Montana SHRM ConferenceMay 4-6, 2016 – Kalispell, Montana

Discussion Handouts and Additional Tools for the Following Sessions:

May 5 – 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.Creating Organizational Excitement

May 5 – 4:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.Working Smarter and Scatter Brainstorming

Presented by JIM PALUCH

jim@jphorizons.com(440) 352-8211

Dear SHRM MEMBER,

I am looking forward to meeting with you in Kalispell, for the SHRM Conference. In the pages that follow, we are providing not only a handout but some specific tools you can incorporate after our discussions at the event. You can certainly print the entire package or you may choose to only print pages 1-4. as a reference to use in my presentations.

TAKE ACTION

Wisdom is an earned reward.

A greater future is a process not a promise.

“We can not allow ourselves to think that the past, present, and future, are

equal, it removes our motivation to take action now.”

Take ACTION on what you can control.

“When a group of people share a common sense of HISTORY and a common sense of PURPOSE they are inspired to work together to create

A GREATER FUTURE.”

Lesson Plan - Week 3

Topic: Soft on the People…

Hard on the Process

Success Factors:

“This lesson will be a success if we…”

• Understand this program is not about pointing fingers

• Understand that we are only as good as the processes we have to use

• Establish a foundation for next week’s lesson on Process Mapping

Introduction Points:

• Thank everyone for coming back for the third week of training. Ask if anyone is

ready to quit yet. If you have any takers, tell them the lesson plan suggests you ask if

they get tired of brushing their teeth in the morning too.

• Introduce the concept of being “Soft on the people…Hard on the process” o “When you look at things from this perspective, it takes away any excuse to

ever get frustrated with an individual. You can only direct your frustration

toward a process.”

o “If someone is not doing a good job, you first need to look at the process they

use to complete that job. If that is a good process, you would need to next

look at the process used to train that person. If the training process is also

adequate, there must be a flaw in the recruiting/hiring process because this

person is not a good fit for the job.”

o “It’s not the individual’s fault if he or she doesn’t have a good process to use.

The individuals weren’t part of a good training process, or ultimately they

were misled through a faulty hiring process.”

o “We are going to learn to be hard on the process and soft on the people!”

Brainstorm & Engage:

• Now, we are going to start to look at how to get HARD ON THE PROCESS. Everyone

is going to do a process map of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You

Warm-Up Exercise: Challenge the team to recall the worst joke they’ve ever heard.

See if you can get a few volunteers to share. (An Example: Why did the stop light

turn red? You would turn red too if you had to change in the middle of an

intersection.)…OR YOU COULD CREATE YOUR OWN WARM-UP EXERCISE!

Soft on the People ... Hard on the Process

Week 3

Page 2

should provide paper and pencils for everyone in attendance. Introduce the

following exercise:

o “We are going to start to learn how to do some Process Mapping. We are

going to start slowly today and just focus on the process of making a peanut

butter and jelly sandwich.”

o “You will have 8-10 minutes to draw out the process of making a peanut

butter and jelly sandwich. Try to include every step, regardless of how small.”

o “Don’t worry about your drawing skills. If you can’t think of how to draw

something, draw a box and use words to describe the step.”

o “The goal is to visually show the flow of the steps in the process. Ready, set,

go…”

Key Points & Discussion:

• After 10 minutes have passed, ask for volunteers to walk the group through the

steps of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using their process maps. It may

be fun to provide some recognition to the person with the best drawing, or with the

most steps.

• After a few people have presented, ask the following question: o “Was everyone’s process exactly the same?”

• Since the processes will obviously differ to at least a small degree, you can make the

following point: o “If people have varied ways of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it

seems safe to say that we probably have multiple processes for completing

some of the more complex tasks we do around here.” o “We can’t be hard on the people when we have people using different

processes to accomplish the same task, and we don’t know the better way to

do it.” o “We are going to continue to use Process Mapping to get hard on the

process!”

Preparing for Next Week:

• Take out the list of revised Working Smarter ideas that was started in week 1 and

then improved last week. You can tell the group that you will be process mapping

these actual processes next week.

• Next week you will break into teams of 3-4 to do some process mapping. You will

obviously need an area of focus for each group. If you have more than enough ideas

from your list last week to cover each of the groups, you should vote on the

Soft on the People ... Hard on the Process

Week 3

Page 3

processes that would be best to look at until you narrow the list down to one

process per group.

• If you don’t have enough Working Smarter ideas for each group to have one to focus

on next week or if you have already acted on and improved some of the processes

you created, you can combine a few groups or you can come up with additional

processes you would like to map out.

Recap:

• Recap the importance of being “Soft on the people…hard on the process” o “When you look at things from this perspective, it takes away any excuse to

ever get frustrated with an individual.”

Quote of the Week and Builder/Destroyer Poster:

• “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” -W. Edwards Deming

o “What do you think this means and how does it relate to today’s lesson?”

• Have someone read the Builder Tip and Destroyer Trap and post copies on your

Working Smarter communication board and in different areas around the

company.

Next Week’s Lesson:

• Learning to Process Map

• If someone else will be facilitating next week, recognize that person.

• Explain the topic o “Next week we will work in teams to Process Map real processes in our

business.”

THANK EVERYONE FOR THEIR TIME AND PARTICIPATION!

Week 3

BUILDER

DESTROYER

TIP . . .

A BUILDER always looks for the best in people

and knows that the most important factor in

gaining respect is . . . giving respect.

TRAP . . .

A DESTROYER tries to gain respect without

being respectable and then will complain

the longest and the loudest about not

getting it to anyone who will listen.

CREATIVITY

Explanation

One of the greatest tools we have learned to implement at JP Horizons events with incredible success

is to harness the creative power found in roundtable discussion. Whether you are looking for ideas on

a new sales and marketing plan or a way to complete a process more efficiently or even hoping to sit

down at the kitchen table and solve a family issue, the same principles apply. As you know from

reading the People Solutions Newsletter on creativity, it is critical to create a fun and dynamic

environment to spur creative thinking and problem solving.

When this occurs, there is a magical transformation in communication, and the energy that comes with

it leads to results. This month’s tool will help you and your team facilitate these type of dynamic

discussions. It will give you the detailed explanation on how to implement what we like to call a

“Scatter Brainstorming” session.

Operating Instructions

A group is given their task or topic for discussion.

They sit together and discuss the topic knowing that ideas and action plans will increase and improve

as they go.

There are three main objectives:

- Raise energy around the topic.

- Generate lots of ideas—there are no wrong answers.

- Unfreeze current thinking and open the mind to new ideas.

When you come to a JP Horizons event and do the “wave,” rub backs or stand on your chairs, we are

unfreezing your typical way of thinking about seminars. As the Scatter Brainstorming sessions

progress and groups draw pictures, write poems and create skits about their new ideas, we are

unfreezing the way they typically problem solve.

These activities initially stir up a little fear of doing something different or embarrassing or out of

character, but always result in a creative energy you would not get otherwise. Participants start talking

freely about what is going on the paper and the actions they are going to take.

At every JP Horizons event where Scatter Brainstorming takes place, Bob Coulter and Jim Paluch take

a look at each other and say, “Do you feel that energy?” At that point, we know we have accomplished

our objective and creative learning is taking place in this group exercise.

The Creativity Tool:

Go to the address below for a video of Jim Paluch sharing techniques to encourage

creativity in your organizations:

http://www.jphorizons.com/creativity/

Go to the address below for the People Solutions Newsletter on Creativity:

http://www.jphorizons.com/creativity/newsletter.htm

Creativity Tool:

Scatter

Brainstorming

Scatter Brainstorming Events

Remember you have three objectives:

1. Raise energy around the topics being discussed.

2. Generate lots of ideas—there are no wrong answers.

3. Unfreeze current thinking patterns and open minds to new ideas

Prepare for 5 rounds of discussion. This format is designed to address 5 different

topics. You can change the activity by having every group discussing the same topic

and will just want to adjust according to your group size and needs.

ROUND 1 - 15 Minutes for this round with each group starting with a different

predetermined topic. The goal of this round is to get as many ideas as

possible. You could have some fun by determining which group comes up with

the most ideas and award a prize.

ROUND 2 – Next, everyone moves to another table. They do not move as a

group but scatter and end up with different people to brainstorm the topic at that

table. In the15 minutes for Round 2, each table narrows the list left behind by the

previous group to find the top 10 ideas. You want to encourage each team to

work through an analysis of why the best ideas are important and navigate

through the negotiations to get the top 10 ideas for each topic. After Round 2, be

sure to have someone from each table share their top 10 ideas.

ROUND 3 - Everyone scatters again to a new table. The next 10 minutes is used

to narrow the list at each table to the top 5 ideas.

ROUND 4 - Everyone returns to their original table and finds the top 5 ideas that

others have chosen from their list. Each group then determines the best idea of

the 5 and then prepares to present this idea with a plan of action. We expect an

Ideas in Action campaign to be completed at this point. They then prepare one of

the following for their presentation:

- A 2-minute skit that will sell the rest of the group on their idea

- Draw a picture or create an ad that will convince the others of their genius or

- Write a poem to perform before the group.

Spend 20 minutes on this round.

PRESENTATIONS - It is important to provide them with some instructions on

how to effectively communicate the information, create energy as people come

up front and then really applaud the work that they do. You also want to capture

their lists. The idea will be to capture the written content from each group so that

you can follow up with a report out to the participants and utilize the

presentations to produce energy and excitement. You should also leave with 5

complete Ideas in Action campaigns that will help the group take immediate

action on the ideas produced in the session.