Solving Smartly for Sustainable Solutions

Learn to Create Innovative Organizational Outcomes by Engaging Your People

In today’s post-Covid and ever-changing work environment, a multitude of complex challenges saddle organizations ranging from streamlining elaborate processes, to dealing with pervasive burnout, and, simply, leading people. With the added ambiguity of attraction vs. retention of leaders, it’s critical to take a fresh look at our past problem-solving practices in order to change the paradigm.

The way up and out is to empower leaders at all levels, as well as staff,  to find outcomes that engage and energize employees. This can be done by using new toolsets which include people in the problem-solving process and leverage their creativity.  This is what we want to show you in our dynamite workshop!

In this one-day session you will learn how to use a combination of strategic Design Thinking / Human-Centred Design tools. These strategies will help you tackle real issues and design an innovative action plan with greater buy-in.

We will apply these experiential and participatory tools to real or simulated issues, in addition to discussions and group work.

By the end, you will leave with your personal action plan, as well as a practical manual to reproduce the workshop within your organization. As a result, you will position yourself as a change agent and dynamic catalyst of workplace engagement who delivers on goals.

This workshop is offered within organizations for groups of 5 people or more.

Course duration: 1 full day or 2 half days
Course language: English or French

Program Topics

Changing the Paradigm of Tackling Issues and Finding Solutions
• Changing economic, social and environmental expectations
• Explore the importance of sustainable solutions and innovative ideas
• Realize the role and benefits of people engagement for organization success

Painting a Full Picture of the Issue
• Agree on the issue and write it as a problem statement
• Recognize and categorize the effects of this issue on the complete work ecosystem (people, processes, results, stakeholders, etc.)
• Identify root causes

Solving for the Right Root Cause
• Single out the most important root cause
• Brainstorm improvement ideas
• Single out the most important improvement idea

Encouraging Innovative Ideas
• Identify the outcomes you would like to see as a result of implementing the improvement idea (opportunity) on the complete work ecosystem (people, processes, results, stakeholders, etc.)
• Identify activities that will support turning the outcomes into reality

Developing a Kanban Board Action Plan and Measures of Success
• Learn how to use a Kanban board as action plan
• Populate it with the activities from the Opportunity Analysis Tree
• Add measures of success (benefits, responsibility, timing, resources)

Enhancing Your Leadership by Applying What You Learned
• Think about and share the roadblocks and pitfalls to using this approach at work
• Identify ways to overcome and list opportunities to try it out
• Set-up your accountability and support system

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Know how to combine Lean-focused Continuous Improvement and IDEO Design Thinking / Human-Centered Design tools to resolve problems.
• Facilitate the identification of innovative and sustainable results that have a high level of engagement and buy-in, to directly impact implementation success for the organization.
• Understand how to make employees feel valued when solving problems and issues, making them more apt to remain in their job through arriving at meaningful and inclusive solutions.
• Reproduce the workshop when back at work, to work on other important opportunities, thus multiplying the effects of attending the workshop.

Who Should Attend?

Management, leaders and staff who need to solve simple and complex issues with a desire to shift the status quo and engage employees.

For more information on this workshop, please contact:
Sophie Gouédard
Tel: 613-234-2020, ext. 21
Email: sgouedard@pmctraining.com

Comments are closed