FACILITATIVE  CONSULTING

REWIRING THE ORGANISATION

Based on your requirements we will put forward a bespoke consultancy proposal to help you meet your needs. This may include aspects of the following training or implementation strategies:

1. FROM GEMBA WALK TO RE-DESIGNING A DYNAMIC ORGANISATION:
   Often it does not require an army of consultants for an organisation's leaders to find out what is not working well, what changes are needed or where the real issues are. A 'gemba walk' throughout an organisation's operations, with the right attitude of 'Go look, ask why and respect', will reveal far more in a short amount of time than a very extensive study or investigation. Gemba walks do have to be done in the right spirit, however, if they are not to back-fire. We will thus introduce leaders to the gemba walking spirit by accompanying them, demonstrating how it is done and helping them gather an enormous amount of relevant information very rapidly. We will then also show how we can use that information to create problem-solving circles at all levels in order to bring about major operational improvements.
   
   
2. BLOCKAGE & BOTTLENECK AUDIT - DEPLOYING LEAN THINKING:
   Many organisations are riddled with bottlenecks and processes which slow down the organisation's workflow. We will introduce simple ways for leaders, supervisors and operators at all levels to identify the blockages and bottlenecks, which are not only slowing down workflow and progress, but are also causing unnecessary costs, wastes and inefficiecies. We will show how to do a blockage and bottleneck audit by doing one together, deploying techniques from lean thinking. This may lead to various outcomes, including applying larger group interventions facilitations, such as Open Space Technology, depending on the needs of the organisation.
   
   
3. IMPLEMENTATION OF DYNAMIC CO-GOVERNANCE (aka SOCIOCRACY):
   Implementing sociocracy starts by creating an implementation circle whose job it is to first learn then teach facilitation and other skills in sociocratic decision-making, as well as introduce a circle structure. The general circle will be formed to establish (or confirm) the next level circles, determine their aims and elect by consent the circles' operations leaders. As circles become proficient and ready, the system can cascade down or across the organisation, until the whole organisation operates sociocratically. Critical for the success will be the forming the initial implementation circle, which will serve as the model other circles will learn from.

Any consultancy work we do is by nature bespoke and organisation-specific, and therefore will be managed through a process of understanding needs, presenting an initial proposal and estimate, refining the proposal and quotation, coming to an agreement which will delineate milestones to achieve. While clear in objectives, our approach must also flexible enough to enable agile changes based on the iterated learnings on the way. We will therefore apply sociocratic principles involving cybernetic feedback cycles in our consultancy. Please contact us for an initial appraisal.

FACILITATION   SERVICES:

We offer facilitation services in the following areas:

• Sociocracy
• Circle meetings
• Open Space Technology

On demand we will also facilitate any form of gathering or meeting as per client needs.

CONSULTANCY?

Our philosophy of consulting is one of enabling organisations to empower all their staff to solve problems themselves, by teaching them innovative collaborative methods and tools, rather than doing the work for them as experts - hence 'facilitative consulting'.

We are largely informed by the Japanese / Deming approach which attempts to develop employees to be their own experts, rather than calling in external experts. To do so we must aim to give staff the skills they needs to be able to achieve their aims.

We therefore also facilitate processes by example, showing the way, modelling the processes.

GAMING MEETINGS:

Meetings should follow simple rules of games in order to get the best of participants - people are highly engaged in games, hence it is worth exploring what makes games work, and if applied to meetings what could make meetings tick. Games have four characteristics:

• Clear purpose and goal
• Clear rules (of game)
• Ways to track progress
• Voluntary - opted in

In actual fact many meetings do not meet all of these criteria and hence often become unproductive, wasteful and even counter-productive. Our aim will be to introduce good practices in running meetings, and beyond that good practices in collective decision-making.