Challenge & Selection

The tool selected was Visualization to achieve a shared understanding of a problem among various  business units and attempting to identify and define possible solutions to the problem utilising and  leveraging technology to enhance the delivery of services to the internal and external customer.

Visualization is about using images -visual thinking beyond using words or language alone to unlock a  different part of our brains that allows us to think nonverbally and that managers might not normally  use.

The technique involved the use of an interactive process flow with a set of questions for discussion  to allow the group to learn from each other in the process of defining the scope, elements, and  relationships to consider when identifying problem areas and opportunities for improvements or  growth.

Application

The process was initiated by creating an interactive process flow graphic storyboard of the various  challenges faced by the various business units utilising existing material from various channels such  as the Service Desk, employee & management interviews etc.

The approach focused on the internal customer service amongst business units and the internal  policies, procedures & processes and mechanisms that enable these units to provide the service to  each other.

The template used has a column on the left to identify Business Partners and Internal Value Chain  Providers and a column on the right to identify Challenges that may add constraints to how the  organization operates. The graphic is simple utilising a high-level process flow for the various  business units to utilise in which the stakeholders will be divided into groups of 5, each representing  a different business unit.

Each group will work collaboratively utilising the process flow template poster to document the  challenges and potential solutions with the following key guideline questions :

1) What are the main challenge areas and what is the reason?

2) How do you think it affects /impact others?

3) How would you change it to make it more efficient and effective?

Users are given 30 minutes to discuss the questions and document after which the groups share with  each other their answers to those three questions.

Shared or common insights are documented and group discussion is initiated to choose the best  solution. After the session, we would digitize each group’s poster   to create a view that combines

the shared and new insights from the group discussion, and then create a revised graphic that  incorporates their feedback and proposed changes that they agreed to as a group.

Commitment is agreed upon by the business unit to establish teams to execute on the agreed  solutions.

Insight & Approach

The learning gained from this exercise with several groups is that while the process flow graphic is  critical towards understanding   the various challenges they are working to solve, the more valuable  aspect of the activity is the shared insights and shared learning that occurs while they are working to  define their problem as well as an appreciation for each business units problems. The graphic gives  the various stakeholders a focal point for discussion that allows them to share their perspectives and  develop insights into potential root causes of their problems in a safe space. It allows each  participant to quickly gain new insights about relationships between key entities instead of taking  time to identify them. They can also identify variables in the problem space  i.e  it helps them to  identify what they don’t know, in what areas they need to obtain information or data to provide the  values for the variables. Since it was discovered that the most valuable aspect is the shared insights  and learning, going forward the visualization activity would be  a starting point for a series of design  thinking activities with the combined  graphic that incorporates their combined feedback  acting  as  a reference tool throughout the remainder of their work.

