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Collaboration - The Next Generation • Replace
compromise with breakthroughs, alignment, and commitment • Radically
increase performance and improve morale • Significantly
reduce costs and shorten schedules • Emphasize
visually intense dialogue rather than
verbal interchange • Solicit
conflict to improve creativity and build on each other’s ideas • Transform
thought into group wisdom to create “best fit” solutions |
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“Structured Thought” is key to The Future of
Collaboration Using Structured
Thought Processes is very different than the use of more traditional round table,
or facilitated, discussion formats.
Structured Thought Processes practically eliminate the inadequacies of
groupthink
and replace the negative aspects of overly dominant personality types with
the positive characteristics of talented individuals who work as a group to
make decisions that are truly wise. (...more) |
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Appreciation - Know your Customers and Stakeholders
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Alignment -
Focus your Resources - |
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We conduct group work sessions
that ideal solutions, We emphasize “learn by doing” so that “Team training” is NOT required We
don’t waste your time |
for groups to Collaborate Create and Converge |
This is We can We answer the |
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We Manage Group Work
Sessions using |
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Advancement - Orchestrate & Replicate Performance Excellence - |
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Create Optimum Results for the Good of All - |
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your group
+ your challenge + our structure = Breakthrough
Solutions We combine Strategy and Technology with Group Wisdom to make Change For The Better It’s
simple: We know how to optimally
merge your tasks, teams, and tools to achieve the results you desire. |
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Topics (click link below) · Structured
Thought is the key · Ideal Solutions on a Strict Schedule · From
“No way!” to “No problem.” · The
ICIT Organization - Characterized · Let’s Schedule a Breakthrough · VID: “The Breakthrough Machine” · Flyer: Collaboration – The Next Generation |
When - Ideas and viewpoints are diverse - New and better ideas are resisted - The task is complex or seems
futile - The stakeholders are all leaders
or are - Commitment requires support rather
than - Progress is too slow or stalled - Conflict within or between groups
is prevalent - The “best” solution must be
created and - Technology must be applied fast
and in a way Then Let ICIT lead the effort and deliver |
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Using Structured Thought
Processes is very different than the use of more traditional round table, or
facilitated, discussion formats.
Structured Thought Processes practically eliminate the inadequacies of
groupthink
and replace the negative aspects of overly dominant personality types with
the positive characteristics of talented individuals who work as a group to
make decisions that are truly wise. During these processes
multiple thoughts are created very quickly and then evaluated by individuals
working together to make lots of initial decisions in parallel. All thoughts and decisions are captured in
a visual format within an environment that permits contention to thrive. When contentious issues arise they too are
transformed into a visual format which enables them to be thoroughly explored
and contrasted with other captured thoughts.
This environment of open contention that is displayed visually helps
individuals to think, learn from each other, and rapidly iterate and improve
their thoughts in real time. This
emphasis on the visual representation of thoughts and decisions helps everyone
to “see” why the final outcome is truly an optimum solution and not just consensus
based on compromise. The techniques used to
conduct Structured Thought Processes are not intuitively obvious and are different
than traditional approaches. Some of
these differences include: ·
A group of 14 or more members can generate
and capture over 150 thoughts and ideas within 10 minutes or less.
·
Larger groups (25 or more) are more
productive than smaller groups (6 to 8) since larger groups can be organized
to perform many more tasks in parallel.
·
Finding ways to limit the scope of initial
discussions is strongly discouraged.
One would think that a group can more productively focus if the topics
of discussion are somehow constrained. Instead, the use of structured processes
allows the focus of a group to be achieved faster when the discussion remains
open to a broad range of subject matter areas. This is because the time normally required
to verbally discuss a few topics is replaced with visual dialogue techniques
that consume much less time per topic, allowing all topics of interest to be
explored. Hence, no time is needed to
revisit topics that would have otherwise been prematurely filtered from initial
discussions. This also creates greater
adherence to a focus with less time expended on “second-guessing” once a
direction is decided upon.
·
Likewise, creating and evaluating multiple
alternatives (18 or more) is much more productive than creating and
evaluating a smaller number of alternatives (3 to 5) since the time consumed
to limit the alternatives considered by a group for the sake of productivity
is replaced with efforts that cause participants to build on each other’s
knowledge as they work together to create a truly optimum outcome. As a result, the increase in the quantity
of solutions that are submitted at the beginning of an effort are often
morphed into completely new and better concepts that are readily accepted
simply because it is obvious that the most valuable characteristics from many
concepts were combined and used to create new and better solutions. This completely eliminates the time required
to convince a group to accept initial concepts or solutions and has a greater
chance to survive the test of time since subsequent ideas are often found to
be similar to those that have already been considered.
·
The process of voting is used to demonstrate
how often majority rule does not result in the best choice. Once the voting process is completed, a
structured process is used to create and select the final resolution. When the group compares this resolution to
the outcome of the initial vote, it is frequently determined that the final
resolution is indeed superior. On a few occasions, the result of the initial
vote will be similar to the final result of the structured process. When this happens it becomes clear that the
reasons for the final selection are much better understood and are therefore
more strongly supported as compared to a resolution selected only through
popular opinion.
· Dissention
is encouraged because, when it is controlled, it enhances the learning
process. Visual dialogue techniques
promote the need to explore the reasons for differences that exist and the
desire to gain a better understanding of all perspectives. Therefore dissention becomes a welcome
contribution to the learning process.
·
Groups that cannot be collocated due to
either contentious issues or physical attendance limitations can still work
together productively when they are at locations that are geographically
dispersed. This is because all
thoughts and decisions are translated into a visual format that can be
shared. This enables all parties to
achieve a “greater appreciation and acceptance of the assumptions” that drive
the understanding and gener-ation of problems, goals, and essential tasks as
compared to more traditional “result reporting formats”.
·
Structured Processes provide a productive
learning experience for all. Participants
often feel their exper-ience was highly productive and that their insight was
significantly enhanced at the end of their efforts.
·
Since the thought process (not the
content) is very structured, estimating the completion time is very accurate
even when breakthrough solutions or resolutions to highly contentious issues
are required.
·
Leaders who have experienced situations in
which a group cannot make an optimum decision are surprised to discover that
true wisdom can be achieved by the group when using structured processes. This frees the leader from being forced to
make the final difficult, and potentially unpopular, decision. As a matter of fact, the leader is not
usually required to contribute any content to the decision making process
whatsoever. As long as both adequate
subject matter expertise and the willingness to participate exists within the
group, then the leader can depend on the structured process to produce an
optimum outcome that is truly of highest value to all regardless of the
personality types that are involved.
When this happens leaders find that the support and momentum created
will ensure their success.
A unique
benefit from the use of these processes is that the outcome is often a
breakthrough with characteristics resembling altruism. This is because, as stated above, multiple
perspectives are presented in a visual format which allows ideas to be more
carefully considered concurrently in order to create, evaluate, and build
upon many alternatives. Each
individual is encouraged to think of something that will make things
better. This allows the combination of
several alternatives to be iterated into a breakthrough. In addition, it is important to note that
Structured Thought Processes increase the speed at which different ideas are
created and considered which makes it difficult to associate one’s ego with
each new thought that is contributed.
In combination, these activities promote a focus on producing the
“best-fit answer for all” rather than the search for a solution that is often
intended to only satisfy the “ego-driven needs of a few”. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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“Ideal solutions, with buy-in, on time” requires
the proper management of complex group thought What makes this possible? · The approach is simple and straightforward · Each step is flexible and easily adapted to different subject matter · The duration of each step is relatively short and the time consumed is consistent · Large groups are constantly broken down into small groups then brought back together · Multiple small groups get lots of work done in parallel · Each participant is fully engaged and can contribute even when the group is large · All ideas and concepts are represented visually rather than orally discussed in detail · Thoughts are visually represented so that new patterns of thought are easily facilitated · Contention and diversity are fully understood and can easily be focused upon for resolution · The visual representation of thought creates a positive learning experience for all · Repeatable
results demonstrate breakthrough solutions in any situation |
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Our Group Thought Constructs include: ·
Strategic planning, problem resolution, and
change implementation (“change for the better”) ·
Collaborative solution architecting and
technology application (doctrine, services, or products) ·
User or customer intimacy creation (using
external assessment and needs appreciation) ·
Opportunities creation, evaluation, and selection
(market, enterprise, or organizational focus) Although each construct is a
powerful tool that can be tailored to satisfy a specific need, |
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We monitor progress in many ways: · Time and Cost Savings (greater than 50%) · New ideas created (patents per hour) · Thoughts and ideas documented and considered (100s to 1,000s) · Situations in chaos that were transformed into
structure with focus (99 out of a 100) · Number of “hopeless” projects saved (4 out of 5) · Number of technology “bottlenecks” or “roadblocks”
that were overcome (9 out of 10) · Number of alternatives evaluated and used to create
better solutions (10 to 80) · Number of solutions created by the group that experts
considered to be better than their original input · Changes to group focus that are accepted as “better”
and were different than original popular opinion · Number of decisions made per hour (100 or greater) · Work sessions completed on time and as planned (90% or better) · Final solution performance improvement and/or complexity
reduction (frequently 80% improvement
or better) · Number of participants that can participate in a
work group and feel fully productive (up
to 50) · Time each participant remains actively engaged
verses idle time (90% engaged) · Number of sub-teams created and number of membership
changes without noticeable productivity loss · Number of conflicts resolved and number of
disagreements everyone accepts as not requiring resolution · Time consumed to recover lost productivity between
work sessions (15 minutes or less) · Time consumed to become a fully contributing new
member (2 to 6 hrs due to well documented
artifacts) ·
Number of high risks
identified and mitigated that were previously unknown |
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Is this important to YOU? Our knowledge base is
becoming so vast and the world is becoming so small that Process Training: A process is only as good as its results. Once you experience this process and are sufficiently impressed by the results, then you may be interested in “Process Training”. Process training is available and can be arranged to satisfy your unique needs. The techniques are simple but they are extremely difficult to fully appreciate and effectively put into practice until they have been experienced in a “real world” situation that includes the full impact of time constraints and group dynamics. For these reasons ICIT strongly recommends training only be provided to groups that have first experienced and applied the techniques to overcome a “real world” challenge. If your group is interested in training contact ICIT. |
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or Cell: (858) 354-4248 Fax: (858) 505-0682 |
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Don Murphy Bio Business Card President / Founder Integrated Creativity and continuous Improvement Technologies - ICIT |
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ICIT Services |
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We conduct group work sessions
that convert diverse needs, complexity, and/or contention This is done by facilitating the use of visually based structured
techniques to conduct We have learned when and how to best apply the proper
decision-making method or tool, We have discovered and created
highly productive ways to apply “Structured Thought Processes” based on “Visually Intense
Dialogue” techniques. The effectiveness of these techniques is
far superior to traditional methods such as: · “Podium presentations” · “Roundtable discussions” directed
by a facilitator who summarizes results · “Parliamentary procedures” based
on voting and majority rule · “Initiative iteration” or proposal
review to focus deliberation and document the changes |
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Are you an executive with a
portion of your job description, perhaps a significant portion, dedicated to
your ability to control group dynamics? Is it your responsibility to
achieve the (virtually) impossible task of getting a team of highly
intelligent, opinionated “Type A” personalities to work together for the
betterment of all? Do you know what to do if a large
part of your compensation and reputation is dependent on your ability to
create collaboration and agreement between warring factions, perhaps each
with their own conflicting agendas? Is it even more difficult because
the subject matter is so complex that there is no way that one person (you!)
can know enough to make the right decisions all of the time? Or so technical and creative that it may
push the limits of your current level of understanding, knowledge, or
experience? Maybe deep inside you suspect that
one or another of the team members might be able to pull the wool over your
eyes and you could end up looking foolish for supporting what turns out to be
obviously the wrong answer. What if the people who make up the
“team” don’t even report to you, or worse yet, they work for competing
organizations with no real incentive or desire to help to make you a success? Believe it or not, there is help
available that, with your sponsorship, can actually achieve what may seem to
be the impossible. Of course it will
require a lot of hard work along with open minds that are willing to try new
ways of working together, but the results are well worth the effort. Once you determine the correct
team members and can ensure their participation in each and every meeting,
turn the effort over to ICIT. With
over 20 years of experience in working with groups, moving them from chaos to
conviction, your ICIT task lead will leave the content of the activity to the
team members while concentrating on how they share and create wisdom. No matter what the subject,
whatever the scope, however complex it might be, by focusing on a series of
techniques that allow individuals to work together, ICIT will lead the team
through the details of disagreement down a path to commitment. These unique procedures use both visual
and verbal forms of communication to overcome the roadblocks and allow
everyone to either recognize or create a breakthrough in the form of an ideal
solution for your unique situation. And this frees you to either
attend as a participant, providing your perspective and expertise, or
concentrate on your other duties, confident that the team will be driven to
produce the results you need in a timely manner. In the end, you will have a clear
understanding of where you are, where you are going and how to get
there. All meetings will have been
fully documented, showing the entire decision-making roadmap. All of the options that were considered and
the reasons that the ultimate choice was selected, will be laid out in an
easy to understand format. These
documents are invaluable tools for you to leave as your legacy, and most
importantly, to be used as a starting point when more information or new options
become available in the future. You can then move this particular
task within your inbox, from “No way!” to “No problem.” ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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ICIT’s Organizational Goal |
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Ensure
“groups” make the “best” “decisions” consistently in a timely manner “Groups” in
this context is any gathering of individuals that share a wide diversity in
viewpoints “Best” is
uniquely defined for each situation by the needs of each group with a full
appreciation “Decisions”
include conclusions with focus and acceptance
when working on efforts such as: · Problem/conflict identification and
resolution within and between groups · Solution creation, selection, and
implementation · Program/project planning and
execution · Collaborative systems engineering · Technology selection, development
and realization · Risk assessment and mitigation · Product development and
implementation · Market opportunity assessment and
selection · Strategic planning, Organizational
Change, and Productivity Improvement |
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The ICIT Organization –
Characterized |
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Purpose: Facilitate group thoughts to create unique breakthrough
actions and results Vision: Make the “best” decisions
consistently within and between groups Belief: The ideas of a group are of equal
importance to the ideas of an individual Policy: Understand problem
interrelationships prior to solution selection Method: Represent all thoughts visually to
create or recognize and enhance unique patterns Result: Specific,
unique, high value actions and outcomes with buy-in on a strict schedule. |
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(Attending
group work sessions led by ICIT) As soon as I walked into the room,
I knew this would not be the sort of meeting I was used to. The usual materials were there: a sizeable
room, chairs, tables, a projector. But
instead of pens and paper pads, there were thick black markers at every seat,
and so many packages of Post-It notes that I wondered if I ought to have
bought stock in 3M. The tables and
chairs were not ranked to face a podium, but grouped together so that all
participants could face each other in the middle of the room. All available wall space had been cleared
of all obstacles and covered with white paper, including the windows. I took my seat and waited while
the others arrived. I have been to
plenty of meetings before, and I thought I knew what to expect. I was ready for a discussion session, in
which I would be encouraged to give my input, followed by a conclusion in
which the “facilitator”, or perhaps one of our number, would tell us all what
we really meant to say. I was wrong. Don Murphy from ICIT is not the average
facilitator, and this would not be the average meeting. Instead of the usual ego-jockeying
debate, we all had to write our ideas down on those sticky-notes, and put
them up on the white paper for all to see.
Once everyone had done this, we could see all positions without
waiting for a drawn-out verbal argument.
But that was not to say we all instantly agreed. Far from it. What ensued was some of the most vigorous
discussion I have ever been through, but because of the rigorous
structure—because of Don’s insistence that we adhere strictly to the
meeting’s format—we never had the chance to get stoked up and start really
arguing. Instead of wasting time
defending ourselves against those with different perspectives, we ended up
pitting all of our brains against the crucial choices we had to make. By the end of the session, we had a newer,
clearer picture of what our critical issues were, and what we would need to
do to meet our goals. And that was
just the first session. At every stage in our work with
Don, he was able to tell us where we would be by the end of the meeting, and
how long it would take us to get through.
When he said he could guarantee—guarantee—breakthroughs, I had my
doubts. But as the meetings
progressed, he always seemed to be right.
The system he used allowed us to stay focused, to use our expertise as
it best suited each task. When we had
disagreements about our conclusions from the last meeting, Don could produce
the exact results, from our initial comments on all those sticky-notes,
through the matrices we used to show how we viewed our task, to the final
restatement of our new course of action.
Before working with Don, I often thought the phrase “Productive
Collaboration” was a contradiction in terms.
Now I know better. Don’s success with the process he
uses has a great deal to do with his understanding of how strong-willed
experts—Type A personalities, I might say—work best together. First and foremost, he believes that, in
group projects, the sum is always greater than its parts. The whole group, when properly organized,
can do things each member might never know to be possible. How?
Some might answer “with proper leadership,” but Don’s view of
leadership, and thus of his role as facilitator, is different from what I was
used to. Most people believe that a
leader’s sole function is to have one good idea and rally the troops around
it. As a facilitator, Don would rather
keep a group focused, so that together they can have fifty good ideas, and
create from their various elements and aspects the best possible option. Again, I was inclined to ask: How?
How can everyone remain objective enough to pull off this kind of
group effort? Don has two vital answers. The first is the use
of a different format. Instead of
allowing verbal explanation and argument to take up valuable time, Don made
us all put our ideas, objections, goals, et cetera, in visual form. We put up hundreds of sticky-notes, and
then grouped them according to their similarities, and then assessed the
groupings using matrices, diagrams, and charts. This visual reasoning method let us see all
our data faster and more accurately than any sort of verbal
presentation. And, perhaps more
importantly, the matrices, rather than being just a means for Don to tell us
what to do, showed us how we were approaching the problem. When we disagreed with the priority
rankings a matrix produced, we went back and as necessary, redefined our
categories, reassessed our goals, our assumptions, and our approaches. The second vital answer is the principle
that solving problems is not the same as resolving conflict. In fact, Don believes that conflict is
absolutely essential to success. It
just needs focus, which his systematic approach provides in abundance. In our problem-solving sessions, we found
ourselves bypassing rancorous debates because, as revealed by visual
reasoning, most debates really did not serve to resolve the critical
issues. Our most vigorous debates were
reserved for the really important issues at hand. But how, one might ask, did we
know which were the really important issues?
Throughout our work with Don, he remained committed to helping us find
the best possible way to achieve our goals.
He really meant it: the best
possible solution, not the popular favorite before the meeting, not some one
expert’s personal brainchild, and not his own personal favorite. He entered every meeting with a complete
plan for what we would be doing with our time, but not which eventual
solution we would decide upon. All too
often in the past, the “problem-solving meetings” I had attended were
thinly-disguised venues for one person to tell everybody else what to
do. Not so with Don. The set of visual tools he uses seem to
make the important issues stand out as self evident when at first they seemed
jumbled and obscure. In addition to his thorough
understanding of productive collaboration, Don has a background uniquely
suited to work with groups of strong-willed experts. Don is an independent consultant with an
aeronautical engineering degree. His
client list over the years has included a number of defense industry leaders,
government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. For more than twenty years, he has built
his career on his convictions about productive collaboration, in spite of a
corporate culture that tends to favor “cowboy” self-sufficiency over group
effort. Because of the innovative
nature of the process that he uses, he has often found his best opportunities
in projects others would dismiss as hopeless or impossible. Time and time again, he has arrived to save
the day. Is each success a fluke? As one follows another, mounting evidence
says Don has finally discovered a system that can get groups to produce
breakthroughs on demand. In addition to his experience, Don
also brings to bear a powerful personal drive. I never seemed to be able to get to a
session before he did, and he was always the last to leave. He kept our tremendous pile of data
organized and ready for review, and he also kept us on-task and focused on
our project. It is his goal to help
groups of experts come up with the best possible answer for everyone, to
whatever challenge they face. Don
dreams that these methods will become the way of the future, a form of
productive collaboration in which everyone involved has the opportunity to
become the leader because of their personal contributions, and solutions are
truly the best available. While his
system has so far been mostly used for corporate high technology
problem-solving, I could easily see it being used for projects of much
greater range and scale, from the creation of new product lines to
improvements in organizational design or the formation of national policy. For the time being, though, Don is
continuing to build on his already impressive track record. The system he uses is a finely-tuned
machine for achieving breakthroughs, and he is its most experienced
operator. With him at the helm, the
ominous phrase, “Let’s schedule a meeting” takes on a new meaning. As I discovered, it means a lot of hard
work, certainly, but it also means results.
One might just as well say: “Let’s schedule a breakthrough”. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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(How
to ensure productive collaboration) Overview:
Visually Intense Dialogue (VID) Every large organization faces
challenges, and has its own ways of tackling difficult problems. But sometimes a problem arises that is so
difficult, or has such far-reaching implications, that it brings progress to
a grinding halt. Most everyone has had
to confront these challenges. They are
excessive delays, cost-overruns, and failures to reach critical goals. The process outlined below provides a
method for addressing these problems.
It is a means for tracking decisions and a process for ensuring
repeated success. It is a method that
enables organizations to tackle its toughest obstacles and achieve
breakthrough solutions within a tight schedule. It is called Visually Intense Dialogue (VID). Two Traditional Methods Let the experts hash it out. Put them in a room together and make them
talk. Organize a roundtable
discussion, or a series of presentations.
Hope for a breakthrough. These
are, at heart, the ways most large organizations tackle their serious
obstacles. These approaches generally
fall into two basic categories described as Option One and Two below. Option One is a
“dictatorship”. Assigned an
intractable problem, a team leader or strong-willed expert takes charge. By observing debate and listening to
presentations, the decision maker chooses and issues the orders. The decision maker as the “listener” passes
judgment. In roundtable discussions, the
people who speak the loudest—or simply argue everyone else to death—will be the
ones heard. But this leaves the team
leader, the “listener”, open to a significant danger of error. Alone, the leader will have to make the
choices and take the blame. Option Two is a democracy. Rather than expose one “listener” to
weighty choices, the experts cast votes on their course of action, whether it
is a meeting agenda or a long-range decision.
They become “voters”. Majority
decisions, it is believed, will overcome any vocal minority, and settle
disputes. Everyone likes a democracy, but it
can be problematic in a problem-solving meeting. There is little accountability with a
democracy, and with the give and take of consensus building, the group can’t
be sure they have exhausted all options to arrive at the best solution. As
under the “dictatorship”, the group can be swayed by the loudest voices and
the best debaters, even when those people are merely defending their own
ideas. Both of these options, the
“dictatorship” and the “democracy”, prove unreliable. They are, in the end, too reliant on
strong-willed debaters. What is needed
is a third option, an objective way of structuring meetings to achieve the
best possible outcome, and not the listener’s favorite, or the voters’
popular choice. Visually Intense Dialogue (VID) is
a method for doing this. It uses the
vocal minority’s talents, and the broad experience and skills of every
individual within the group and of the group as a whole. It provides breakthroughs reliably and
according to a strict schedule. Its
conclusions can be tracked from the beginning to end. Visually Intense Dialogue: “The Breakthrough Machine” Visually Intense Dialogue (VID) is
a set of tools that offers step-by-step procedures, not pep-talks. It is a process for generating
breakthroughs. The two traditional methods
discussed above are easily side-tracked or dominated by strong-willed
individuals because they rely for their decisions and solutions on spoken or
written argument, not raw data. People
sit around a table and talk, or they recite their ideas from a podium. But human beings are able to reason
visually too. VID adds methods for
visual evaluation to the traditional debates and presentations. By attacking a problem visually,
by using matrices, outlines, and various diagrams to judge each facet of a
problem and each possible solution, a group using VID can make decisions
objectively, with all the data, and with the thoughts of all, in view. They make their choices out in the open,
using the visual diagrams themselves. A VID meeting is very
structured. It is designed to get the
most out of every team member. A
strong-willed team leader cannot derail the debate to suit their whims
because the process doesn’t allow it.
Neither can the majority vote to mandate a resolution and thereby call
it quits early. VID meeting agendas
provide a blueprint for structured participation—for collaboration—which
allows everyone to work together to come up with the best possible answers. Finally, the controlled
visual-reasoning environment will even harness the creative energy of
conflict. The VID method guides a
group of experts to a clear, distinct picture of the choices they face—of the
problems to be solved—so they will be able to spend less time arguing and
defending their position, and more time building on one another’s ideas. By comparing decisions and possible
pitfalls, they can even decide which conflicts to pursue. Emotional battles over matters that turn
out to be trivial may never need to be resolved. Instead of pitting their egos against one
another, the process forces them to pit their collective ideas against the
key issues at hand—and the result will be a breakthrough. VID can produce these results on a
schedule. A breakthrough happens near
the end of the process, but its arrival can be predicted in advance. It comes when the team members fully grasp
all of the available data, when they understand the entire issue and all of
their options—not in a bolt from the blue.
Every step along the way will be documented, from the first expert’s
“Well, I think…” to the final solution.
And that means success can be repeated. Seven Steps VID is a seven-step process, the
Seven Cs, based on the previously mentioned processes that take place—visual
reasoning, structured participation, and constructive conflict. Step 1: Collect As the process begins, the team
members conduct a massive thought-session, collecting all available data and
expert thought. But arguments are
avoided because this is a written process.
Verbal discussion is only allowed to clarify and add ideas, not debate
nor critique their value. The
participants put each idea, each individual hurdle, suggestion, goal, or
perception, onto a Post-It note. By
the end of Step 1, the team will have hundreds of these Post-It notes, tacked
up all over the wall. Step 2: Consolidate Once the data has been collected,
the team will sort the Post-It notes.
They will quickly discover that by in large, they have all been
thinking along similar lines. From the
large collection of Post-It notes emerges a much smaller group of categories,
or headings each of which are fully documented using the input of each
participant. By the end of Step 2,
instead of hundreds of scraps of paper, the team will have their Post-Its
collected into small patches, comprising a much smaller number of categories
each representing a unique issue. Step 3: Correlate Now the group will answer a
crucial question: How do all of these
unique issues (actions, goals, problems, and the like) relate to each
other? Do many of them depend on one
crucial issue? Are some more important
than others—more central to the task at hand?
Visual tools will provide the answers. In this step, the most important
categories from Step 2 will form the axes of various types of matrices. Depending on the task at hand, the team
might correlate goals to actions, measures to benefits, alternatives to
criteria, and so on. In many cases,
the basic action will be the same: a given category is strongly associated
with another, somewhat associated, possibly associated, or not associated. To take the example of actions vs. goals,
an action will achieve a goal, or it will get only partly there, or it won’t
help at all (or, to take another example, a function might fully satisfy a
benefit, could partially contribute to the benefit, or might do nothing at
all). All categories will be compared
to all other categories, so that relationships can be clearly seen across the
board. The correlation process, with its
matrices and evaluations, provides a simple statement of the experts’ views on
their work. Do they think it’s
important? Do they think it’s not
important? Do these categories have
anything to do with each other at all?
What do various solutions entail when compared to each other? As a group, the team evaluates
their diverse categories of thought and how they correlate with one another
in a concrete, transparent manner. All
opinions will be up on the matrix for all to see, in clear-cut, black and
white terms (there are only strong and weak associations—no fence-straddling
allowed). By the end of Step 3, the
team will have a chart, a matrix that shows the results of their
evaluation—it will display and prioritize all the actions, goals, problems,
measures, et cetera, that they came up with during the previous steps. Step 4: Conflict This is what drives VID
forward. Conflict will naturally arise
from the evaluation during Step 3, and if it doesn’t, the facilitator will
stir some up. The team must now debate
conflicting courses of action and conflicting opinions. In practical terms, the conflict
often comes from the results expressed in Step 3. Although a given category—a given action,
for instance—may come out on top, numerically speaking it may have the
greatest number of “strong associations” with the stated goals, the experts
may not agree with that conclusion.
They may say, Wait, that’s not what we meant at all. And so they may return to Step 3 and
rebuild the matrix to include more categories, or they may reassess their
assumptions and priorities. This point bears repeating: The results, the evaluations provided by
the matrix in Step 3, are not set in stone.
This is not a numbers game. The
matrices are a tool to show the experts how they have been approaching their
task, and where and how they do and do not agree. When answers are confusing, or feel wrong,
the experts will want to reassess the way they have been looking at the
problem. The arguments that start in Step 4
will be focused by the consolidate (Step 2) and correlate (Step 3)
processes. This makes them constructive
rather than destructive discussions.
By the end of Step 4, the team will have a clear sense of where their
task’s trouble-spots are, and why.
They will be able to see the real problems, not pet peeves or
extraneous distractions. Step 5: Create This is where the breakthrough
will happen. As mentioned above, a
consensus on the critical conflicts will drive team members to be
creative. By thoroughly analyzing and
visualizing all of the data, the team will find new ways to combine what each
member knows, producing something new and different. This result will be something
tangibly different from what a “dictatorship or a “democracy” process
produces. In the course of the “correlate” and “conflict” steps outlined
above both the display of knowledge and a selection process occurs. One solution will probably turn out to
serve the goals better than the others, but the VID process does not stop
there. The team will next compare all
solutions considered, and examine ways in which the existing knowledge might
be recombined to create new alternatives.
This lets the experts improve the one “best” solution, turning it into
something better than anyone brought to the table at the meeting’s beginning. The sum of their work in the preceding
steps will become greater than the parts—greater than the suggested solutions
they initially created. By the end of Step 5, the team
will have a clear understanding of the best solution and how best to
proceed. But the work is not over yet. Step 6: Conclude It is a fine thing to have a
breakthrough, and agree on a course of action, but what happens two weeks
later, halfway into carrying it out, when somebody suddenly says, “This isn’t
what we discussed”? To keep this from happening, in
Step 6, the team restates their conclusion, their breakthrough, as clearly as
possible. They might write down a
detailed account, or better still, they might create a chart or a diagram
that refines and completes what they discussed in Steps 3, 4, and 5 (the
correlate, conflict, and create steps).
In any case, by the end of Step 6, the team will have a description—a
picture—of their breakthrough that is
clear enough so that people who were not at the meeting will be able to
understand what the team means to do, and why. Step 7: Commit A plan of action—even one that has
been described perfectly—is nothing without the means to enact it. In this step, the team prepares to put the
breakthrough in motion, to devote to it the personnel, the money, and the time
to see it through to its conclusion. The
output is a resource loaded schedule with milestones. It is based on the detailed thoughts of the
group and the agreed upon critical issues that must be addressed. The result is a group commitment to a
specific plan of action. That’s all there is to it. With rigorous application, a
committed team, a facilitator dedicated to the process, and adequate wall
space to display thought there is no task too big for VID. Summary VID is a mechanism that creates
breakthroughs because the final solutions are often viewed as better than
those that were initially conceived by the “best’ thinkers when the effort
began. VID is also a progress
machine. Each of its seven steps can
be completed on a fixed schedule with small variations in duration. It is virtually an equation that says,
given X(dedicated experts) and Y(time), a Z(goal) can be achieved—be it a
better approach to a complex social issue, a new product or technical
solution, or simply a smoother-running business. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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Introductory Lectures · Flyer: Collaboration - The Next Generation Using differences and confrontation Slides highlight the breadth of issues to be covered
during an introductory lecture Lectures are scheduled by request |
Lectures provided
at no cost* with no
obligation
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To fully appreciate the power of
these concepts, methods, and techniques, and their differences to more
traditional approaches, lectures are available and can be given to fit your
schedule in durations that range from 15 minutes to 2.5 hours *When
required, travel expenses shall be provided by the host organization. |
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Collaboration - The Next
Generation A variable length introductory
presentation “Collaboration - The Next Generation” is about how to get groups of
strong willed individuals with different perspectives and diverse ideas to
thrive on conflict and use confrontation to achieve breakthrough solutions on
a strict schedule. This lecture includes a collection of some of the best
techniques from around the world that have been transformed into a set of
standardized group thought constructs and methods that encourage large
numbers of individuals, that don’t necessarily get along with one another, to
work together instead of against each other.
The emphasis will be on how individuals with different perspectives
can work productively as a group, while projecting their confident
opinionated viewpoints and their confrontational nature as individuals, to generate
conflict as they collaborate to make the “best of the best” of their
ideas. The result is a desire to work
together for constant change, because the selected changes are always for the
better. An entertaining and educational lecture, “Collaboration
- The Next Generation” will highlight how to get large groups to resolve
complex issues in a highly effective manner without resorting to less
productive methods such as podium presentations, roundtable discussions,
parliamentary procedure, or the iteration of written propositions. In addition the use of these methods practically
eliminates the inadequacies associated with groupthink and the negative
aspects due to the arrogance of some dominant personality types. When ideas are diverse, when the stakeholders and
participants are all leaders, or when breakthrough results are required on
time, then “Collaboration - The Next Generation” will help show the
way to success. About the Speaker:
Mr. Murphy is able to get groups of individuals with
diverse needs to create and select ideal solutions to complex and contentious
issues on a strict schedule. He has
conducted over 300 work sessions, with up to 50 participants per session,
over the last 20+ years. He has
learned when and how to best apply the proper decision-making method or tool,
to the task or issue at hand, so that maximum productivity is achieved during
each work session. The decision-making
tools and methods that have been the most useful to Mr. Murphy are known as:
The 7 Tools for Management and Planning, The 7 Criteria for System
Architecture Descriptions, Stuart Pugh Concept Selection, The Kano Model,
Quality Function Deployment, Hoshin Kanri, Market Opportunities Assessment,
Customer Intimacy, The Objectives-Methods-Resources (OMR) Management Model,
The Beliefs-Feelings-Thinking-Actions-Results Model, The 5 Common Expectations
of Management, The 4 Essential Elements of Successful Change, The 4 Elements
that Create Resistance to Change, the 7 Steps of the Visually Intense
Dialogue (VID) process, and The 10 Step ICIT story. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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The selected slides shown below
represent some of the more complex topics to be covered during a 2.5 hour
presentation. The slides for the
entire presentation are available by email request. The intent of the selected slides
shown below is not to “tell a story” but instead to indicate the breadth of
issues that are covered during a 2.5 hour presentation. If limited time is available then the
presentation can be tailored, using a subset of topics, to fit your schedule
in durations that range from 15 minutes to 2.5 hours. ICIT can also arrange to present
all material in a series of 4 lectures that last 1 hour each. This arrangement can accommodate a series
of weekly lunch time sessions and allows time for the audience to participate
in active discussions that explore the ramifications of these powerful
concepts and time to more thoroughly consider the subject matter between
sessions. We at ICIT are confident that once
this material is presented, with anecdotes of real experiences that include
both obstacles and success, you will be convinced of the value of these
techniques. Pilot projects can then be
selected to demonstrate how the wisdom of your groups will yield high value
results on a repeatable basis and on a strict schedule. We look forward to hearing from
you.
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ICIT
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Return Home Return to Topics Slide Selection Explained Contact ICIT ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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Sooner or later every executive
has to face certain questions. Is my
company achieving peak performance?
Are my employees as productive as they could be? Is there room for improvement? If so, how can I implement large-scale
changes that will impart a significant and lasting effect? What kind of legacy will I leave this
organization? These questions can seem nebulous,
and maybe even a little unnerving.
They are broad and open-ended, and they address a scale of change that
is not easy to measure or orchestrate.
A large organization is a complex living organism. While the above questions may need to be
asked, they are not precise or constructive enough to overcome this
complexity and bring about the changes they suggest. To help address this challenge the ICIT
organization has analyzed the reasons behind these questions, and formulated
12 new questions, designed to be more exact, to directly address the ways
organization-wide change might be executed so that a legacy of lasting
performance excellence is maintained. These 12 questions are
intended for an executive concerned with lasting change, with improvement
that can be rapidly implemented and then extended beyond the influence of
those currently in leadership positions.
The focus here is the immediate creation of an organization that
outperforms its competition because of the abilities and participation of all
of its pieces, all of its employees, departments, and assets and then
sustaining these efforts into the long term future. If your primary interest is assembling a
good sales team for this year, or meeting the current fiscal financial goals,
you may not find these the most relevant questions to ask. But if you want to make large-scale,
lasting changes to improve your organization, you may want to take a closer
look at this list and see if you have answers to these questions. If you are interested in the business
philosophy and the formulation process behind these questions; the specific answers that they could
infer; or if you would like to know
more about how to put your unique answers into practice, then contact us at
ICIT. 1. Values ? What influence do your
personal values, beliefs, and philosophies have on the culture of the
organization and how do they relate to the values of the company? 2. Reputation ? What are the processes
and systems that your organization has in place to create and ensure customer
enthusiasm? 3. Synergy ? How does your organization
standardize its processes and ensure that they operate together to create
competitive advantage within an environment of customers, suppliers, and
competitors? 4. Improvement ? How does your organization manage
evolutionary and revolutionary change for proactive and reactive continuous
improvement at all levels? 5. Ideas ? How does your organization release
the full creative potential of every individual, so that results are greater
than the individual input? 6. Leaders ? What does your organization do to
create, retain, and replenish leaders? 7. Rewards ? How does your organization and its
employees recognize and share in the intrinsic and tangible value of both
success and failure? 8. Employees ? What does your organization do to
enrich the life and meaning of its employees both inside and outside the workplace? 9. Evidence ? How does your organization show objective
evidence of continuous improvement and how does the evidence use objective
and subjective input? 10. Direction ? In priority order, what are your
organization’s long term and short term opportunities for improvement, and
how are they determined? 11. Needs ? What assistance do you need to
achieve lasting organizational excellence and success? 12. Community ? What does your organization do to
contribute to the betterment of both the local and global community and its environment? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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Don Murphy is President and Founder of Integrated Creativity and continuous Improvement Technologies (ICIT). ICIT is a consulting service with expertise and specialization in the facilitation of large group multidisciplinary collaborative work sessions that find breakthrough solutions in any situation. Mr. Murphy has conducted over 300 work sessions, with up to 50 participants per session, over the last 20+ years. He has learned when and how to best apply the proper decision-making method or tool, to the task or issue at hand, so that maximum productivity is achieved during each work session. Mr. Murphy
graduated with a BS degree from Mr. Murphy has
held positions such as Director of Productivity and Matrix Management
Development, Director of Program Management, Director of Process Assurance
and several other positions such as Program Manager, Configuration Control
Manager and Project Engineer. During
his years as a consultant he has conducted work sessions with Mattel Toys,
Qualcomm, Integrated Medical Systems, A few example “breakthroughs” that Mr. Murphy has achieved when leading groups include: ▪ Reduced imagery system design for a $20M development program to $8M in 3 weeks ▪ Reduced combat training system design complexity by more than 50% in 1/5th the time ▪ Transformed 25,012 requirements from 5 countries into 28 major system functions and 862 lower level functions to support the development of a “product based” military ground training system ▪ Created and evaluated 18 alternatives and then selected a new battery technology during a 3 day effort resulting in a completed prototype in 4 weeks ▪ Led efforts with technologists, during volunteer lunches, to create a new combat training service that has continued to generate high profits over the past several years ▪ Challenged individual best-in-class experts to outperform the results of a group over a 6 week period. Experts agreed that the group created the best solution at the end of the contest. ▪ Conducted multiple strategic sessions at the corporate level that included: o The selection of metrics to report enterprise performance to congress o The creation of a new organizational design to decrease redundant executive roles o The discovery of core competencies that were not apparent to key decision makers o The elimination of market initiatives that were politically popular yet not viable o The creation of new performance enhancing organizational initiatives o The discovery of key customer needs that were previously unknown Mr. Murphy was
born in ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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Copyright 2007-2008 To get started, contact ICIT www.icitnow.org 858.354.4248 Don Murphy |
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