Client Situation:
The Director of Research for a global company wanted to improve performance by changing the way Research managed its work.

EJA Response:
Partnering with the client, EJA designed and implemented an Internal Capability Initiative. During the three year initiative, over 3,000 scientists and managers participated in EJA facilitated planning sessions. The initiative also included consulting, customized manuals and briefings, and training internal coaches.

Results:
The client now uses a division-wide, powerful approach to work—the EJA Agile Project Process^TM. A new, positive dynamic exists between project teams and their stakeholders, resulting in increased clarity in the product development process. And EJA has trained internal coaches who are now facilitating project planning sessions within Research.

The Division recognized the "remarkable results." It awarded EJA the Research Division Golden Jubilee Award, noting that in a three year period EJA’s "effort contributed enormously to a real culture change" within the Research organization.

Rigorous Planning Averts Missed Deadline for High Profile Project

Client Situation:
A client was in the midst of assimilating a newly acquired company and had identified several priority projects. Two of the project teams were working on projects that had completion dates "etched in stone" by management. Both of the projects had been in progress for two months, and one of the teams had already begun planning its project.

EJA Response:
EJA conducted a Facilitated Project Planning Session for four project teams. During the facilitated planning session, each team jointly hammered out the details of its project. The team that had planned its project prior to the workshop honestly re-estimated its work during the session and determined the team would miss its deadline by 17 weeks. This discovery forced the team to use the skills it had learned and intensively replan its project during the workshop.

Results:
All of the participants and several stakeholders expressed their satisfaction with the detailed plans the teams developed in the workshop. The team that had planned its project prior to the workshop was especially impressed because the process forced them to realize they could not have completed their project on schedule. Participation in the workshop enabled them to replan their project to meet their deadline.

In addition to applying critical project planning skills to their current projects, the teams experienced exceptional team building between employees from the old and the newly acquired companies.

Project Team Effects $19 Million Savings

Client Situation:
A regional purchasing team consisting of members from several Latin American countries, representing different operating companies, was charged with identifying $2 million in savings. The team had been in existence for a year, but had never created a detailed project plan.

EJA Response:
The team attended an EJA Facilitated Project Planning Session to develop a project plan and move the project forward. During the facilitated planning session, the purchasing team reached agreement on project details, including specific cost saving strategies, defining responsibilities, and estimating timelines.

Results:
The project leader reported that the workshop enabled the team to create a detailed roadmap to achieve savings, something they might not have ever accomplished. He also noted the team’s participation in the workshop increased team members’ commitment to the project significantly.

The team achieved $19 million in savings, far exceeding its goal, and received an award recognizing its accomplishment.

National Lab's Breakthrough Technology Tests Perfect, On-Time and On-Budget

Client Situation:
A project team from a national lab had the basics of a breakthrough technology but needed to determine the best technical route of three final design options to take. The team also needed to move out of the research phase and into the product development phase while adhering to schedule and budget.

EJA Response:
EJA responded with a Single Team Facilitated Project Planning Session. During the first day, the team focused on choosing the best technical approach, and reached consensus. EJA’s Associate facilitated the team as they created the project charter, which became the core of the project.

The project leader was surprised by the amount of debate and the disparity of views among the members of the team as they began to look at details. The planning session offered the opportunity to make design, budget and schedule decisions, as well as address conflicts with the project moving from R&D to the product development phase. Focus and a unified vision accompanied the hammering out of details, and this allowed for productive decision making and effective implementation.

Results:
The project team came in on-time and on-budget, and with world-class results. In field trials they “nailed it” the first time. After the first run, they took the product to the customer without any redesign work needed. In addition, the team received excellent reviews from its primary sponsor.

The product developed is truly breakthrough technology, with a broad customer base. The team proved a concept, and released design parameters, expecting the product will be the next major technology transfer. The culmination of the project was taking it to Kazakhstan for three weeks of demonstrations, presenting flawless results to Kazakhstani national laboratories and regional governments.

Team Successfully Creates Nuclear Disarmament Plan

Client Situation:
As a result of Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for a move toward disarmament, a project team was formed to implement a proposal for the U.S. and Russia to monitor nuclear warheads. The first step was to explore technical methods to monitor warheads marked for dismantling, which required agreement on the best concept to pursue--a framework for all future decisions on the project. The team recognized there would be scrutiny from the highest levels of American, Russian and international governments.

EJA Response:
Getting consensus on objectives for the project was essential as a first step. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the project, a Single Team Facilitated Project Planning Session was scheduled. An analysis team had examined the issues and discovered there were many approaches. The project marked the first time the threshold to warhead monitoring would be explored, and the issues went far beyond the technical developments with possible major impacts on U.S. policy. In light of this, it was determined that separating the first day from the planning session would allow the team to create the charter and then take several weeks to present the charter to the sponsor. This format allowed the cloudy, sensitive project with high levels of unknowns to get buy-in at the senior level--critical to providing clarity for the project team. The team also spent the interim period refining the project charter.

The final two days of the facilitated planning session were spent identifying all the technical approaches, exploring the dependencies, taking ownership of tasks, estimating time and reaching agreement. The team needed to identify the various R&D technologies that fit the concept and move them to application, as well as develop a protocol based on developed capabilities, clearly articulating to those at senior levels how it would be done.

Results:
Because of the rigor of the advance planning, the team identified and avoided major issues that would have created problems for the project almost immediately. Ten months into the project, the team had completed the analytical front end and established what to include in the monitoring system. They had the hardware at the development stage, and a rapid schedule for tests and field trials. The team also built into their plan a problem solving process for technological debates as they arise.

Without determining all the technical approaches and looking at the dependencies, there would not have been understanding of the various options. Getting relationships clearly defined allows the team members to communicate freely as the project is implemented, and to share their work--an activity not taking place previous to the EJA project planning session. After the facilitation, everyone was in agreement and able to state in one sentence what they were going to accomplish, offering the sponsors highly valued project clarity.