BPM Blog

Five key points need to be consider to run a successful Business Improvement Workshop. These are:

1. Who should be in attendance
2. The agenda
3. Running the meeting
4. Facilitating, gaining agreement and highlighting change
5. Measurement “to be” and processes against goals, objectives and KPIs

If we look at these in more detail:

1. Who should be in attendance? The answer is the right mix of decision makers and their supporting teams including:
• Line managers responsible for the processes and tasks that are in the project
• Supporting managers and professionals that provide IT or other support to the line managers
• Designated staff members with specific responsibility to measure and implement programs from the initiative
• An executive or champion who can endorse/support or reject larger change recommended by the team
• Yourself as lead facilitator and at least one other person to document results and decisions.
2. The agenda. A detailed draft agenda will be the topic of tomorrow’s post.
3. Guidelines for running the meeting. Some guidelines for the moderator/facilitator:
• Try and keep to the timelines in the meeting
• Avoid side meetings unless you have broken the group into smaller teams with clear objectives from their separate discussions and decisions
• Don’t be obnoxious but make it clear that you want to generate results and make best use of everyone’s time. (Believe me most will thank you for it)
• If the meeting topic is going to be more than 2 hours, plan for breaks
• If more research or analysis is needed to come to group decisions postpone these decisions and bring the team together when you have the data you need
4. Facilitating, running the workshop and highlighting change. Cover the following points in detail and you likely won’t miss much.
• The agenda and how to run the workshop
• Post a clear title of the Business Process Improvement program and its purpose
• List attendees and their role(s) in the meeting
• Timeline for sections of the meeting with cut off
• Introduce the moderator (if not yourself)
5. Measurement “to be” and processes against goals, objectives and KPIs
• Allocate time to:
• Introduce the target processes along with relevant analysis and previously captured materials
• Gain agreement that the presented “analysis is accurate”
• Brainstorm goals/objectives and further refinement into KPIs that can be measured.

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Tags: business improvement, decision makers, improvement workshop, kpis, line managers, staff members, successful business, timelines