i and A Services - Presentations and Workshops

Presentations and Workshops

Toward Making A Difference

Sometimes, a presentation for an hour or so on the subject is all you need.

On other occasions, when you want to really engage your people with the subject, a facilitated workshop is an excellent way to harness the power of your Team - to inform, seek input, explore options and align on focused action to make a difference. Going well beyond a presentation, an interactive i&A Workshop can address the specifics of your requirements, accommodate the availability of your people, and be sensitive to the number, nature and experience of your participants. Subject to the natural law that determines you can have any 2 of the 3 universal objectives concerning Quality (good), Price (cheap) and Timing (fast), i&A designs and facilitates workshops that contribute to your intent while respecting your budget.

In addition to undertaking general facilitation, i&A offers particular expertise with Presentations and Workshops that explore how your organisation could benefit from applying the powerful 'Good To Great' or Blue Ocean Strategy' frameworks, and other interactive workshops that address the essentials of Planning, Execution and Review:

Phase	Workshop	Overview	Face Time	Presentations and Support Material
Framework	Good To Great	"Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" is the question asked by the well researched and highly acclaimed management book 'Good To Great' (G2G) by Jim Collins. This workshop provides an interactive opportunity to explore the proven G2G framework and gain insights about applying the G2G approach to benefit your own organisation.	1 - 2 days	Good to Great Synopsis. Applying Good to Great Presentation. Interviewing for The Right Person. Action Plan. Progress Report.
Framework	Blue Ocean Strategy	The international best selling book 'Blue Ocean Strategy' (BOS) by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne provides a systematic approach to creating uncontested market space and making the competition irrelevant. This workshop reviews the BOS approach, principles and processes as well as the BOS forms so you can begin actively exploring and developing Blue Ocean Strategy for your own initiatives.	1 - 2 days	Blue Ocean Strategy Synopsis. Blue Ocean Strategy Presentation. Forms for developing Blue Ocean Strategy. Action Plan. Progress Report.
Planning	Strategic Planning	What are your organisation's answers to these questions: What does your business look like now? Beyond making money, why is your business in business? What are your Fundamentals; your Purpose, your Values, your Core Strategic Vision? What do you want your business to look like in the future? What strategies are your management team aligned on and will execute at the operational level over the next 3 - 5 years to fulfil on your Fundamentals?	1 - 3 days	Going Somewhere Presentation. Thinking about The Fundamentals. Future Possibilities with Merlin and Merlin+. Strategic Plan. Progress Report.
Execution	Communicating and Executing The Plan	Understanding and aligning on your Vision and associated Plan for your organisation or initiative. Reviewing, generating, discussing and committing to performing specific accountable actions (What, Who, By When) that contribute to achieving your Plan and fulfilling your Vision.	1/2 - 2 days	Leadership and Management Presentation. Business Process Improvement (BPI) or Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Presentation. Transforming your Organisation: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Execution - Key Activities and Relationships. Action Plan. Progress Report.
Execution	Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service (DKYSOS)	Based on the revised edition of the definitive book about Customer service, 'Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service' (DKYSOS) by Kristin Anderson & Ron Zemke, this workshop reviews and discusses the Principles and the How To's of DKYSOS, the Problem Solving Side of KYSOS, and how you Take Care of You.	1/2 - 1 day	Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service Synopsis. Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service Presentation. Action Plan. Progress Report.
Information Systems	-	Information Systems related Presentations by Ian Howard:	1 - 2 hours	Information Systems Directions - A Consultant's View Presentation. Applying Good To Great so that IT Matters Presentation.
Execution	The Art of Getting IT Right (AOGITR) For financial and accounting information systems using a contestable Request For Proposal (RFP) process	Understanding how to use a fair and contestable Request For Proposal (RFP) process to successfully discover, source and implement a 'best fit' Information System to satisfy your organisation's current and strategic business requirements.	4 x 1/2 days or 1 - 2 days	The AOGITR Presentation. Sessions (including related Handouts): 1.1. The current Accounting lS Landscape and Procurement Process Overview. 2.2. Preparing for the Procurement Process; Expectations, Potential Suppliers & The Fuzzy RFP. 3.3. Running a Procurement Process through to a Formal Agreement. 4.4. Implementing - Successfully encouraging the Fat Lady to Sing. Action Plan. Progress Report.
Execution	Project and Programme Management	Appreciating the principles and practices of modern Project and Programme Management.	1 - 3 days	Managing Programmes and Projects Presentation. Project Set Up. Risk Management. Risk Mitigation. Issues Register. Action Plan. Progress Report. Status Report.
Review	Strategic Review	A structured and independent review of your current Strategic Plan and related activities.	1 - 5 days	Thinking about The Fundamentals. Strategic SWOT Analysis. Strategic Review Questionnaire. Strategic Plan. Progress Report.
Review	Tactical / Operational Review	A structured and independent review of your current operational / tactical activities.	1 - 5 days	Thinking about The Fundamentals. Tactical SWOT Analysis. Tactical Review Questionnaire. Execution - Key Activities and Relationships. Progress Report.
Review	Project Review	A structured and independent review of your Information Systems project to identifying positive aspects as well as areas of concern and opportunity that can addressed with effective action to improve project outcomes.	1 - 5 days	Information Systems Project Review, Report and associated Action Plan.

Resource: This Table

The i&A Workshop Approach
Investing time, energy and resources in a facilitated workshop can be the most positive and effective way to successfully introduce a new concept into your organisation, undertake strategic planning, identify and address an issue or an opportunity, or rigorously review and progress an initiative. An i&A facilitated workshop typically aligns the participants on a compelling vision for the future in a way that enhances performance and contributes to achieving useful and enduring outcomes for your participants and your organisation.

During an initial planning phase our i&A facilitator works with your senior management to understand and design the workshop to fulfil your purpose, scope and target outcomes within the constraints of your operational logistics and budget.

An i&A workshop recognises that context is decisive. While it is not always explicit, this context is extremely powerful and always has a significant impact on the effectiveness of any plan. This context is created by each participants' personal and organisational experience and expectations. Since the perspective each person brings to a workshop significantly impacts their participation, it can be illuminating for the facilitator to conduct confidential one-on-one interviews with target participants to explore their views about the proposed workshop. These interviews provide insights into your organisation's prevailing culture as well as the opportunities, concerns and obstacles your people see for themselves and the organisation. While honouring the confidentiality of the personal detail, the overall themes that emerge from these interviews can be usefully applied to refine the design, content and delivery of your workshop.

To ensure focus and assist the participant's workshop experience, agreed information (including i&A Workshop Support Material) is provided as content in the workshop and, as indicated, as pre-reading in advance of the workshop. It is important to highlight that the value each person gets from their workshop experience will be directly influenced by their preparation for and subsequent engagement with your workshop.

Workshop Outcomes
Subject to discussions to determine your workshop's purpose, scope and target outcomes, in general terms our i&A workshops produce:

A broad based Understanding of where you are now;
Alignment on where you are going;
A Plan with the What, Who and By When to get there.

Workshop Venue
As the host, you select and fund all costs associated with the venue. Unless your workshop's duration is less than 1/2 day and you have appropriate internal resources, to assist effective and focussed engagement by your people we recommend that you use an off-site venue.

Indicative i&A Fees
The face-to-face time your participants are involved in an i&A Presentation is typically 1 - 2 hours and their participation in your workshop can range from a 1/2 day to 3 full days.

i&A's contribution to a workshop is shaped by its duration; and this is determined by its purpose, complexity , mix of i&A elements used in the design and preparation, and your organisation's direct involvement in the planning, organising and delivery of your workshop. This means that our i&A professional fee for a Presentation is typically for 2 - 4 hours, and our fee for your Workshop can range from 8 hours to 6 days of our billable time:

Engagement	i&A Elements at the prevailing i&A Customer Fee schedule that is available on request	Short	Typical
Presentation	Receive background briefing and conduct presentation:	1 - 2 hours	2 - 4 hours
Workshop	Consulting with senior management to discuss, design & prepare for the workshop:	2 - 4 hours	1/2 - 2 days
Workshop	Conducting and documenting themes from pre-workshop One-On-One Interviews with participants:	-	1.5 - 2.5 hours / Interview
Workshop	Delivering and facilitating the workshop:	4 - 8 hours	1 - 3 days
Workshop	Documenting and reviewing the workshop with senior management:	2 - 4 hours	1/2 - 1 day
Workshop	Total Indicative Billable i&A Time for a Workshop:	8 -16 hours	2 - 6 days + Interviews

Workshop Follow-through
While a facilitated workshop can stimulate positive change, making a real difference within an organisation does not happen by accident. Work-shopping to align your people as a team, to commit to a plan and be empowered to achieve that plan is a great start ... but not a lot is going to change in the real world until that plan is successfully implemented with effective action.

Executing your plan is what really makes it work! The outcomes from any workshop will be more successful if they are implemented as part of a deliberate change management process rather than as a hoped-for result from a single isolated event. To get the best value from any workshop, we strongly recommend that you actively follow through with coaching in the following important areas:

Buy-in and involvement: Conditions must be created that pull for the success of the plan. Key people must lead by establishing and nurturing the conditions that enable your future to be achieved. Then the challenge is communicating, re-enrolling and re-aligning your people with the plan, knowing that push-back, scepticism and fall-back to convention are predictable responses to any new way.

Champions: It is vital to have champions who own the plan at all levels; champions who are unrelenting in their pursuit of success. These key people have the ears of the staff and need to be enrolled in this challenge. Typically there are a number of champions already, and additional champions must be identified. All of these champions will benefit from continuing support.

Early results: Nothing succeeds like success - and early results are essential to build and instil the right behaviours to produce effective action. Danger - Danger - Danger; beware the inevitable drift toward delays, and all for the best of reasons.

Maintaining the Future: How do you keep the possibility of success for the plan alive in the face of inevitable setbacks? Because people can lose sight of the bigger picture as they get on with getting on, it is essential to keep everyone aligned and committed through the obstacles that will naturally arise. Otherwise, your whole endeavour can fragment and loose power.

Invitation: Contact Us to discuss how we could assist.

Resources:
i&A Presentations and Facilitated Workshops (38kb .pdf Document)
'Why are we here?' by Ian Howard (29kb .pdf Document)

Return

Consistently doing the right thing at the right time really helps grow healthy plants, people and organisations. i&A nurtures business with independent consulting and Professional Services such as:
Clarifying your organisation's Fundamentals - Purpose, Values and Vision - and flowing these through to your strategic plan and operations with Presentations and Workshops.

Providing a Contract CIO for strategic and operational advice on a regular basis to get the best value from IS for your business; today and tomorrow.

Reviewing or managing information systems or Projects.

Facilitating a Procurement Process to successfully seek, source and implement the right IS doing the right things in the right ways at the right price.
Mentoring to develop Leadership, Management, Collaboration and Business skills.