IT Planning Day Facilitation
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As a leader, you know that you need to take time away with your team to plan the year ahead. Whether you are the CIO, the Infrastructure Manager, the Applications team manager or Service Delivery Manager, you already do this in some way.
Issues that come up in any team discussions or planning sessions are ones that every manager is well familiar with. We have all been there:
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Attention seeking ‘squeaky wheels’
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Agenda hogging ‘propeller heads’
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Wallflowers’ who can’t stand to be there and don’t say a word
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Nobody wants to talk about the `elephant in the room’
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Actions and commitments are avoided
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Issues go around in circles
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No link from the planning day to the everyday
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And NOBODY wants to play those ‘Team Building’ games!
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So how do you make the most out of your next planning day?
When a planning day is run by an ‘insider’, often it just becomes a long staff meeting.
But, when an outsider is in the room (especially one that knows his/her stuff about the topic i.e., running an IT department), most of those abovementioned behaviours don’t see the light of day.
Dowling Consulting is an advisory firm which specialises in helping IT departments to “Do the Right Things and then to do them Well”. Our teams have run countless sessions like this, designed to get the outcomes you desire for your department. With the help of our facilitators, your planning day will deliver much more than you thought possible.
Why get us to help
Our people are experienced consultants in management of IT and are trained in facilitation. This means that they can guide your team through new thought processes and approaches and help them think creatively about issues, problems and opportunities.
Also, with an experienced facilitator, everybody gets a say, the discussions stay focused and decisions are made in a positive way.
-You get the benefits of our years of experience in IT shops… working real IT issues
-We keep the discussions focused
-We drive to conclusions, results and metrics
-We give you a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ to look at your situation and your team members
-We can give you a good idea of how others in the industry have addressed similar problems
Outline of our Service Offering
It’s really simple, for a fixed fee we provide:-
-½ day with you, the department head, to flesh out the agenda based on the outcome you desire
-1 day facilitated planning workshop with you and your team
-Preparation of the outcomes documents
-½ day session with you to discuss the outcomes and suggested ways forward
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The
Preparation Phase
As we work together on the agenda and flow, we will ask you
questions like:
What does the business want from IT? Are you delivering? How
do you know? What does success look like?
Are you organised for success? Is your team on the same page?
How will you get them on the same page?
Is your culture outcomes oriented or activity oriented?
Should it change?
You then choose the focus
area
Every department head has an area of focus for next year, or
maybe you are looking for something new and innovative. Either way, you
get to choose and we help to develop the most impactive agenda. Here are
some examples of focus areas we have facilitated in the past just to give
you a few ideas:
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Increasing our organisational
efficiency
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How do we lower cost AND increase
value?
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Aligning our Services to Business
Outcomes
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What does Service mean to us?
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What is the best operating model for the
future?
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What difference would a “Service Management” approach make to
our organisation?
Based
on this discussion, we will together flesh out an agenda for the day and
prepare a ‘homework’ pack for the participants. We find it really valuable
to ‘prepare’ the attendees for the day and give them a clear expectation
that they will be asked to participate in the day and not just sit there.
This day is important to all and therefore they should take it
seriously.
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The Event
The actual planning event is typically structured as
follows:
1.
Directional Discussion
2.
SWOT
3.
Breakout Sessions: People, Process, Technology,
Governance
4.
Review Breakout Sessions
5.
Action Planning: RACI, Milestones
etc.
6.
Wrap up
The breakout sessions are structured so that the individuals
for each session are chosen carefully to break down barriers where they
exist. We look to foster cross departmental and cross organisational
collaboration. That way you often find ‘nuggets of
gold’.
We always add a ‘fun’ component to the breakout sessions to
get the creative juices flowing. No silly team building games, just
simple, cleverly constructed exercises to emphasise the points being
made.
We also find that without a real commitment to the ACTION
part of the day, it is difficult to keep the momentum going from Planning
Day to Everyday. It’s a key part of the day and we ensure that it gets
focus.
The Outcomes Session
After the event, we go away and summarise the day’s outcomes
and then meet with you and your leadership team to present the
following:
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Summary of SWOT
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Summary of Breakout sessions
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Key findings
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Our additional observations
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High level themes that came from the action planning
session
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Recommendations on how to ensure the successful
implementation of the plans presented on a ‘per theme’ basis with
identification of ‘Quick Wins’
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RESULTS
You receive a clearly enunciated plan that you can use in every subsequent team meeting to ensure you and your team stay focused on the activities that will get you to your goal
All team members know where their contribution fits into your plan….after all, they were a part of it
You get an ‘external’ view on what you need to do to ensure the success of your department
You have a plan against which you can measure your success at some future point
You have a plan to assess how new initiatives that arise actually support your plan
What our Customers say:
“This is the first time we have been able to have a constructive conversation about the end-to-end issues in the entire organisation”
- CEO Government IT Shared Service Provider
“We found some great nuggets inside our organisation that we can just pick up and run with”
-Service Delivery Manager Australian Retail Bank.
What YOU need to do:
EASY… call us now on 1300 137 369 and talk to us about how we can make your next planning meeting the best one EVER!
FAQ’s
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How many people would you suggest in of the Planning Day
sessions?
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We have run such sessions with 10 people and we have run them
with 50. With a larger numbers than say 30, we recommend that we provide
an additional facilitator.
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What level in the organizations is this day designed
for?
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The agenda we craft together will be tailored for the level of
the audience. We have run this kind of session with Senior Leadership
teams and also with Service Delivery and Help Desk
teams.
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We have team communication problems, how will this session
help?
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During the preparation phase, you will make us aware of the
issues you see in your team that limits their effectiveness. We will craft
the structure of the break out groups and discussion in such a way as to
maximize the collaboration between uncommunicative groups and do this in
an “invisible” way. At the end, it will be clear to them that their
current behaviours are not productive for themselves or your
team.
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We are a government department and have difficulty getting
people to change, how can this help?
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You may find that focusing a little heavier on the action part
of the day where the roles and responsibilities are fleshed out may
help.
You will also find that in the team breakouts, we will assist
you to help everyone to understand the “why”. You may also consider
getting your department secretary or head attend the introduction and
final sessions.
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Does the price include room
hire?
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No, the price assumes that you arrange the rooms and catering.
We also require that you provide a fulltime or part-time person to act as
scribe.
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Can you give me examples of the outputs?
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Examples of Outputs in attached
PPT
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Examples of
Outputs from the IT Planning Day.
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