How People Work

TKTKTKTK In 4 weeks, teams learn how to ease the path to more business, increase their client’s chances of success, produce material clients want to read, and become partners in spotting and solving the really big problems.

What is this?

It’s a hands-on, four-week coached program for TKTKTK in government.

We take cohorts through group teaching, then follow-up with collaborative, group feedback exercises. All based on your real work to practice applying what you’ve learned.

Who this is for

It’s for

It’s for organizations who have mature internal service delivery, but need to scale by working with vendors.

It’s for program managers and directors

It’s for product managers and directors

It’s for organizations with teams across multiple disciplines working on complex, complicated digital transformation projects.

How it works

This is a series of group workshops split into teaching and doing.

First, we work with your team to explain and demonstrate principles with real-world examples. After that, we go through your current and previous work — after we’re all NDAed up — and apply what you’ve learned. These are practical workshops, not abstract.

It doesn’t matter what the role or responsibilities participants have. We match the material and exercises to what makes sense for you and your organization, all while making sure nobody’s bored.

Why you want this right now

Better teams for less risky digital transformation. Technology is as much about people as it is about code. You have complex, complicated digital transformation projects where you want to reduce risk, improve collaboration, and make better decisions.

Who:

manager / director / exec director of a team who knows/wants them to work differently

team either doesn’t understand that or does and doesn’t have the ability to.

teams working on their own vs teams working with vendors

how to be a good client

You want to increase trust

Then your teams need to know how to build and stronger relationships. They’ll learn how to

• listen and talk with candor

• spot where and when everybody lies (sometimes a lot, sometimes a little)

• do your research to develop empathy and compassion

You want to increase your client’s chances of success

Then you want your team to understand how people really, really, really work in organizations. Help them help your client by

• understanding your client as a person, their web of relationships, their ecosystem, and their context

• building better mental models of organizations, by seeing and understanding peoples’ behavior outside of organization charts and hierarchies

• recognizing and supporting key individuals critical to success, wherever they sit

• making and validating predictions about motivations and fears

• managing expectations, and recommending roles, responsibilities and who to consult and inform

You want clients to look forward to reading your material

Then learn how not to waste your client’s time. Earn their trust and respect by writing simply, with clarity and purpose. Get rid of filler and get to the point by

• practicing how to spot bullshit, admitting when you use it, then learning how to remove it

• understanding and meeting the different communication needs of different audiences – from executive leadership to middle management

• learning how to present options and recommendations to leaders

• knowing when a presentation isn’t a presentation, and how to get people to read things

• learning how to be respectful, candid, and communicate bad news 

You want to become partners to spot and solve the big problems

Helping your client succeed in the end always comes down to goals and focus. Which means it also comes down to your client’s strategy. Strategy is hard! Learn how to help your client focus on the right goals, right strategy, and right tactics by

• helping your team see their work in the context of the bigger picture

• understanding the interplay between how you work and how your client works

• diagnosing how an organization’s focus problem affects your work

• recognizing when a strategy isn’t really a strategy, and how to use Lafley and Martin’s Playing to Win framework to get started and and what to do about it

Get started