PRINCIPLES OF WORKSHOP IMPLEMENTATION

What is the Purpose of a VM Workshop?

To implement an analytical process to reveal tacit knowledge and socially construct consensus.
To create thinking space for sense-making.
To create a neutral ground which gives every stakeholder equal voice and status.
To expose differences in stakeholder understanding, judgement and preferences to identify underlying values.
Identify commonalities in stakeholders' functional requirements.
To develop solutions which meet functional requirements and reflect collective underlying values.
The core techniques of each VM workshop are the same but the process will be customised each time.

Before Each VM Workshop

Activity before the workshop is concerned with information gathering.
Facilitator will design a workshop to address the issues of the project at that time.
Facilitator will ensure the stakeholders are appropriately and adequately informed prior (1 week) to attending the workshop.

After the VM Workshop

Each workshop concludes with:

Intangible socially constructed understanding.
Activities after the workshop are concerned with ensuring assigned actions are implemented.
Tangible actions agreed amongst stakeholders that are assigned to individual stakeholders.
Each action has: a stakeholder owner, a specific required outcome and a timescale for delivery.
Actions and insights are noted in a workshop report.
If this activity is not undertaken sufficiently, the workshop will have no impact on the progression of the project.
The report should be issued 1 week after the workshop to allow sufficient time for sense-making whilst being soon enough for actions and rationale to still be fresh in the stakeholders' mind.

What is Included in the Workshop Report?

Actions taken during the workshop.
The analyses that were performed.
The insights gained.
Decisions and ideas for further development.
Actions assigned to relevant stakeholders and the agreed timescale for completion.

Phases of a VM Workshop

Planning and gathering of information.
The use of function analysis to understand what is to be done/challenge preconceptions.
A creativity phase to identify possible ways of delivering the sought functions.
An evaluation phase to identify the best ideas to take forward.
After implementation, a follow-up to check effectiveness.

Workshops should follow the general problem solving process:

Analysis Phase - Where the problem is understood and broken down into its constituent parts which is necessary to reveal the complexity of a problem and its full content.
Synthesis Phase - Where the problem is reformed, socially constructed solutions are negotiated and a way forward is planned.

Brainstorming is a good example of analysis and synthesis as the analysis phase unpacks the problem whilst the synthesis phase using techniques such as affinity diagram organise and structure the information gathered to develop a shared understanding of the problem.

Practical Considerations in VM Workshop Design

To ensure stakeholder, equity, the following issues must be resolved by the VM facilitator:

Location
Effective facilitation to ensure equal stakeholder engagement and contribution.
The use of an independent workshop team (common in US but rare in the UK)

Location

Neutral location away from any stakeholder's physical 'power base'.
Avoids connotations of power and influence.
Puts all stakeholders on equal footing.
No interruptions (mobiles off) & excuses to leave.
ideally hire a conference room in a neutral hotel in a neutral location.
Room should be large and well ventilated/lit.
Seating should be arranged in a semi-circle or U-shape.
At least 1 wall should be free of all obstructions and of a suitable surface for displaying flip chart sheets.

Stakeholder Quality

Workshop should comprise stakeholders with a balance of: experience, expertise, personality types and organisational roles.

External Workshop Teams

Independent design teams participant in VE workshops alongside the existing client body stakeholders.
Commonly used in U.S.
Claimed to offer greater value-adding potential by removing prior assumptions and sunk cost bias from the design.
Rarely used in UK due to cost and ease with which stakeholders can reject workshop actions.

Expert Facilitation

Facilitator is 'A person who has the role of empowering participants to learn in an experiential group' and should be:

Knowledgeable of VM process, tools & techniques.
Responsible for leading stakeholders through analysis and synthesis activities to obtain accurate results.
Able to nurture and maintain a conductive group dynamic to establish a satisficing outcome formed through social interaction.
Independent an unbiased with no association to stakeholders.
Have relevant technical knowledge (e.g. construction background) and knowledge of the problem at hand, although this is argued.
Be able to draw out full contribution and point direction but not lead.
Should ensure all stakeholders are equally engaged in discussions.
Must be able to react to the emerging interaction patterns in the workshop to establish a social protocol in which all stakeholders feel able to to safely contribute.

Workshop Phases

Beginning of the Workshop

Encourage Stakeholders.
Early workshop activities should give stakeholders confidence to engage in the workshop.
Establish the focus of the workshop (i.e. issues analysis)
Encourage trust (nurture collaborative environment)
Help stakeholders interact with each other.
Early activities establish the forum for deliberation.

Middle of the Workshop

Engage Stakeholders
Mid-workshop activities should develop stakeholder understanding of the problem.
Stakeholders are given activities to reveal their understanding to everyone.
Experiential Learning usually works.
Facilitator must limit their own interventions to ensure stakeholders are learning.

End of the Workshop

Activities at the end should ensure the workshop has consequence.
Actions should be agreed and assigned.
Actions are defined, assigned to stakeholders and given a timescale for the completion.

Causes of Facilitation Failure

Process Failure - due to design & management of the workshop.
Content Failure - facilitator failed to interpret the stakeholders' emerging discussions and did not steer the worksop appropriately.
Competence Failure - facilitator does not have the skills or appreciate the need to fulfil all their obligations.
External Failure - due to stakeholders bring allegiances/coalitions into the workshop which the facilitator failed to recognise & control
Scope Facilitator - facilitator's failure to fully appreciate the nature of the problem, causing them to undertake a workshop that examines in too much or too little detail.
Selection Failure - due to the selection of facilitator whose expertise are inappropriate for the task.

Summary of Types of VM Workshops

To be considered a study of value, a workshop must examine the problem in functional terms using functional analysis to determine solutions which reflects the client's value system.

VM workshops are undertaken at specification points in a project so their insights inform critical construction activities.

As the project progresses, the design becomes more fixed and the ability to address value reduces. The natural of stakeholders and scope of problems changes from whole-project issues/stakeholders to system specific engineering problems and stakeholders.

VMO - Confirms whether the project is the most appropriate response to the procuring client's strategic needs.
VM1 - Elicits the tactical project stakeholders' value system and functional requirements to inform feasibility study, briefing and conceptual design.
VM2 - Verifies concept design against evolving requirements.
VM3 - Final design verification before detail design commences.
VM4 - Performed on an ad-hoc basis to address problems within individual technical systems where value can still be added.

	Created by d.moran-10 over 10 years ago

Undergraduate Value Management & Engineering (Summary Notes) Note on Summary 2, created by d.moran-10 on 03/06/2014.