Bio Products Laboratory Case Study

Client:: Bio Products Laboratory (BPL)
Project:: Review of strategic seven year plan

With eight heads of department contributing to the workshop, BPL needed to distil a great deal of information and capture key thoughts and feelings in a memorable way. By using a graphic facilitative approach called Scribing, BPL saw the ‘benefit of a picture instead of a thousand words’.

Result: While BPL invests in regular training of its 500-workforce, this focuses on regulatory needs, skills required for specific tasks and personal development for individual staff. The investment in focus, creativity and consolidated agreement was a departure for the organisation.

BPL didn't want a two day workshop which resulted in an unachievable wish-list. What the organisation did achieve was a list of clearly identified objectives and focus on the need to spend time in priority areas.

Advance testing on a selection of BPL's 500 staff produced a positive response to the poster; recognition of the current issues; plus the barriers and behaviours that needed to be addressed if the business was to achieve its goal.

Benefit is also measured by how selected priorities are reviewed quarterly, while the top five priorities are discussed monthly.

Situation: Providing a continuous, competitive supply of high quality plasma-derived products is a critical role for Bio Products Laboratory, a unit of the National Blood Authority and a special health authority within the NHS.

Day to day production of life saving products and long term development of the product line are two important if disparate activities for the 50-year-old organisation.

Time and focus were key elements that came under scrutiny when BPL invested in a review of its strategic plan for the next seven years. The chief executive had a clear vision of what he wanted the organisation to achieve and what medium term issues might affect the company. At the same time, top team dynamics had been altered with half the team of eight being in post for less than two years.

There were a number of issues at hand; the chief executive wanted his team to work to a clear set of objectives and an action plan.

Task: BPL invested in a two-day workshop facilitation designed to allow the Board to properly review its strategy. The event for eight heads of department and the chief executive took into account the developing team dynamics and commercial pressures.

Design and facilitate a productive two-day workshop that would allow the Board to properly review its strategy, and which took into account the developing team dynamics and commercial pressures
Provide consolidated output from the workshop

Action: Without becoming an expert in the client's industry, research the background issues that might affect the Board's strategic thought processes;

Gather information about the company's competitors and markets.
Hold brief interviews with all members of the executive team to establish early rapport and identify key issues.
Discuss, in depth, with the CEO the desirable outcomes and objectives for the event, as well as the proposed design and 'Plan B' activities.
Facilitate the two-day workshop, and capture discussion threads and key points.
Consolidate the output into a comprehensive (easy to digest) report, and return to participants within three days.
Produce a high-level poster capturing workshop discussion threads, to be used as a communications tool for the organisation as a whole.

With eight heads of department contributing to the workshop, BPL needed to distil a great deal of information and capture the key thoughts and feelings in a memorable way. By using a graphic facilitative approach called Scribing, BPL saw the 'benefit of a picture instead of a thousand words'.

This method involved a highly skilled artist and an experienced facilitator to ensure that as many people as possible benefited from new knowledge and experiences. Participants received real-time feedback in the form of images, diagrams and key points; scribed output was a powerful tool for critical thinking, problem solving and strategic planning - the culture of BPL's organisation was clearly captured by the scribe's real-time graphics.

At the end of the workshop, nine storyboards were bound into a meeting report. Working with BPL, the scribe distilled the information on the boards of these boards to produce a poster for staff. As a colourful graphic, the poster illustrated BPL's current position, where it wanted to be and how it was going to get there: strategy in a picture.

Feedback:

'There is a significant improvement in time efficiency by the top team. By eliminating even five per cent of the activities, which may be nice to do but which don't actually produce very much, you get your return on the top team investment. Because the top team is focused on priorities and because their example cascades through the organisation, your return increases.'
Chief Executive