Bill and Sandy set up the event and pulled everyone into the room—all the unit managers, subject matter experts and resource supervisors as well as the Capital Systems Team. Early on during the first day of the event they experienced an uncomfortable moment when they “busted” a long-held assumption.

Whereas they initially assumed that everyone had a common understanding of how each project was initiated, they discovered this was not the case at all. The reality was that everybody had a completely different idea, which helped explain why the process took 3 to 6 months.

The work of the event quickly pivoted to getting the people in the room on the same page—they had to agree on how the process should function. This led to identifying items that were critical to project managers such as whether or not they’d have the resources they needed when the project launched.

This workshop and process of discovery was a true turning point for Bill and Sandy. It turned out to be a painful session. They all arrived thinking they had a standard way of doing work—but no one could identify a standard. Everyone presented a different approach. The reality caused a fair amount of anxiety in the room. They realized they weren’t performing to a standard.

It was a painful event, but they learned a lot during the process which helped Bill and Sandy adjust how they conducted the remainder of the workshop. Regardless of the difficulties, the work was truly engaging. No one walked away from the process or gave up. They saw the tangible benefit of conducting the improvement event.