When to use which Leading with Outcomes workshop

Posted on by Mike Burrows

The facilitated workshops page lists five workshop designs, the first four (those shown on the image above) deliverable by authorised facilitators and trainers alike, the fifth only by trainers:

Plenty of choice there, so which should be used when?

The first two of those work both standalone and together (in either order), and the last two should be regarded as alternatives to each other, so let’s divide them into three groups: Inside-out, Outside-in (that middle workshop in a category of its own), and Adaptive Organisation. No surprise there: the Leading with Outcomes training curriculum is organised in much the same way.

Inside-out

Inside-out covers the first two workshops, Discovery and Assessment Debrief, both of these being up-to-date versions of the workshop designs covered in the first two chapters of my book Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2nd edition 2021).

We use the Discovery Workshop in two ways:

  1. To kick off internal change
  2. To give fresh perspective to a change initiative that is already underway

That second point includes stepping back from the detail uncovered by an Assessment Debrief workshop, perhaps some weeks later as part of a coaching or consulting engagement. Alternatively, a Discovery workshop leads quickly (perhaps directly) into an Assessment Debrief workshop, the former giving context to the latter. Either way, the Discovery workshop produces a high level strategy developed in the language of outcomes – meaningful goals, more immediately actionable outcomes (places to start), and outcomes of intermediate scale (meaningful indicators of success) – all organised coherently.

The Assessment Debrief Workshop can be used with any of our assessment templates (our monthly experience/practice sessions cycle through three of the shorter ones), but most often it is used with the Agendashift Delivery Assessment, aka the Values-Based Assessment, after its six headings of Transparency, Balance, Collaboration, Customer Focus, Flow, and Leadership. Refined repeatedly over a span of nearly a decade for maximum applicability to the widest range of delivery organisations (techology-related or otherwise), this template started life as a framework-agnostic adaptation of the bullets at the end of my first book, Kanban from the Inside, whose 10th anniversary comes in September.

Each assessment template is designed such that participants can be expected to respond positively to at least some of its prompts. Prompts are prioritised, “enjoyed” for what it would be like when (in context) they’re working at their ideal best. Then come obstacles – things that stand in the way of those ideals. They are identified, refined [1], and used as the springboard for the generation of outcomes. As with the Discovery workshop, outcomes are then organised, perhaps more visually this time. Going further into the process than the Discovery workshop does, solution ideas are generated for the most interesting outcomes and experiments designed for the best of those, deliberately biasing that generative process to the outcomes and solutions most likely to generate valuable learning for the organisation.

So… high level first and perhaps drill down, or engage at a more detailed level first and perhaps step back, the choice is yours. Online or in person, each is doable in half a day; a day is sufficient for both.

Outside-in

The two Inside-out workshops are both open to significant customisation, but for initiatives that begin with the customer or other external relationships (with competitors, suppliers, etc), the Outside-in Strategy Review Workshop may be more appropriate. We don’t use this one so often, but when the time is right, it’s powerful.

There are echoes of the previous two workshops in its Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes progression, but here that IdOO (“I do”) pattern (as we call it) happens within a higher-level agenda:

  1. Customer
  2. Organisation
  3. Product
  4. Platform
  5. Team(s)

We work our way inwards, each subsequent layer given proper context by those that precede it. If you’re looking for customer alignment and/or internal alignment to an organisation that knows the position in the competitive landscape it aims to occupy, this is a great place to start.

Adaptive Organisation

Explaining many organisational dysfunctions and missed opportunities in terms of imbalances, in the Adaptive Organisation workshops we are exploring what it means for different kinds of relationships to be healthy and productive. Given the number and range of these relationships and the agency of many of their participants, we are in the realms of the complex adaptive system (CAS). Accordingly, we pay much attention to the constraints that govern system behaviour.

You will get from that description that the Adaptive Organisation workshops are a little more technical than the others. If there is a workshop/training spectrum, we moving in the direction of training, but still the focus is on the host organisation and it’s very much a participatory experience.

The 1-day Adaptive Organisation Workshop can be thought of as an Assessment Debrief workshop with some supporting material. Underlying both its assessment template and that additional material is a very interesting model, the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, a radical, engaging, and complexity-friendly take on an absolute classic, Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model.

The 3-day Leading in a Transforming Organisation begins with a day of Leading with Outcomes: Foundation (this introduces the IdOO pattern and others) and expands Adaptive Organisation to two days, allowing a much deeper exploration of the model and the organisational issues it helps uncover. That adds up to 3 days of training presented in workshop form, suitable for both public and private settings.

As well as being interesting for its own sake, Leading in a Transforming Organisation can also be used as a near-alternative to Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F). See the store page for details.

[1] See Obstacles Fast and Slow – the March 7th event, the video it will produce, and some updated resources

Upcoming events

Recent changes:

  • Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) is brought forward a week to 25-27 June
  • Due to a venue clash, Leading in Transforming Organisation (Southampton) pushed back a couple of weeks to October 22-24
  • Webinars and experience/practise sessions are taking a break now until the autumn

May

June

October

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

  • Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitators
  • There are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribers
  • Members of the old partner programme get 30% off
  • Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)
  • Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for free

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Leading with Outcomes: Foundation
  2. Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose
  3. Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact
  4. Part I: Business agility at every scale
  5. Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales
  6. Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.