Peer-graded Assignment: Reflection

Challenge & Selection

As a manager in a global consulting firm focused on assisting companies manage their  global workforce, I interact daily with a multitude of stakeholders. These include client  HR Mobility professionals and expatriate employees, third party relocation and  immigration vendors, colleagues across 100+ countries, my own direct team as well as  our offshore compliance team. All of which with different perspectives and reality  leading to different inputs and expectations throughout the entire process.

Although moving employees abroad isn’t a new phenomenon, the globalization that  started in the early 90’s and the advancements in technology created opportunities for  companies of all sizes to venture into new markets, therefore increasing exponentially  the need for employee relocations in traditional and new locations. This brings me to the  challenge we faced – our 15 year-old system became outdated and inefficient despite a  few ad-hoc attempts over the years to fix it and integrate it. It was clear to me that the  conventional linear analysis would neither properly identify the underlying problems nor  arrive at a solution that would resolve it effectively and wow all of us.

I used the tool of Visualization, or Visual Thinking, to gain a deep understanding of the  current system’s capabilities and shortfalls and the possible solutions. I knew I needed a  compelling story to gain support at all levels of my organization and secure resources  and the team was key.

Application

The initial phase consisted of reaching out to senior leadership and request the  nomination of potential candidates from the various business units and service lines.  These were all top performers with proven records, different background and expertise.

I hand-picked the stakeholders based on their background, experience, levels and  positions, particularly looked for individuals that have used many hats before such as  former clients, transfers from foreign offices, different industry experts working with  clients at all sizes and geographical locations.

The activity consisted of groups of 4-6 participants that were challenged with a series of  questions and scenarios. Each team received a large board and stick notes to make  comments. After each question and scenario, each team presented their thoughts  where everyone could agree or disagree and add their opinions.  The best ideas were  then added to group board where we created collective mind mapping, all other ideas  were kept on a “parking lot” for future consideration.

The intent was to gain a deep understanding of the current reality in terms of system  capabilities and shortfalls, needs and expectations, usage of the system amongst  others. I ensured the scope of our focus was not too narrow in a way that could  eventually eliminate innovation opportunities at the onset of the project. All ideas were  considered and properly categorized and I functioned as a facilitator. We identified a  few low hanging fruits of quick changes of the current system that require  minimal effort  so the firm could rip some benefits right away while the new system is being created.

Insight and Approach

It became clear to me that the system was being used in many different ways, some  completely entirely different from each other, based on user experience, role, location,  seniority, business units, etc. Additionally, I learned that over the years some areas  developed training materials for existing employees and new hires while others allowed  the employees to learn on the job, thus creating inconsistencies and knowledge gap.

As a result, I used the concept of creating personas with name, photo, role, description  and motivation so we could put ourselves on their shoes to understand their customer  experiences. Each persona promoted an in-depth dive with a total different perspective  and how these interact and connect with each other.

After a few rounds of meetings, the need for an integrated and robust global  management and workflow system was clear. Such capabilities of global access,  structured framework with user configured dashboards, capable of tracking and control,  multi-year reporting and with possibility to scale upon demand. We had a few iterations  of pilot system designs that were reviewed as a team and adjusted based on feedback.  We’re now close to launch the prototype system and test it in a limited environment.

Looking back at the onset of this project, with the knowledge and experience acquired, I  would have introduced the concept of creating personas at the very beginning to be  able to gain the various insights from different user roles. Although it was done  successful later on when the need arose, it would have saved us some time if initiated  earlier – on the positive side, the open discussions allowed for true unhidden feedback  and desires which was also valuable.

Raffaele Passalacqua

