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Practices for Involving Stakeholders

Practices for Involving Stakeholders. Presenter: Ann Majchrzak February, 2001 Marshall School of Business University of Southern California. majchrza@usc.edu. Focus of Research .

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Practices for Involving Stakeholders

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  1. Practices for Involving Stakeholders Presenter: Ann Majchrzak February, 2001 Marshall School of Business University of Southern California majchrza@usc.edu

  2. Focus of Research Identify practices for involving stakeholders in a “collaborative learning process” to achieve innovative business-IT solutions

  3. Sources for Findings • Tracked CS577Fall 00 students and clients to see which practices affect learning • Tracked CS577Fall 01 students and clients • Interviewed local IS development departments of large companies • Observed client-developer meetings in several development efforts

  4. What is “Collaborative Learning”? This is Collaborative Learning This is Knowledge Transfer or Individual Learning: Business Side IT Side Business Side IT Side Together, learning new ways of structuring IT and business processes

  5. Why Worry about Collaborative Learning? Lost Opportunities in: Business Innovation (new services, products) Business Effectiveness (better) Business Efficiencies (faster,cheaper)

  6. Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning I. Creating Shared Responsibility II. Creating Shared Understanding III. Managing Conflict

  7. I. Shared Responsibility What is it? It is the psychological attitude that “we’re all on the same team”; “we’re in this together”

  8. When Sharing Responsibility, what is Learned? • Topics people want to learn about (work process, development process, how to use IS to improve business) • What learning must occur for project to be successful (work process, development process, how to use IS to improve business)

  9. Practices for Encouraging Shared Responsibility: 1) Accept a broad notion of client’s role • Not just user interface design 2) Help to make clients part of development team • Joint tasks, rewards 3) Identify learning as a mutual goal 4) Monitor progress toward shared responsibility at end of each meeting

  10. Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning I. Creating Shared Responsibility II. Creating Shared Understanding III. Managing Conflict

  11. What is Shared Understanding? • A common body of knowledge shared by clients and developers about: • A vision of the IT-enabled to-be work process • Business & technical rationale for vision compared to alternatives • Execution Plan • Goals, preferences, and fallback options for each stakeholder (“What does each what to accomplish? What happens if it doesn’t work?)

  12. When Sharing Understanding, what is Learned? • Common body of knowledge • How to improve efficiency of learning among team members

  13. Practices for Encouraging Shared Understanding 1) Focus on actual work process, not hypothetical ideal 2) Learning is not telling; it’s about allowing people to make abstract concepts concrete 3) Customize learning techniques 4) Keep creative ideas flowing with role plays, prototypes, probing questions 5) Active listening

  14. Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning I. Creating Shared Responsibility II. Creating Shared Understanding III. Managing Conflict

  15. III. Managing Conflict What is it? It is surfacing and resolving conflict in a fair and even-handed manner.

  16. When Managing Conflict, what is Learned? • Preferences (for both client and developer) • Fallback Options (for both client and developer) • Alternatives that meet all 4

  17. Managing Conflict • Accept that conflict is the natural order of work that involves multiple stakeholders • Clients and client organizations have different agendas and needs than developers and developer organizations • Recognize that conflict won't go away -- but it can be managed • Conflict is managed by the creative development of a new (not yet identified) win-win solution.

  18. Problems with Managing Conflict • Most people aren't fully conscious of their preferences or their fall back options prior to the moment of conflict. • During conflict, the last thing anyone wants to disclose is preferences or fall back option

  19. Finding Win-Win Solutions • Prior to conflict: • Use Shared Understanding Techniques to identify preferences and fall back options • During conflict: • Reiterate common goals through goal hierarchies • Compare current option to fallback & goals • Ask what happens if we can’t agree

  20. Do’s & Don’ts of Achieving Win-Win • Do: • Frame conflict as a shared task • Expect preference hierarchies to change • Suggest”absurd” alternatives to stimulate thinking • Work together to search for alternatives • Assume that both clients and developers have preferences and fall back options

  21. Do’s & Don’ts of Achieving Win-Win • Don’t: • Compare current option to “phantom” alts • Threaten to take the fall back option • Get upset if stakeholders won’t reveal prefs during conflict • Use power or threats to force resolution

  22. Use prototypes for single solution Enforce single representation of knowledge (“ERD”) Explain own knowledge Talk Stay in role Use prototypes to explore different concepts Represent knowledge in different ways Have others explain your knowledge Draw, listen, ask questions Reverse roles Ex Difference in Practices:Individual vs Collaborative

  23. Checklist during meetings Did you? • Use prototypes to explore concepts? • Let clients develop prototypes • Create “test-drivable” prototypes? • Make sure client asked as many questions as you did? • Stimulate creativity through questioning? • Restate dialogue to improve understanding? • Use examples from more than one work context? • Avoid using IT-language?

  24. Checklist during meetings (Cont) Did you: • Use visual examples to explain concepts? • Reversed roles? • Try more than one way to represent how work is done? • Elaborate on client’s idea? • Ground ideas in client’s physical world with a role play by sharing stories of how work is done? • Ask about client’s unstated reactions to an idea? • Show any IS’s that client might want to emulate?

  25. Summary • Every client-developer encounter is an opportunity for learning • Controlling the learning process is better than leaving it uncontrolled • Control it by: • Building and maintaining a sense of shared responsibility for outcomes • Building and maintaining a shared understanding • Preparing for conflict and managing it for win-win solutions

  26. Would you like to be a part of this research? • Research on identifying best practices continues • If you would like to participate, contact me at: majchrza@usc.edu

  27. Thank you!

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