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Practices for Involving Stakeholders
Presenter:Ann MajchrzakFebruary, 2001
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California
Focus of Research
Identify practices for involving stakeholders in a “collaborative learning process” to achieve innovative business-IT solutions
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
What is “Collaborative Learning”?
Business Side Business
Side
This is Knowledge Transferor Individual Learning:
IT Side
IT Side
This is CollaborativeLearning
Together, learning new ways of structuring IT and businessprocesses
Why Worry about Collaborative Learning?
BusinessEfficiencies(faster,cheaper)
BusinessEffectiveness(better)
BusinessInnovation(new services, products)
Lost Opportunities in:
Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning
I. Creating Shared ResponsibilityII. Creating Shared
UnderstandingIII. Managing Conflict
I. Shared Responsibility
What is it? It is the psychological attitude that “we’re all on the same team”; “we’re in this together”
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)
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, rewards3) Identify learning as a mutual goal4) Monitor progress toward shared
responsibility at end of each meeting
Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning
I. Creating Shared ResponsibilityII. Creating Shared UnderstandingIII. Managing Conflict
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?)
When Sharing Understanding, what is Learned?
Common body of knowledgeHow to improve efficiency of learning
among team members
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 questions5) Active listening
Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning
I. Creating Shared ResponsibilityII. Creating Shared UnderstandingIII. Managing Conflict
III. Managing Conflict
What is it? It is surfacing and resolving conflict in a fair and even-handed manner.
When Managing Conflict, what is Learned?
Preferences (for both client and developer)
Fallback Options (for both client and developer)
Alternatives that meet all 4
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.
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
Finding Win-Win Solutions
Prior to conflict: Use Shared Understanding Techniques to
identify preferences and fall back optionsDuring conflict:
Reiterate common goals through goal hierarchies
Compare current option to fallback & goals
Ask what happens if we can’t agree
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
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
Ex Difference in Practices:Individual vs CollaborativeUse prototypes for
single solutionEnforce 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
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?
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?
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
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:
Thank you!
