Breakthrough 2022: Proposal

Background

In the past, the Services department has participated in a workshop titled Breakthrough in an effort to create a sense of team and camaraderie. That workshop took place several years ago and the team has drastically changed.

The department has grown considerably since that time and we are looking to grow even more in the coming year. While we do have an enablement team prepared to both onboard new colleagues and provide continuing education, and individual contributors do report to managers who can provide them guidance, the people best suited to coach new employees on effective techniques are the current individual contributors who do the job regularly.

Currently there is an underlying cultural norm that the Services role is very independent and that team members are responsible only to their customers. The department lacks a team mentality. We know that as we grow, it will be important for individuals to provide each other support as well as have a willingness to coach each other on new products, new processes, and general best practices.

There are five objectives that the leadership team has for the Services department this year. Three are relevant to this project:

• Deliver an exceptional Platform experience
• Scale to 2000 customers
• Develop world-class Services Enablement

Goal

To execute a workshop that facilitates team building and builds trust amongst the team so that we are able to scale, deliver an exceptional experience to customers, and empower the entire team to participate in enabling each other.

Success Measurement

It is hard to measure “team building” and “trust”. However, the behavioral outcomes we are looking for can be measured. Therefore, we are hoping to achieve the following:

• Increase sense of team and “belonging” as measured by Culture Amp by Q32022. Having a team that feels like they are welcome and free to participate is the only way we will achieve the department-stated objectives.
• Increase in willingness to take on the Coach or Assist role by Q32022. Currently willingness is being masked by capacity concerns. By creating more trust, coaching others will become a more natural part of the role and thus time will become less of a concern.

 

As we have team members of varying backgrounds and experiences, we want to increase our inclusive behavior. This workshop will help to teach others that everyone is different and yet we can find common ground. Additionally, given that working with others is not a frequent part of the job, to become a Coach or Assist requires that people feel comfortable giving and receiving feedback, identifying the way that people learn, and finding value in the skills and traits of others even if those skills and traits are different than their own.

Participants

Services Team Members in the role of Services Executive, Customer Service Manager, and Solution Architect (roughly 100 team members). Some people have been with the company for many years while a large number are only into their first year. Team members range in age from 20 to 60, and have varying experiences with work.

Workshop Overview

Timeline

We will conduct two half-day, virtual workshops from 8:30a PT – 12:30p PT. 

Tools Needed

There are no new tools for this workshop. We will utilize Google Apps, Zoom, and the training-wheels.com website.

Pre-workshop Preparation

The workshop will need the help of co-facilitators. We need to meet with co-facilitators six weeks before the workshop. We will walk them through the workshop itself and assign roles. We will have follow up meetings four weeks before the workshop, and each week until the week of the workshop itself. 

• Three weeks before the workshop, we will have a pre-meeting with the managers to walk them through the goals and gain their buy-in for the work we will do. 
• Two weeks before the workshop, we will do a Full Value Contract activity with managers. (See Workshop Schedule for details)
• One week before the workshop, managers will facilitate a Full Value Contract activity with their teams. (See Workshop Schedule for details)
• Three days before the workshop, the facilitation team will meet for a run through. 
• One day before the workshop the facilitation team will meet for final questions and announcements. 

Post-workshop Evaluation

After the workshop is complete, the facilitation and leadership teams will meet to conduct a retrospective. We will ask ourselves the following questions:

• What went well?
• What didn’t go well?
• Do we believe we will achieve our goals in Q3?
• Should we conduct any interventions to help ensure we achieve our goals in Q3?
• What should we change if we conduct workshops in the future?

Additionally, we will evaluate our success measurements on a monthly basis.

Risks

Presentation of Activity Rules

Oftentimes in workshops, the rules and/or objectives are not presented in a way that participants understand. This can cause the activity to flounder and participants to lose interest. 

To mitigate this risk, we will conduct a full run-through of the workshop to gather feedback and ensure the rules at least make sense to the facilitators. Additionally, we will allow space for questions after presenting the rules so that participants can receive clarity before they begin. 

Disengagement in Activities

There is likely to be some disengagement. Particularly given that participants can easily be distracted in a virtual environment and that this is not an opt-in workshop. 

To mitigate this risk, we will do the following: 

• Four weeks prior to the workshop, instruct team members to let their customers know that they will be out of office during the time of the workshop. As such, they will need to move meetings to accommodate. Ask for team leaders to reinforce this.
• One week prior, remind participants that they should not have customer meetings during the workshop and they should set their automatic out of office response for that time. Send a suggested out of office message. 
• The day before, remind participants to set their out of office message for the following day. 
• During the workshop, observe attendees. While it’s not always possible to know why folks behave the way they do, there can be information gained by observing changes people make over time.
  • Did they start out engaged and are now disengaging? 
  • Is an energetic group now losing steam? 
  • Are certain activities bringing about more engagement than previous ones? 
• Initiate interventions as needed. Focus on our goal of building trust and increasing vulnerability. k

Activity Debriefing

Debriefing the activities is where most of the learning takes place. It can also be where people tune out and choose not to participate. 

To mitigate this, we will come prepared, ensure facilitators feel confident leading their activities,  and ask specific people ahead of time if they are willing to be called on if the debrief is falling flat.