Spring 2020 newsletter

News

Latest company updates and industry news

April 13, 2020

Come Along And Enjoy Our Networking Events

We would like to wish all our friends and clients a Happy Easter – please keep safe and take care of your loved ones, friends and any neighbours who may currently need your help & support.

At times like this human connection (even if on the end of a FaceTime or Zoom call) can be so important.

These are unusual times calling for each of us to respond to new circumstances in creative, proactive and resilient ways. When we are out the other side of this, we will reflect and realise how much we have learnt and how much has changed – I am sure we will find lots of positives and also be able to look back with pride when considering the challenges we’ve all overcome and the support we have been able to provide our family, friends and colleagues.

Make Good Use of the "Gift of Time"

Some of us now have been given the gift of some time to focus on important things that can get “lost” in the hurly burly of the day to day during more normal periods.

Particularly for those of us involved in Opex/CI activities, this opens up some valuable opportunities:

Skills Development – Do I (or my team) need to develop or brush up our Lean Sigma skills and tools? Perhaps I need to learn some new skills (e.g. facilitating virtual meetings), or read that book on the shelf, or learn more about business accounting (particularly useful for CI leaders looking to better identify high value projects!)
Certification – Perhaps I can use this time to get that project written up and over the certification line. Maybe now is the time I pull my dossier together for MBB certification.
Data – How about I spend some time looking at that tricky data set I have been meaning to explore for a while and to brush up my JMP Skills.
Re- prioritising – Should I review the project portfolio and re-align, future proof project portfolio for life after the crisis. Perhaps write up the portfolio for internal PR/marketing (much of the time we don’t do enough to communicate our successes and this could be a valuable opportunity!)
Relationships and Stakeholders – How am I going to maintain my relationships with key stakeholders now I am no longer seeing them every day in the corridor. What new communication routines do I need to put in place? How can I use these strange times as an excuse to have different types of conversations which will increase trust and strengthen bonds.
Communicating with impact – How can I use preferences to improve written communication (emails) and spoken also since all we have on the phone/Zoom is our voice and the words we speak.

“What did you learn today,” is a fine question to ask. Particularly right this minute, when we have more time and less peace of mind than is usually the norm. (with acknowledgements to Seth Godin)

We would be really interested to hear how you are using your time differently and productively – there may be some great learning for others that we could share in a future newsletter.

More generally, how at PICL are we adapting to this new situation, and how are we working differently with our network of clients to help them in new ways and also to help them help each other?

We will Soon Be Delivering Our Training "Remotely"

This is a great time to continue to develop your skills, and the skills of your teams. In response to this need we have re-designed our Green Belt Open Programme and will be delivering it remotely using Zoom. Our first course starts in May. It will be a 12-week modular programme supported by coaching sessions and “drop in” clinics.

Instead of 5 days intense classroom training you will get 7 days support spread over the duration of your GB project. It will continue to be project based, it will be fully aligned with BQF certification requirements and, in addition, to the standard green belt curriculum it will be training you in tools and methods that will allow you to facilitate workshops and progress your projects effectively using remote working methods. These will be vital skills for the future world of work! More details of the training can be found here .

We are also developing our Data Analytics, DOE and JMP modules so that they can be delivered remotely and more details of this will be announced very shortly.

Did you Know We Do a lot of Remote Coaching?

Short, sharp 1-hour Webex coaching sessions are a great way to keep projects moving along at pace in these tricky times. With one client in Italy, just before “lockdown” we trained a large group of Green Belts. Obviously there was a significant risk that the value of the training would be lost with delegates now finding it difficult to progress their projects. We have helped them with that by setting up regular ad-hoc 1:1 coaching sessions to keep things moving along.

We find these coaching sessions are serving a wider purpose than just simple Green Belt coaching, with people finding some comfort and re-assurance in the routine and the “normality” of a project discussion. Also these coaching sessions are definitely helping people think differently and creatively about how to progress their improvement work when traditional approaches may no longer be appropriate.

Contact Us if you would like some coaching to accelerate your projects.

Knock Your Storyboards into Shape For BQF Certification!

Many of you will have a bit more time away from the daily work pressures – so there really is no excuse to delay knocking your project storyboards into shape for certification!
Make the most of this valuable opportunity. There are lots of you out there we have trained and not yet certified (several hundred at the last count) so what are you waiting for?
If you are not quite sure exactly what to do then get in touch – it would be great to catch up and we would be delighted to give you some help & guidance.
The certifications can be done remotely as well… so if you play your cards right, when the lockdown is over you might have a new valuable certification under your belt. Click here if you would like some help.

In a similar vein, if you are thinking about going for MBB accreditation, this would be a great time to pull your submission dossier together. We can help you do a “gap analysis” and guide you through the process of submission if you are ready. Alternatively we can help you develop a personal action plan to close any gaps. MBB accreditation is the “Gold Standard” for Continuous Improvement/Opex Professionals and ideal for anyone building a career in that area.

My Master Black Belt accreditation means more to me to me than my MBA.

Mark Vaughan, Global Programme Manager, HSBC

Click here if you would like to discuss MBB Accreditation

It’s a Good Time For Data Analytics!

Data preparation (joining/merging data sets etc.) and “clean up” can sometimes be the biggest challenge when looking at your data. Even with JMP people typically estimate 80% of the time and effort is spent getting your data into the right form to do the analysis you want.

If you have precious time available now to look at your data, but you can’t quite sort it out then don’t struggle on – just give us a shout and we would be happy to point you in the right direction. We love helping clients with their data…so don’t be shy!

Click here if you would like help with Data Analytics

Frustrated With The Available Covid19 Data Analytics?

All of us will have been closely following the Covid19 story and many will be somewhat “dissatisfied” with the quality of the data analysis offered by the news networks.

One notable exception is the work done by John Hopkins University, but even this has some limitations. Exploring & comparing the data analysis done by different countries raises all sorts of interesting questions e.g. operational definitions, measurement systems, sampling strategies.
Andy is using some of his “newly available” time to explore this. He has done a lot of data cleaning, merging of different data sets etc and now has a “ready to analyse” set of data in a JMP data table which is ready to be investigated.
As a bit of light relief in these difficult times we are now inviting you to join the PICL challenge – We will send you the data set for you to explore and see what you interesting things you can find. We will publish the most interesting analyses in a future newsletters. Prizes (yet to be defined) will be on offer!

Click here if you would like to receive the cleaned data set and join in the challenge!

Congratulations To All Our Recently Accredited 'Belts'

At Process Insight we help organisations solve their business problems in a way that supports the personal development of the people involved. Consequently we are particularly delighted to offer our congratulations to those we have recently coached & certified. Certification represents a very important milestone and is a great demonstration of sustained leadership & business impact. If you would like to find out more about becoming accredited then give us a call on 07785 927144.

Should you have any questions or require more information about any of the content in this newsletter please do get in touch with either myself or Andy and we can discuss the simple next steps. Alternatively give us a call on + 44 (0) 7785 927144.