What are Rapid Improvement Events?
Rapid Improvement Events or RIEs are events which have been designed to analyse and resolve core problems in a short period of time. Many RIEs are developed from Lean Six Sigma, in terms of bringing together core constituents in a process to resolve core issues in a set time frame.
RIEs can be designed as a major Strategic thrust, or to invoke radical structural or operational efficiencies, or both
RIE’s can be used to resolve a variety of issues from strategic issues impacting an organisation, to operational or tactical issues impacting the business.
Facilitation must be both deep and rigorous
Often, because of the scale, scope and outcomes and expectations of RIE’s, you will probably be inviting a large number of people to the events. Many of the invitees or participants will not have met their fellow participants before. Not surprisingly, many of them may not support the project nor wish to work with others. You may find some resistance to change. You may also find there may be some political and 'turf war' issues that separate them. For this reason, these events have to be strongly facilitated and the degree of facilitation prior to, during and after the event has to go deep to make the desired changes stick.
Poor Facilitation puts your project at Risk
You cannot draft in inexperienced facilitators – you should only use people you can trust to close loops, develop win-win outcomes, lead commitment to take action, and challenge people and their attitudes when required. This especially includes challenging sponsors and project owners.
How big can RIE’s become?
In our corporate work, we have staged RIE events with an excess of over 100 participants from a variety of countries and cultures, with the typical RIE lasting over a period of 72 hours with a further 48 hours for hands-on implementation in the ‘home’ locations from where participants travelled
Day 1 is usually devoted to bringing everyone up to speed – the PM of Day 1 is mapping out the core issues and setting firm and flexible agendas.
Day 2 is focused on analysing the problems and developing solutions and:
Day 3 is committed to developing implementation plans.
It does not finish there.
Day 4 and 5 are devoted entirely to the participants travelling back to their location and implementing the solutions (Non-IT solutions that is) or developing on commitment and momentum to ensure the Implementation Plans from Day 3 are implemented.
Our Experience
We have a huge amount of experience of driving these events. At one time, we were facilitating regular strategic and operational events at major Hotels at major hub airports throughout the world, including Heathrow, Charles de Gaul, Amsterdam, Toronto, O’Hare, Toronto Pearson, Wichita and LaGuardia. These were all useful hubs where clients could fly in, commit to the RIE and then return to their ’home’ locations to lead their part in implementing needed changes.
HQ Locations
Likewise, RIE’s can be designed to focus on working at Head Office and have representatives from different locations and geographies, satellites and functional areas. What all good RIEs should have in common is a deep commitment to make change happen. The RIE process works in the IT sector, Financial Services, Brewing and Distilling – in fact, in all sectors if you design the RIE properly.
What can RIE’s do for you?
Fundamentally, an RIE will deliver an implementation plan that will be owned and delivered by all those attending. It is not acceptable to simply to get together (in a talking shop) to shoot the breeze and deliver a lacklustre analysis and ill thought through solutions that won’t work.
Designing an RIE event is an opportunity to:
Lessons for RIE Design
To arrange a meeting email philip@philipatkinson.com
RIEs can be designed as a major Strategic thrust, or to invoke radical structural or operational efficiencies, or both
RIE’s can be used to resolve a variety of issues from strategic issues impacting an organisation, to operational or tactical issues impacting the business.
Facilitation must be both deep and rigorous
Often, because of the scale, scope and outcomes and expectations of RIE’s, you will probably be inviting a large number of people to the events. Many of the invitees or participants will not have met their fellow participants before. Not surprisingly, many of them may not support the project nor wish to work with others. You may find some resistance to change. You may also find there may be some political and 'turf war' issues that separate them. For this reason, these events have to be strongly facilitated and the degree of facilitation prior to, during and after the event has to go deep to make the desired changes stick.
Poor Facilitation puts your project at Risk
You cannot draft in inexperienced facilitators – you should only use people you can trust to close loops, develop win-win outcomes, lead commitment to take action, and challenge people and their attitudes when required. This especially includes challenging sponsors and project owners.
How big can RIE’s become?
In our corporate work, we have staged RIE events with an excess of over 100 participants from a variety of countries and cultures, with the typical RIE lasting over a period of 72 hours with a further 48 hours for hands-on implementation in the ‘home’ locations from where participants travelled
Day 1 is usually devoted to bringing everyone up to speed – the PM of Day 1 is mapping out the core issues and setting firm and flexible agendas.
Day 2 is focused on analysing the problems and developing solutions and:
Day 3 is committed to developing implementation plans.
It does not finish there.
Day 4 and 5 are devoted entirely to the participants travelling back to their location and implementing the solutions (Non-IT solutions that is) or developing on commitment and momentum to ensure the Implementation Plans from Day 3 are implemented.
Our Experience
We have a huge amount of experience of driving these events. At one time, we were facilitating regular strategic and operational events at major Hotels at major hub airports throughout the world, including Heathrow, Charles de Gaul, Amsterdam, Toronto, O’Hare, Toronto Pearson, Wichita and LaGuardia. These were all useful hubs where clients could fly in, commit to the RIE and then return to their ’home’ locations to lead their part in implementing needed changes.
HQ Locations
Likewise, RIE’s can be designed to focus on working at Head Office and have representatives from different locations and geographies, satellites and functional areas. What all good RIEs should have in common is a deep commitment to make change happen. The RIE process works in the IT sector, Financial Services, Brewing and Distilling – in fact, in all sectors if you design the RIE properly.
What can RIE’s do for you?
Fundamentally, an RIE will deliver an implementation plan that will be owned and delivered by all those attending. It is not acceptable to simply to get together (in a talking shop) to shoot the breeze and deliver a lacklustre analysis and ill thought through solutions that won’t work.
Designing an RIE event is an opportunity to:
- Develop a strategic view on the causes and resolution of key problems
- Explore problems from multiple perspectives
- Document the symptoms and the cause of such problems
- Seek agreement and commitment to resolve the problems
- Decide and allocate resources and take functional and personal ownership to see through recommendations for change
- Focus on intensely working through the key issues
- Agree an implementation plan
Lessons for RIE Design
- You cannot plan too much. You must plan, test and plan again to cover all objections and overcome key behaviourial and political barriers
- Facilitators must be strong and work seamlessly with the Project Sponsors
- Data packs may be important in preparing for the event – but not as important as strong Facilitation in achieving outcomes
- You need a team of facilitators to manage the dynamics of a large event, and this team needs instruction and rehearsal
To arrange a meeting email philip@philipatkinson.com
