive in nature.
Moving forward, further change and transformation is required and will be a major factor in post pandemic economic recovery.
Those that have previously been engaged in any form of change or transformation initiative, will be aware that the path is full of obstacles and barriers to overcome in the form of people, processes, misconceptions, misunderstandings, mis-management and a whole host of other barriers to change and transformation.
These "Monsters and Myths" frustrate efforts on a daily basis.
The Monsters frequently manifest in the form of outdated processes or people with closed mindsets whose opinions seem to be impossible to change, very often due to the fact that they themselves are fearful of change and anything new - I'm sure you've encountered the "We've always done it this way" Monster before??
The Myths are arguably even more damaging as the people who believe in them, regard them as fact - for example the "We have plenty of time before we need to do that" Myth which lulls people into a false sense of complacency at a time when the world is changing faster than ever ...............
One of the biggest problems faced by organisations is that the Monsters and Myths are routinely overlooked or ignored - allowing them to thrive and perpetuate - causing much mayhem across the organisation.
The first step therefore is to acknowledge their existence!
I've repeatedly encountered the same Monsters and Myths across multiple organisations, industries and geographies and having had first hand experience of the "Mayhem" they cause, I am passionate about helping organisations and individuals actively seek out the "Magic" required to overcome the Monsters and dispel the Myths.
The purpose of the following workshops is to help organisations and individuals by providing a "safe space" to identify the obstacles / inhibitors / barriers to change and transformation in their own organisation, in order for them to work out ways of overcoming them and increasing their chances of success.
They are highly interactive with activities designed to achieve a shared understanding of the challenges and devise a collaborative approach to tactics and strategies to overcome them.
Sneak Peek
Expose the Monsters and Myths via:-
Share the stories
A "Show and Tell" workshop brings a unique element of engagement and interest to the traditional workshop format and is a great way to uncover the barriers and obstacles your teams are facing. This works particularly well for cross-functional teams where the insights might be surprising to all involved!
The physical / in-person workshops are hands-on and highly engaging - a completely unique activity, perfect to be incorporated into an away-day or offsite - please get in touch on the link below to find out more.
Example completed card
The virtual workshop requires "homework" in the form of advance preparation by the participants who are briefed on the concept a week or so beforehand and requested be prepared to share three Monsters or Myths that they frequently encounter in their roles.
A simple slide template with full instructions is provided for them to create Monsters and Myths "summary cards" to complete (an example is shown on the right) and send back to me a few days before the workshop takes place in order to best structure the approach for the available time.
During the workshop, I'll pick participants to share one of their three cards and having seen those of the rest of the participants, I'll be in a position to encourage contributions and input into the topics raised across the audience.
After the workshop, the cards that have been created by the participants serve as a great summary of the challenges and obstacles that they face and are extremely useful to your team from a strategy perspective to consider next steps on how to overcome them.
This workshop is an opportunity for you to
- Establish a common understanding of pain points
- Share knowledge & suggestions on how to overcome them
- Gain simple and concise summary artefacts of the issues as output
- Lay the foundation to create strategy moving forward
The virtual workshop package includes
- Participants briefed via email beforehand
- Professionally moderated 60 - 90 min virtual workshop
- A consolidated PDF pack of the cards created by participants
- ** Optional extra - 30 minute video briefing in addition to instruction pack sent via email **
Visualise the Mayhem and Magic
The "Deep Dive Strategy" workshop takes the core concept of the Monsters & Myths summary cards to the next level of actionable detail with the addition of two more cards. This workshop generates additional valuable artefacts and insights to lay a strong foundation for future strategy.
Create digital and physical artefact cards
This style of workshop requires even more in depth preparation than the "Show and Tell" workshop outlined above. In addition to the Monsters and Myths "summary cards", participants are required to create one or more of each of the following cards for each Monster or Myth they have identified:-
- Mayhem cards - describe and quantify the impact of the Monster or Myth
- Magic cards - outline a suggested solution to overcome the Monster / dispel the Myth
Creating these additional cards may require some research on the part of the participants. For example, they may "believe" that a particular process (Monster) has a major impact on their team's performance - but they may never have attempted to quantify precisely how much of an impact it has.
Similarly, they may not have any idea of the "Magic" required to overcome an obstacle - which will require them to investigate how others might have solved the problem in the past. If they are still unable to think of a suggested way forward, that too is OK and will become a discussion point for the workshop where the other participants will be called on to suggest approaches.
If by the end of the workshop, no Magic has been identified, this becomes an action point for further investigation according to the priority of the problem, which is determined by the (quantified) amount of Mayhem it causes!
To begin with, the workshop follows the same format and structure as a Show and Tell workshop, however the conversation can get into far more detail given the additional cards that have been completed.
Affinity sorting
We then move on to an "affinity sorting" visualisation of the Monsters, Myths, Mayhem and Magic. After making an initial attempt at grouping similar cards, participants add further contributions by creating new cards on-the-fly.
The aim is to end up with something that looks like the example shown on the right - where the problems, impacts and solutions are visualised all on a single "map" which would lay the foundation for your strategy moving forward.
IF the workshop sponsor is brave enough ......... we can optionally introduce one final golden card - the "Muster" card (please forgive my use of alliteration - I have a daughter that works in Marketing ........ enough said 🙂 )
The Muster card names the team responsible for taking up the challenge to overcome one or more Monsters and Myths.
This workshop is an opportunity for you to
- Establish in depth common understanding of pain points
- Share deeper knowledge & suggestions on how to overcome them
- Increase engagement through visualisation of the problems and proposed approaches
- Gain in depth documentation / artefacts as output from the session
- Lay a strong foundation to create strategy moving forward
The virtual workshop package includes
- Participants briefed via email beforehand
- Professionally moderated 90 - 120 min virtual workshop
- A consolidated PDF pack of the cards created by participants
- A pdf version of the Miro board output from the session (or a link to the Miro board for you to continue refining if you prefer)
- ** Optional extra - 30 minute video briefing in addition to instruction pack sent via email**
Create the Magic your customers need
Innovators, troublemakers, change-makers, intrapreneurs and product owners will already have realised the application of either of the above formats for New Product Development, ideation and brainstorming purposes. They are a fantastic way to get a team together to:-
- Identify Customer pain points
- what are the Monsters your customers frequently encounter?
- what Myths do they believe in that you wished they didn't?
- Quantify the impact
- what Mayhem is caused by the Monsters and Myths your customers face?
- what is the size of the opportunity?
- Create solutions
- How can you help your customers to overcome the Monsters and Myths?
- What Magic will work on multiple Monsters and Myths?
Opportunity Identification workshops are tailored to your needs - please get in touch to explore further.
The Monsters & Myths approach is a fantastic way to engage your CUSTOMERS in order to better understand THEIR pain points, barriers and obstacles they face while you and your team share YOUR magic that can overcome them - click here for more info.