Walter Vannini

[Walter Vannini]

Hi Martin,
I have used LSP in counselling settingsfor a few years now with especially difficult participants (including post-trauma patients and a group of unemployed), and am familiar with the issue you present.
LSP is a great tool in this respect, rest assured.

The difficulty I see lies elsewhere, namely in hierarchy. Things will work out OK if you all are on the same hierarchical level, not if someone is above.

With hierarchy involved, reactions may focus more on the inevitable personal judgment the more powerful player will have after the session rather than on getting to a common solution.

LSP in a counselling setting can go very deep in a very short time and while your colleagues may not be fearful of not appearing professional enough when revealing their deeper motives in front of a stranger, they may in front of their boss-turned-relational-facilitator, which hopefully does not seem to be the case.

I usually have a longish heating-up part, where beyond the basic warmup people get to build and explain their own “avatar”, then their workplace, then their workplace with colleagues and themselves, and at this point you can introduce the specific problem they are experiencing.
Phenomenological feedback will go a long way, of course.

Cheers,
Walter

[Walter Vannini]

Hi Hugues,
I have been involved as an LSP facilitator with startups a few times.

Business modelling is of course a major issue, but in my experience so is product definition. Beyond the obvious agreement on superficial aspects, team members tend to have even wildly differing notions as to the hows and whys of the product.

This usually remains hidden underground until it surfaces as a development issue.

LSP is of great help in building a shared understanding of core product aspects.

Also, team relationship issues tend to pop up early when tackled through LSP.

The usual startupper approach is “we are a group of peers” until it transpires that somebody specific needs to be held accountable for something. And somebody must actually deal in person with financiers. etc.

All things being equal, building a shared understanding of how and why the organisation seeks money is what makes the difference between a bunch of guys with an idea and an actual investor-worthy startup. IT people, in particular, have specific difficulties you have to deal with. I know, one of my cards reads “post-autistic-IT therapist”

I also have used the Agile Canvas together with LSP for the business model part.

Let me know if there is something I can do to help.
Cheers, Walter

[Walter Vannini]

Carlos: that’s quite a challenge. How much LSP methodology buy-in from the company do you have? That may be a key factor in following Eli’s suggestions.

Eli: yours would absolutely be the best way. Few external consultants have enough political power to pass such a design.

Carlos: I do use LSP in similar settings, and it *does* works like a charm. I say individual sessions would be best, but you can try a first step addressing attendees one at a time, then promoting discussion/collective build.

Hint: after Eli’s #5, individual build of “how company used to be”; then model what has changed. Here, some individual+group discussion would be useful.
Issue: how many people will there be?
Issue a workshop will NOT bring out any sensitive personal issue; you may want to use the workshop as a first step and then continue with individual meetings, possibly ending in a final collective workshop, once all personal issues have been settled.
Issue: you will need a lot of counseling skills; I find them invaluable, in change projects (and I deal with the hardest targets, IT people…)
Issue: you will have to debunk lots of self-serving myths and irrational beliefs; consider doing something in the very beginning to win attendee attention and trust. I usually use some behaviour analysis to accurately describe some of each attendees personal idiosyncracies. Very simple stuff, but very very effective. Once they suspect you know more than you let on, they will try less to outsmart you, and you can work with ease.

Hope this helps, le me know if I can do something else. Do post something after the WS, very interested
Best,
W

[Walter Vannini]

Sorry guys, I just registered.

The Starter Kit comes ina cardboard box 9x19x35 cm and weighs less than a kg.
@Yasser, the LSP cannot currently be purchased online. You need to place a phone order to your listed customer service number.

Bye,
W

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