1. Concept phase

Making a vision statement can be a really effective way of setting out what you want to achieve. It can help you decide as a team where you want to get to, so you can focus your efforts in the right places.

• Each team member writes a vision statement.
• The team then writes a unified statement together. For example, 'Students will find it easier to access our services'. Our processes will be simpler, meaning staff will have more capacity to help students.

This exercise should take about 20 minutes.

Vision statement activity

Break down a problem into its constituent parts, using a fishbone diagram.

It can help you discover problems you hadn’t thought about. You'll discover how you can start tackling the root causes of a wider issue.

• Identify the problem to explore and write it down in the fish head.
• Brainstorm categories for the potential contributing factors, eg process, people, resources, policy, technology and external factors.
• For each category write down all the possible causes of the problem and discuss what the root causes could be.

Fishbone diagram (asq.org)

The five whys technique is a simple tool for solving problems. It helps with identifying the root cause of a problem by asking a sequence of “why” questions. You can use it in any situation, with any team and at any stage of the problem-solving process. It doesn't need any complex tools or data.

Define the problem and then ask the five whys:

1. Why is it happening?
2. Why is that?
3. Why is that?
4. Why is that?
5. Why is that?

This should help identify solutions to a problem and address its root cause(s).

Once you’ve identified your solutions, you need a realistic plan for making changes. You can use a PICK chart to prioritise tasks or solutions into four distinct categories, based on a rough estimate of return on investment.  

Place each solution in one of the four quadrants of the chart to decide which to prioritise:

• Possible (quick wins): Low payoff and easy to implement (might implement) 
• Implement (start here): High payoff and easy to implement. This is where most effort should be focused (top priority)
• Challenge (longer term projects): High payoff but hard to implement (might implement in the future)
• Kill (ignore): Low payoff and hard to implement (do not implement).

PICK Chat (leansixsigmadefinition.com)

MoSCoW is a tool to help you collaboratively schedule or prioritise tasks or requirements. It can help you focus on the most important and beneficial requirements for the business area. 

Prioritise tasks/requirements as one of the following:

• Must do: Non-negotiable initiatives or needs
• Should do: Important initiatives that add significant value but are not vital
• Could do: Nice to have initiatives that would have a small impact if left out
• Won’t do: Initiatives that are not a priority for this specific time.

A SWOT analysis is a planning tool that seeks to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These could be for a project, team or organisation.

• It’s a framework used to test your current position and develop a plan or strategy.
• It helps you to assess internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential.
• Explore questions about internal strengths and weaknesses (within your team or organisation).
• Ask questions about opportunities and threats that lie outside your organisation.
• Build on your strengths and opportunities and mitigate your weaknesses and threats. 

Work out what other teams and people are affected by the work you’re doing. It doesn't take long to do and it's super helpful.

It means when you improve your ways of working you can:

• make sure your improvements don’t cause problems for other teams
• seek others’ input into making things better
• involve the right people in creating a solution. 

Stakeholder mapping guide