How many of us are struggling with how to get our business to operate more cohesively and to focus our teams on what matters? How many of us are struggling with getting all levels of the heirachy to provide direction, to shape, to plan, to improve to serve our customers in the best way possible? How many of us are trying to find ways to empower our teams, listen to their ideas and support them in driving their ideas forward?

Every time I’m faced with these conversations I end up back in the late 90s sitting listening to the CEO talk about the exec and heads moving out of the way and giving those that are closet to the problem and the outcomes to come up with the solutions that work for them..

And then being in the thick of what happened next – designing outcomes with sponsors and facilitating teams through what was known as the WorkOut process – high energy, lots of post it notes, lots of data analysis, stress testing outcome assumptions and pitching the proposals getting agreement and driving the results.

The outcomes were impressive – not only did we generally smash the targets set but the team spirit the discipline of having facts behind the ideas and the recognition that the team would need to act on the recommendations and implement the ideas drove a culture of delivery ana action rather than the discussion and speculation that existed before hand.

So what did I learn way back when and what do I hope for in the way businesses operate today – it’s common sense ..

1. Get sponsors who can set the challenge and remove – who can be clear on outcomes and engaged when the team need support

2. Provide the team with strong facilitation – it’s the cross functional teams themselves who will come up with the ideas, recommendations and plans

3. Be prepared to see engagement rise, ownership increase and team members grow in confidence, business understanding and speed of action

4. And realise when the whole approach is reviewed that not only have you got the results but you’ve changed the culture. Ifs highly likely that you would have also identified untapped potential in your teams who have risen to the surface and will go on to greater things in the years to come.

What’s different then than now – now we have far better workshop tools and environments – now we have leaders who are less hierarchical – now we have access to far more data and organizational insight and we are more used to working in teams.

The key for me though is the intervention is still required and the clarity in outcomes and enabling the team to succeed still needs to improve

Are there any ex workout team members out there? Sponsors? Champions? Team members? Facilitators? Do you have the same memories 20 years on?