Scaling Small to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) - Part 1: What does an engagement look like?
I’ve worked with a good number of companies over the years, and from this, an engagement model has evolved that works well for my customers. So I thought it would be helpful to describe how I typically engage with companies. Of course, each company is different, with different challenges, but the general approach is the same.
Phases of the Engagement
Discovery & Planning
The purpose of the first phase of the engagement is to understand the challenges that the business is facing and plan where to focus, which is normally done as a Discovery Workshop. The preparation may include one-on-one discussions with key personnel to understand their background, current role in the organisation and the challenges that they face in that role.
The Discovery Workshop brings the team together to consider the whole organisation. The form that this takes depends on what resonates with the team, such as building up a picture of the different parts of the organisation, how they interact and where the pain points appear to be. Ideally, this is in-person with a whiteboard and post-it notes, but if some team members are remote, we can use tools like Miro, Mural or similar.
One of the pain points commonly relates to Project Delivery (late or non-delivery), so a stocktake is done of current and future projects/initiatives.
Now with a backlog of pain points, projects/initiatives, prioritisation will take place to determine the relative priorities, and in particular, identify quick wins as the initial focus of the engagement.
And lastly, a Steering Committee is established that governs the work undertaken in the engagement.
Execution
Deliver Quick Wins
Work will commence on the backlog items identified as quick wins. By delivering on these early, it helps in terms of gaining buy-in for the engagement, particularly as changes are made.
Project Delivery
Whether the project/initiative is already underway or yet to start, I often work with the team to develop a Project Charter and conduct a Project Kickoff. These help to get everyone on the same page and to collaboratively plan what needs to be done. Regular project meetings will be established to ensure that the project progresses and delivers the required outcomes.
Note here that I often take the role of the Project Manager as this gives the organisation an experience of what a well-planned and executed project looks like and establishes some key project delivery practices that can be adopted and used effectively going forward.
Refer to a recent blog (What is [Agile] Project Delivery?) that goes into more detail.
Governance
The Steering Committee that was established as part of the Discovery Workshop will meet on a regular basis throughout the engagement to review the progress of projects/initiatives as well as review, update and reprioritise the backlog as required to ensure that resources are focused on the right areas. There will also be agreed accountability from the Steering Committee on responsibilities where resources are required to deliver on those projects (or parts of).
Ways of Working
As a result of working with me, you will be exposed to new ways of working. In order to establish these as Ways of Working for the organisation going forward, process documentation can be developed to articulate these processes, systems implemented to support these processes, and coaching provided to build the capabilities in the team—more about this in Part 2.
Post Engagement
In terms of ending the engagement, I jokingly say that the success criteria for the overall engagement is that “I can be made redundant” – the ways of working, delivery practices and continuous improvement never stops. But I’m always available for support and coaching if required.
As mentioned above, Part 2 will be a deeper dive into Ways of Working, followed by Product Development in Part 3. So watch this space!
If you would like to have a chat about your company, where it is in its journey, and the challenges faced, feel free to reach out.
Cheers
David