CLIENT
CHALLENGE
Arizona Public Service Company, the publicly traded utility,
was in trouble and based on its own critical performance measures,
it was in need of massive organizational and cultural change. They
hired Focused Change International (FCI) to lead the change
efforts. FCI in turn, partnered with exper!ence it inc. to
design a ‘massive change’ simulation. The simulation
was intended to provide participants with an opportunity to
understand the power of full-scale change and to "lay
the cultural tracks for change to happen." Our job was
to align both hearts and minds to the strategic intent of
APS, alongside the broader organization change initiatives
of FCI.
CREATIVE RANGE
The client was open to a broad range of solutions, but wanted
the learning experience to be upbeat and interesting, as well
as applicable and powerful against the stated learning objectives.
It was suggested that referencing ‘Sneakers,’
an espionage movie in theatres at the time, would be timely
and would fit the interests of many of the target audience.
We did extensive research into business
improvement practices with some of the country’s leading
large system change consulting agencies. The creative for
the simulation was developed with the assistance of the leader
and team members of a National Emergency Response Team. It
was while in the cafeteria of an emergency response team training
facility, talking with one of the elite agents, that the ‘penny
dropped.’ We realized that we would be able to create
a powerful link between this creative and the underlying business
issues. It was in response to the question, "What makes
missions fail?" that one elite agent replied in terms
that were chillingly like the business language we were immersed
in with the system consultants. "Ninety-nine percent
of mission failures are due to a lack of complete and timely
information and the inability of the team to respond quickly
and flexibly to change." Great lengths were taken to
ensure that the fundamental elements behind the creative were
painstakingly linked to the real pressures of both business
challenges and mission critical emergency response situations.
e! SOLUTION…
Tyranny of Numbers:
The Workplace Revolution Simulation
Participants are placed in a ‘for
hire’ high-tech SWAT Team. The team has a finite amount
of time to 'eliminate the threat' of terrorists who have taken
over a Nuclear Power Facility.
Tyranny of Numbers: The Workplace Revolution
Simulation pits a team of Elite Agents from a company called
S.W.A.T. Inc. against the clock and a group of terrorists.
Can S.W.A.T. Inc. successfully achieve its mission or will
traditional company system design problems stop them from
reaching their goals? The learning outcomes are meaningful,
enlightening, and practical… the experience itself is
unforgettable.
During the Alpha Run, participants experience
a traditionally managed company, where work is organized and
measured by function, management is organized in a pyramid
structure, information systems are built in accordance with
functional needs, and contact with internal and external customers
is minimal. The Alpha Run is benchmarked against a set of
specific standards. After the Alpha run, participants are
engaged in a training workshop on how to re-think and re-organize
work, information systems and processes to save time, money
and to better serve internal and external customers. The participants
are then divided into two new teams. Each team is given their
mission for the next day’s Beta Run: to re-think and
re-design the workplace of S.W.A.T. Inc. so that each team
can accomplish the mission and better the previously accomplished
benchmarks using only half the human resources of the Alpha
run. The teams’ Beta Run results demonstrate tremendous
improvement, and the teams’ presentations of their organizational
changes include deep understanding of the power of work flow
streamlining, integration of information systems, customer
contracting, and overall fundamental process redesign.
The two-day program closes with individuals
and real teams creating and committing to specific practices
that they can and will implement immediately back in the work
place.
More important than just teaching these
skills and practices, the simulation and workshop leave a
powerful and lasting cultural message that is heard, understood
and felt.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Commitment towards action for dramatic
workplace redesign
- Identification and application of the
three key
elements for ensuring successful workplace redesign
- Contracting for a new strategic working
relationship between service providers and their clients
and users
RESULTS
Arizona Public Service Company went through a massive turnaround
through all of their efforts and is now rated as one of the
premier companies in Arizona and one of the top five publicly
traded utilities in the United States.
Participants stated that they could now
understand what needed to happen for the company on a macro
level and how they could make their own individual contributions
to that end. They understood both the 'how' and the 'why'
behind the change efforts that their organization was going
through. We are very proud to have played our part in helping
prepare the organization’s culture for this essential
change effort.
THANKS
This program, like all of our others, owes its wonderful life
to the contributions of many talented individuals. Tyranny
of Numbers would not have happened, or been as profoundly
moving, without the faith and commitment of Wayne Widdis and
Karen Kapusta of Focused Change International Inc. This program
owes much of its success to Hank Oen, our client, who tirelessly
ensured the reality of his peers’ daily work lives and
I very much appreciate his efforts and his deep understanding
of his business. |
