Case Study
Prioritising Projects - work on the right stuff
This was a challenging two-day course for a major retailer, and their team of new store format developers. Everyone wants a piece of them, as they make massive, positive differences to the look and feel of the stores, but despite the importance of most of these requests, there is only so much resource to go around - focusing on the right areas is critical.
We took a two-part approach to helping the team. The course design was structured around Myers Briggs, to provide a framework for the individuals to learn about themselves and each other, and how they can work most effectively. Built and overlaid on top of that foundation were some specific business issues, namely:
- Project prioritisation
- The corporate move to hotdesking and home-working - it's impact and how to mitigate the negatives
- Fitting in to the broader business - how to be better understood and integrated
We managed to have a little fun exploring behaviours using some outdoor activities as well:
Further Information
One of the major objectives of this two-day session was that the team came away with a clear focus on their priority projects. Pretty much all of the work they are asked to do, and are doing, could be classified as "important", so rather than use a traditional 1-4 scale, or the urgent/important model, we used a little-known model we call "MoSCoWS" model. Here's how it works:
After a rather dynamic session to create a 'Venn Diagram' style map of everything that was going on, the projects were put into one of four/five different categories:
- M - Must Do. The absolute essentials. The department would be 'closed down' if it didn't get these things done!
- S - Should Do. As important as the Must Do, but less time-critical.
- C - Could Do. These are the nice to haves; only do these if there is no negative impact on other projects.
- W - Wait. Not unimportant, but not essential now. These are the projects we can safely put on hold.
- S - Stop. Those projects that have crept onto our agenda that we really need to bin. They are a distraction from the important stuff.
To ensure that the team follow-up on their commitments, and remember the experience they had the the learning they took away, we uploaded all photos, flipcharts, slides, and other materials to a private, password-protected website that they can access 24/7.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch to find out more - this is a brilliant way of ensuring that your team are working on the right things, so they can really make a difference back at work.
Get in touch via our contact page, or go back to the case studies page to read more great examples of training that really works.
