Schuman S. - The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation (2005)(en)

CASE STUDIES

Based on about two hundred projects, we present some typical examples.

Preparing Images: Map Making

Following a merger, a regional information technology organization was being restructured. The dynamic manager seized this opportunity to involve the employees actively in the change process. They were to display entrepreneurial reasoning, work on a common definition of goals, and support the actions emotionally. She commissioned an external facilitator to accompany the process in the department for a period of nine months.

The facilitator searched for a creative and playful medium to visualize the process. He turned to us with the initial question: “Can you develop an interactive, flexible, visual medium?”

Process We conceived of the idea of a large sea map on which the employees were able to continually test new details of their method in the metaphorical world of seafaring. The first image shows the relationship of central and regional locations of the organization, customer territory, currents of emotional sensitivities (Verändern and Bewahren, translated as “change” and “preservation”), and much more.

The first version was drawn and experienced by the employees using children’s plastic ships. The image here shows the detail with the boat, which is the new department ship, sailing by Woman’s Island (Fraueninsel). The sea map was brought up to date on a regular basis with newly acquired insights. The final version was created and complemented by a peninsula with a depiction of the future.

At the conclusion, the head of the department, the facilitator, and the visualizer met for a day to process the feedback. This evaluation showed that the sea map had been a great help to employees in understanding and learning how to steer and control and how to anchor the process emotionally.

Product The colorful walkable sea map, measuring 5 × 1.8 meters, was full of islands and bays, currents and harbors that had specific names tailored to the process. In addition, it also had integrated board games and individually developed card games such as “pirate poker.” Finally the map was printed as a desk pad and given to each employee to keep the experience alive.

Remarks Land and sea maps incorporate the charm and the secrets of hundreds of years of map making. They are suited for representing and documenting many types of journeys, such as organization development, change and merger processes, and company stories (the way from the “old country” to the vision), and they can be used for interactive games as well.

They will be a success if management opens the space, if visualizers find the fitting visual language, and if the employees dare to jump into the map’s world.

Preparing Images: Fairy Tale

Two banks had decided to merge and consolidate their information technology departments. The employees, who feared the loss of their technology as well as changes in where they worked, were to be informed at a general meeting and motivated. The manager of the internal change process addressed us: “Can you put our vision into pictures for a kick-off meeting?”

Process Two visualizers went on site, spent a day visually recording the discussions of the project group and the two top managers, mirrored the images back that had evolved, and received the commission to create and visualize an appropriate story. On their way home, the story line suddenly sprang from the images: the fusion of two ocean harbors. An old lighthouse keeper finally convinced the reluctant harbor masters to accept the challenge together.

We formulated the story (the fairy tale of the Northern Harbor) in close coordination with the company, illustrated it in a series of fourteen images that depicted the phases of the merger, and created the dramaturgy with the organization’s events department. It was not easy to give equal consideration in the story to the pride of both companies.

Two months later when the kick-off meeting took place, the colorful images hung on the walls. Accompanied by seafaring music, they were then projected on a large screen. The top managers stood at the front wearing sailor shirts and read the story aloud. They stuttered a little, but the employees were personally touched and understood their message.

Product We provided the dramaturgy and the illustrated story on CD and on three picture friezes, each 11 meters long. Each of the two hundred participants received the illustrations in the form of a notebook cover, and in the evening each person received a poster depicting the new harbor.

Remarks Fairy tales can encapsulate the corporate culture and reality to make identification possible. With supportive upper management, the employees sense immediately that the intentions are genuine.

The elaborate pictures serve as permanent representations of the messages; after a year, they are still hanging in the corridors. The harbor metaphor is alive and is used for other events.

Preparing Images: Company Game

Following an unstable past, a public utilities company with twelve regional branches was taken over by an international group. Its economic situation was extremely difficult. But instead of closing down the company, the group sent in two top managers, who were successful in returning the company to the black. These managers approached us with the initial question: “Can you transpose a master plan so that all the employees understand it?”

Our charge was to help the workers, many of them without much formal education, understand the past, including all the poor decisions that had nearly ruined the company. It was also to help them understand how the international managers had accomplished the turnaround that saved the company. Finally, it was to show that German management was to be put into a position, enabling them to run the company successfully from this point with the commitment of all the workers.

Process Only gradually did we realize the enormity of the challenger. It took four months before we found the solution, which had been preceded by discussions on numerous proposals (fairy tale, film, different story lines): a corporate game that was to be played in all the regional branches. The company was very male oriented, which gave rise to the metaphor of a car rally like the Paris–Dakar race through the desert. We and the managers immersed ourselves in business reports and the company’s plans in order to transcribe the relevant information into the phases of the rally. The route went up hill and down dale through the past,

present, and future, with each phase represented on an individual road map. Together with the managers, we discovered strategies for interactive involvement that would make the game realistic and exciting.

It was the far-sightedness of the managers, that made the game a sweeping success. They gave the game the space it needed and appointed two long-time employees to be the game leaders and supervise the content and course of the game.

The game leaders got down to work and developed the optimum dramaturgy, selected pieces of music for each episode, procured equipment, and dressed up in costumes; in short, they created an unbelievable mélange consisting of the glaringly poor figures of the company, the excitement of the rally, and the motivation of all the participants.

They played the game for three hours in each of the regional branches. The emotional outcome of the game and its lasting effect surpassed all expectations; it created a new corporate culture. Today, the company is financially sound and once again a leading player in the market.

Product Our final product was a collage of photographs and paintings developed as a triptych of three road maps (approximately 1.40 by 3.00 meters), with thirty movable picture elements that were printed two hundred times and packed in suitable bags for transport, together with a description of the game.

Remarks A game such as this, not a common occurrence, can change the corporate culture. The playing of the game must arouse respect among the players with regard to the idea and implementation. It thus has to be perfect in its design, dramaturgy, and content. Even years later, it should still be a topic of conversation in the company.

Live Process Images: Basis for Building Project

Two automobile development centers that employed over eight thousand workers were scheduled to merge. An internal team was in charge of the project management and commissioned external facilitators. Its initial question was, “Can you develop a method of providing the ideas and demands of the employees for the design and planning process in the shortest time possible?” We proposed to conduct a series of interviews and record the ideas, concepts, and visions of a large number of workers visually.

Process We interviewed 174 workers divided into twenty-five thematic groups; the topics had been developed by the internal team. Each interview session was limited to one to two hours, and definite rules had to be followed:

•The goal of the session was discussed for five minutes and then codified in writing.

•The groups, each with about eight participants, then carried on an open discussion; all of their statements were recorded by three visual facilitators on small cards.

•The cards, with their image and word combinations, were presented as a picture wall and discussed briefly.

•Each group was sent a folder containing its images and requested to make corrections and approve them by signature.

The participants valued the opportunity to voice their opinions anonymously and directly through the images. The interview series was a hot topic of conversation in

the company and was taken very seriously, also owing to the support from upper management.

From the twenty-five interviews, thirteen hundred images emerged. An additional record in writing proved unnecessary.

In the following weeks, the visualizers analyzed the huge accumulation of images and condensed and grouped them into clusters. This process resulted in thirtysix cluster themes.

Three general thematic groups evolved: human sensitivities, urgent pending decisions, and technical information and clarification. The documentation was complemented by brief verbal introductions.

Product Eight hundred remaining images grouped in three categories were summarized as a report in three volumes and provided to both the management and the commissioned architects in a ceremony. They had never before seen such an insightful “X-ray” of the company.

Three of the eight hundred images were proposals for recreation areas, a mixing of blueand white-collar employees, and connections joining the separate buildings.