Example Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I am a member of a State Institution Restoration Department. We provide restoration service  to the building, which is a protected heritage site. Our department is divided into different  expertise areas/materials, including a documentation and communication area.

Since March this year, our whole work has been suspended because of the lockdown  implemented by the government in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. While nowadays we are  still on partial lockdown, the challenge is to keep providing restoration service in a safe way to  people involved.

Selection

We chose learning launch tool because, as it was said in this course, “the purpose is to learn  and then improve” and we wanted to learn through experimentation. Besides, we had  previously gone through other instances like what is stage, to investigate the actual situation  and needs using help of different specialists, and the what if stage, where we used  brainstorming tool to generate and select the principal ideas able to be implemented. We  designed a rapid prototyping which included a reduced group of restorers, as a tentative  solution to expect to improve it through experimentation. This whole process has been made  through virtual meetings with the different areas and teams involved in the experimentation  process.

Application

We focused on giving safety to people involved in the whole job, facilitating the accessibility  (providing better access to workplace), having considerations to personal situations (risk  groups by age or previous diseases, familiar composition and work skills), and improving  communication between the different teams. We thought that the restoration service could be  provided if these conditions were given, so we wanted to test it.

We established the priorities areas to restore in order to develop the experimentation process  on those places. We designed a prototype which involved three places to work with four  restorers each one. These three teams would work simultaneously from 10 am to 5 pm for one  week and then, they would rest for fifteen days in order to be able to detect symptoms and  prevent contagion. On these two weeks other teams would be working in replacement.

When it comes to health safety we ensured availability of all personal protective equipment,  tools, materials and work uniforms, and we established specific work protocols through a  previous training. In terms of accessibility, we considered residence zones and transport  facilities. We provided the permissions to travel and access to free parking in order to  encourage travelling by car, motorcycle or bicycle. This would also minimize the possibilities of  contagion.

Personal situations were considered by selecting non-risk people. Workers not involved in this  launch had to give remote support by documentation and investigation tasks. We considered

as well different skills of each member of the team to make the selection. We also dated  online meetings with the different areas involved in order to increase communication, improve  the workflow and provide support for the present teams.

The learning launch tool was applied effectively and tested our assumption that safety and the  other ideas selected were essential and would allow us to keep providing our service.  However, we hadn’t realized the importance of work schedule, which made difficult the access  to workplace.

Insight

By applying the learning launch tool, we identified our assumptions and designed a prototype  to test them through experimentation. We realized that our priority ideas were accurate and  we quickly identified the aspects that should be improved to keep providing our restoration  service. The launch showed us the need to change the working schedule to avoid the rush hour  and improve the accessibility and safety as well. From that point we changed the working  hours from 8 am to 3 pm.

Approach

Having gone through this experience with success, the next challenge will be gradually increase  the provision of our service by incorporating more work teams. The learning launch tool has  quickly showed us what adjustments we needed to make. For future launch designs we would  probably use the insight gained from this experience to come closer to an accurate solution.

