Challenge & Selection

One of our clients, a Portuguese Telecom company intended to communicate their new  defined strategic objectives for its new four years strategic cycle to all their people in the  annual kickoff meeting event.

The annual event would have the presence of all the people in the organization, about 190  employees. The client also wanted to take this meeting opportunity to gather insights from its  employees for each strategic objective.

To meet the challenge, we built a workshop in which we have employed some of the most  common used tools in Design Thinking to collect the insights from employees - Brainstorming,  Visual Thinking and Storytelling.

Application

For the activity, consisting of five major stages, we divided all people over 11 working groups  of about 6-8 participants, each representing a different area or department of the company.

The day began with a presentation from the company's CEO of the main strategic goals for the  new strategic cycle and the launch of the activity for all groups.

To each working group was assigned one of the presented objectives to be analyzed and  worked. In the activity, beyond the company's employees in each group, we decided to include  also an additional participant with special skills -an Illustrator.

As activity support materials, we delivered to each group a guide with questions for each of  the various steps and also a support guide to the Illustrator to guide him along the interaction  with his group.

For each of the five steps was assigned an execution time in order to create some pressure on  the groups creative process so they could meet the schedule and objectives of the event's  agenda.

In the first step 1) IMMERSION, each participant individually identified on post-its various  aspects associated with the objective assigned to his group. The next moment each participant  presented to his group the results of their individual reflection. The Illustrator's task in each  group at this stage, was to create an illustration following the group's ideas in order to explain  the objective assigned to it.

In the second step 2) Synthesis, each group analyzed the contributions that each  participant  gave about the assigned objective and organized all contributions into clusters. For all the  created clusters the group selected 5 that in its opinion were considered to be the most  important for the assigned objective, and then create an explanatory metaphor for each of the  5. The Illustrator task in this stage, was to create another illustration in accordance with the  metaphors that had been created by the group for each of the five selected clusters.

In the third step 3) SELECTION, each group picked one of the five clusters and identified a  critical issue or problem within that cluster that in their view should be  worked. For the  identified problem and like in the previous step, the group again created a metaphor to  describe it. The Illustrator task in this stage was to create another explanatory illustration for  the metaphor of the problem that the group has identified.

The fourth step 4) IDEATION, consisted on two phases. In the first phase each group should  present up to 5 solutions / ideas to the problem identified in the previous step. In This step all  groups got a new support guide with a short description of all available tools in the  organization to help the process of generating ideas / insights. Those ideas should meet certain  criteria such as:

•  Be practical and concrete;  •  Allow ownership;  •  Be Implemented during that year;  •  Within the budget presented by the CEO for the year using the available resources  (tools available in the organization);

In the second phase, the groups should pick 1 of 5 ideas presented to the problem and give up  to 3 reasons for their choice and create again a metaphor to explain the chosen idea. The  Illustrator task in this stage was to create an illustration of the idea / solution presented and  according to the metaphor created by the group to solve the problem.

The fifth step 5) PROTOTYPE, each group described how it should be implemented / built /  implemented the idea / solution for the identified problem on the assigned objective. This  description was presented in the form of an action plan, in which each group should identify:

•  How to implement the idea / tasks;  •  Time / Schedule;  •  Implementation Responsibility (Team, Area, Resources);  •  Sponsor;  •  Tools available to use / develop;

At the end of the event, each group used its Visual Thinking illustrations made by their  illustrator to present all the developed work and the insights created, they used them to "tell  their story".

Insight & Approach

What we learned from this Design thinking activity with the various groups is that when the  opinions, points of views, ideas and insights of each person are shared and worked in a  constructively and collaboratively way without a "devil's advocate" around to censor and  criticize them we can reach amazing results.

The way and the ease in which people working together can build such detailed action plans  was impressive.

Get people involved from the start in a participatory and collaborative way to find and define a  problem and creating a solution for it is so powerful and so positive, that the levels of  motivation, involvement and commitment of all groups is contagious. It comes up a feeling of  anxiety in to move into action.

Here’s are some pictures from one of the groups work at the workshop.


Challenge & Selection One of our clients , a Portuguese Telecom company intended to communicate their new defined strategic objectives for its new four years strategic cycle to all their people in the annual kickoff meeting event . The annual event would have the presence of all the people in the organization , about 190 employees . The client also wanted to take this meeting opportunity to gather insights from its employees for each strategic objective . To meet the challenge , we built a workshop in which we have employed some of the most common used tools in Design Thinking to collect the insights from employees - Brainstorming , Visual Thinking and Storytelling . Application For the activity , consisting of five major stages , we divided all people over 11 working groups of about 6 - 8 participants , each representing a different area or department of the company . The day began with a presentation from the company 's CEO of the main strategic goals for the new strategic cycle and the launch of the activity for all groups . To each working group was assigned one of the presented objectives to be analyzed and worked . In the activity , beyond the company 's employees in each group , we decided to include also an additional participant with special skills -an Illustrator . As activity support materials , we delivered to each group a guide with questions for each of the various steps and also a support guide to the Illustrator to guide him along the interaction with his group . For each of the five steps was assigned an execution time in order to create some pressure on the groups creative process so they could meet the schedule and objectives of the event 's agenda . In the first step 1 ) IMMERSION , each participant individually identified on post - its various aspects associated with the objective assigned to his group . The next moment each participant presented to his group the results of their individual reflection . The Illustrator 's task in each group at this stage , was to create an illustration following the group 's ideas in order to explain the objective assigned to it . In the second step 2 ) Synthesis , each group analyzed the contributions that each participant gave about the assigned objective and organized all contributions into clusters . For all the created clusters the group selected 5 that in its opinion were considered to be the most important for the assigned objective , and then create an explanatory metaphor for each of the 5 . The Illustrator task in this stage , was to create another illustration in accordance with the metaphors that had been created by the group for each of the five selected clusters . In the third step 3 ) SELECTION , each group picked one of the five clusters and identified a critical issue or problem within that cluster that in their view should be worked . For the identified problem and like in the previous step , the group again created a metaphor to describe it . The Illustrator task in this stage was to create another explanatory illustration for the metaphor of the problem that the group has identified . The fourth step 4 ) IDEATION , consisted on two phases . In the first phase each group should present up to 5 solutions / ideas to the problem identified in the previous step . In This step all groups got a new support guide with a short description of all available tools in the organization to help the process of generating ideas / insights . Those ideas should meet certain criteria such as : • Be practical and concrete ; • Allow ownership ; • Be Implemented during that year ; • Within the budget presented by the CEO for the year using the available resources ( tools available in the organization ) ; In the second phase , the groups should pick 1 of 5 ideas presented to the problem and give up to 3 reasons for their choice and create again a metaphor to explain the chosen idea . The Illustrator task in this stage was to create an illustration of the idea / solution presented and according to the metaphor created by the group to solve the problem . The fifth step 5 ) PROTOTYPE , each group described how it should be implemented / built / implemented the idea / solution for the identified problem on the assigned objective . This description was presented in the form of an action plan , in which each group should identify : • How to implement the idea / tasks ; • Time / Schedule ; • Implementation Responsibility ( Team , Area , Resources ) ; • Sponsor ; • Tools available to use / develop ; At the end of the event , each group used its Visual Thinking illustrations made by their illustrator to present all the developed work and the insights created , they used them to " tell their story " . Insight & Approach What we learned from this Design thinking activity with the various groups is that when the opinions , points of views , ideas and insights of each person are shared and worked in a constructively and collaboratively way without a " devil 's advocate " around to censor and criticize them we can reach amazing results . The way and the ease in which people working together can build such detailed action plans was impressive . Get people involved from the start in a participatory and collaborative way to find and define a problem and creating a solution for it is so powerful and so positive , that the levels of motivation , involvement and commitment of all groups is contagious . It comes up a feeling of anxiety in to move into action . Here ’s are some pictures from one of the groups work at the workshop .