Chapter 16
Case Studies on the Critical Success Factor Workshops

To show how the two-day critical success factor workshop is run, I have provided some examples of workshops I have been involved with. I hope these examples will clarify the process set out in Chapter 11, Finding Your Organization's Operational Critical Success Factors.

Private Sector Case Study #1: An Asian Conglomerate

An Asian conglomerate principally in the construction and design sector with around 600 staff wanted to improve its use of KPIs. A member of their team had attended a two-day KPI workshop I had presented earlier that year. The HR manager was responsible for a company-wide KPI program and implementation to align and consolidate further their current performance management system. A two-day workshop was organized, which was attended by a cross section of the company. Attendees from the company ranged from the CEO down to the staff in the operational areas. The vast bulk of the attendees were the company oracles, and there was over 700 years of corporate knowledge in the room.

The two-day CSF workshop, as set out in this book, was followed. From the first day workshop they came up with the following success factors broken down into the headings shown in Exhibit 16.1.

Exhibit 16.1 The Success Factor Broken into Headings

Category Heading Success Factor
On Time Delivery in full on time, all the time of our projects to our customers (internal and external)
Products __________ as a brand with new and innovative product/services of a global standard that add value to our customers
Delivering design, innovation, and quality that matters
Projects Get the right project team for the job
Get the right contractor for the job
Reducing supply chain costs
Being a preferred supplier for key customers and business associates
Development Explore opportunities to increase the size and quality of our land bank
Obtaining timely approvals from relevant authorities for development of new projects
Marketing Increased business from new and repeat customers
Identify and capture the potential of new and emerging markets
Getting the right product in the right place at the right time
Other headings included: Customer Satisfaction, External Communications, Employee Work Environment, Leadership/ Growth, Internal Communications, Employee Retention, Environment, Community, Revenue, Management and Finance

The conglomerate had at least three distinct business entities that warranted their own critical success factors. The teams within these distinct groups ascertained measures from the agreed CSFs and those success factors that were important in their part of the organization.

The progress varied across the teams. This has been illustrated in Exhibit 16.2, which displays some of the output from the design team.

Exhibit 16.2 Some of the Measures Ascertained by the Design Team During the Workshop

Name of Measure Frequency of Measure Critical Success Factor Target
Selection process—# of potential recruits with recommendations from staff Monthly Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters >4 per quarter
Number of staff who have more than three projects allocated to them Weekly Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters Less than 2
Interference from Client—# of changes/amendments to Client's brief Monthly Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters <4 per project
Contracting the right team/staff—# of man hours required in the next month from key consultants Monthly, before the month starts Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters <150 hours per month (show by key consultant)
Quality—# of breaches not yet rectified Weekly Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters 2 or less at any time
Research—# of visits to other developments/trade shows Quarterly Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters Date of next trade show visit
Research—# of sales people consulted on project Weekly where necessary Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters <2 per project
Focus group recommendation—# of recommendations still outstanding Weekly Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters 2 or less at any time
Post Contract Defects—# of defects complaints unfixed on major projects Daily Delivering Design, Innovation and Quality that Matters 2 or less at any time

Private Sector Case Study #2: Medical Company

The financial planning and analysis managers of a medical company were charged with updating the KPIs. They contacted me to run a series of web-based workshops using the GoToMeeting technology. It required laptops and fast Internet connections at both ends. These workshops were run by having a laptop between two people and a laptop connected to a data show to project the slides on the screen in the workshop room. I could see all attendees and they could see me.

We ran three workshops (of 2.5 hours long) to kick-start the process of ascertaining the success factors and then short-listing those success factors that could be deemed critical.

The success factors were developed from my list and from their understanding of the business. The wording from my success factor list in Chapter 11 is very evident, indicating insufficient research of company documentation as I would have expected more in-house wording to come through. The list of success factors included:

The critical success factors that emerged included:

During this process external outcomes were also identified and these needed to be separated out as they were too broad for success factors:

Private Sector Case Study #3: Forestry Company

I flew in to deliver a two-day workshop for a company involved in forestry. They had booked a venue in the local hotel and had asked all the oracles to attend the two-day course, including foreman, forklift drivers, foresters, all the way through to the senior management team and the CEO.

There were close to 50 who attended the two-day session with some staff flying in from an Australian subsidiary to get exposure to the methodology.

The two days followed the outline of the two critical success factor workshops featured in Chapter 11 in this book. Throughout the two days we broke the workshops up into groups no larger than seven and ensured that they were across teams. The project manager had prepared two lists for cross-functional workshops and one for team workshops.

They came up with 65 success factors, which created more work in the relationship mapping process. Forestry Company attendees were able to narrow down the 65 success factors to eight critical success factors that included:

  1. Every day we innovate and continuously improve.
  2. We select and work closely with the right customers and suppliers.
  3. We attract, develop, and retain the right people.

As with other case studies the project team had difficulties in separating external outcomes from success factors.

Following the workshop, staff members who had excelled in the workshop were involved in subsequent workshops. The finalization of the CSFs took a number of months and all were nonfinancial. To ensure that staff live and breathe them, a poster (see Exhibit 16.3) of the CSFs was issued and is widely seen around the workshop places. One month they issued a water bottle with a critical success factor printed on it (see Exhibit 16.3).

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Exhibit 16.3 Poster and Water Bottle Used to Promote the CSFs

The project is now 18 months old and has made a substantial change to the organization.

Private Sector Case Study #4: Car Manufacturer

A major car manufacturer, through their agents, contacted me to run the two-day workshop. The two-day workshop was simultaneously translated to the 120 attendees by an experienced translator. I spent time with the translator to ensure they understood the slide deck and that they were familiar with the meanings of all the key words.

As before, we broke the 120 attendees into cross function teams of no more than 7 people. This breakout had already been organized before the workshop started, so a sitting plan was organized.

Randomly selected work groups were asked to share their progress. This ensured that teams who were progressing well raised the bar. The workgroups who were less committed always had a risk that their lack of progress could be seen by all. In each case they gave feedback in their own language, and I received the translation.

Private Sector Case Study #5: Timber Merchant

An Australian timber merchant company approached me to deliver a two-day workshop. They had booked a venue in the local hotel and had asked 60 of their oracles to attend the two-day course, which included foreman, forklift drivers, all the way through to the senior management team and CEO. There was over 1000 years of company knowledge in the room.

We used the two-day format and the teams preferred to use the Excel matrix (see Exhibit 16.4) template to record the relationships rather than use a fanfold sheet.

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Exhibit 16.4 Mapping of Relationships Using the Excel Matrix

Private Sector Case Study #6: Investment Bank

A Middle East–owned investment bank wanted to revisit their KPIs. They had commenced a balanced-scorecard project, which had failed to deliver. I was asked to run my two-day CSF workshop. Instead of booking an external venue, a room was set aside in the organization's premises. There was a conspicuous lack of senior management involvement, and the staff members attending were frequently wandering out of the workshop to carry on with their daily duties. The investment bank case study highlights the risk of having the course in-house. In the two days we achieved about one day of activity.

Fortunately the staff member assigned to the project was very committed and completed an outstanding summary of the critical success factors, which were presented to the board.

Nonprofit Membership Organization Case Study #1: Golf Club

A small golf club, located in a seaside hamlet, has a membership of no more than 350 playing members. Despite the relatively small membership, this club has produced two successful professional golfers. The chairman of the golf club asked me to help the club management committee look at their operations.

A two-hour workshop was scheduled for the committee members. Because less time was available, the preparation of the success factors was performed before the workshop, a step I now recommend.

Strategic documents over the past 10 years were reviewed and a draft success factors list was typed on to a fanfold piece of paper.

The workshop was held in the boardroom where one of the committee members worked as the CEO. His personal assistant was on hand to process the workshop output during the workshop.

The workshop process was as follows:

  1. Quick agreement on the wording of the balanced scorecard perspectives:
    • Satisfaction of members and visitors
    • Satisfaction of paid and voluntary staff
    • Finance
    • Internal processes
    • Learning and growth of paid and voluntary staff
    • Environment and community
  2. The attendees reviewed the wording of the success factors and some changes were made to the fanfold page. A secretary updated this success factor sheet while the committee members practiced the mapping of success factors of an airline, an exhibit shown in Chapter 11.
  3. The committee members were then broken up into three teams and given one-third of the success factors to map the success factor relationships. (See Exhibit 16.5.)
  4. The number of arrows out from each success factor was counted, and the higher scoring success factors were identified.
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Exhibit 16.5 Mapping the Relationships

At a subsequent meeting, three committee members, with a good aptitude for this exercise, were selected to reconsider the influence the top success factors had on the entire list of success factors on the sheet. The relationship mapping exercise resulted in eight critical success factors including:

As with other workshops some external outcomes were included in the list such as:

To ensure the critical success factors were balanced, they were mapped against the organization's balanced scorecard perspectives.

The performance measures were brainstormed in each of these critical success factors. These were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet (see Exhibit 16.6).

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Exhibit 16.6 Recording the Performance Measures Using a Spreadsheet

The exercise gave a better understanding of what should be the main focus. However, in a club that is run by volunteer leaders who are often active in other institutions, momentum is quickly lost. The most beneficial gain was derived from the knowledge of the critical success factors rather than from the resultant measures, which were never embedded. This process would be more beneficial with clubs who employ more than 15 paid staff.

Nonprofit Membership Organization Case Study #2: Surf Life Saving

The beaches around the world are often manned by nonprofit organizations that undertake rescues, train children about water safety, offer sporting activities for their members, and patrol dangerous surf breaks in the summer months.

A two-day workshop was sponsored by a national sports body that wanted to pilot the winning KPI methodology. The two-day workshop was arranged based on the workshop set out in this book. Staff members were requested to attend the workshop from around the country, including many experienced staff members who were knowledgeable about the organization's success factors. Over half of those attending were volunteers.

Although representatives from the national sports body attended the full two-day session, the CEO from Surf Life Saving did not attend any sessions, despite the fact that a strong recommendation was made to the CEO to attend the first session of day one and the last session of day two.

The key stages of the process included:

  1. The names of the balanced-scorecard perspectives were quickly agreed to with the knowledge that they, at some later date, could be amended to better suit the organization's needs:
    • Financial results
    • Satisfaction of district offices and clubs
    • Learning and growing full-time staff members
    • Internal processes
    • Staff and member satisfaction
    • Community and environment
  2. In this workshop, we used whiteboards to do the relationship mapping. Time was saved by three team members writing on the whiteboard at the same time.
  3. The mapping was carried out by four teams of between four to five attendees.
  4. To ensure that the critical success factors were balanced, they were mapped against the organization's balanced scorecard perspectives.
  5. The performance measures were ascertained for each of these critical success factors. These were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet as illustrated in Exhibit 16.6.
  6. The critical success factors were ratified at a board meeting, thus permanently locking them into the organization.

Head-office teams after the workshop commenced the drafting of their team scorecards; however, as weeks passed, a number of things happened:

The exercise gave a better understanding of what should be focused on. However, the lack of adherence to the foundation stones outlined in Chapter 7 was the main reason for the project's lack of progress. (See Exhibit 16.7.)

Exhibit 16.7 Surf Life Saving Project's Lack of Adherence to the Foundation Stones

Recommended Foundation Stones Action
1. Partnership with the staff, unions, third parties The lack of buying in by the CEO meant this foundation stone was never in place.
2. Transfer of power to the front line Never occurred.
3. Measure and report only what matters Never occurred.
4. Source KPIs from the critical success factors Only attendees to the workshop were made aware of this, so this foundation stone was not embedded.
5. Abandon processes that do not deliver There were many activities that could have been culled that would have freed up time for this project.
6. Appointment of a home-grown chief measurement officer Never occurred.
7. Organization-wide understanding of the winning KPIs definition Never occurred.

Government Department Case Study #1

A government department in an Asian country, involved in community projects to integrate the feeling of togetherness in the country's population, had for some time realized the importance of performance management and had embarked on a balanced-scorecard approach.

After the balanced scorecard was found to be floundering, they wanted to hold a two-day CSF workshop to restart the balanced scorecard project.

Right from the start the CEO was totally behind the project. The project leader had excellent communication skills and was well connected to the CEO.

A two-day workshop was arranged around the workshop discussed in Chapter 11 with the aim not only to find the critical success factors, but also to show the team leaders how to ascertain appropriate performance measures from the critical success factors.

All departmental staff members were requested to attend, with all the senior management team present. The venue was a local hotel, which ensured far greater commitment from the attendees.

The CEO attended the first and the last sessions and later admitted to regretting that he had not attended the whole two days.

Attendees agreed on the wording of the balanced-scorecard perspectives, which were the same as in the KPI book. The project later went back to using only four perspectives, which may turn out to be a regrettable step (see Exhibit 16.8.).

Exhibit 16.8 How the Four Balanced-Scorecard Perspectives Evolved

Original Agreed-To Perspectives Perspectives Used Later On
Customer Stakeholders/customers
Financial Resource management
Internal process Operational excellence
Employee satisfaction
Innovation and learning Learning and development
Environment/community

The attendees in the workshop carried out the relationship mapping process as set out in Chapter 11. The result was seven critical success factors including:

The performance measures were brainstormed in each of these critical success factors. These were recorded in an Excel spreadsheet. For an example refer to Exhibit 16.6.

Teams now have their own scorecards and performance measures, and the accompanying critical success factors are driving performance.

The lack of adherence to the foundation stones outlined in Chapter 7 was the main reason for the project's lack of progress (see Exhibit 16.9).

Exhibit 16.9 Recording the Adherence to the Foundation Stones

Recommended Foundation Stones Action
1. Partnership with the staff, unions, third parties While the organization has very good communication channels, it had not invited any community leaders it worked with to the workshop.
2. Transfer of power to the front line This delegated authority had already been established.
3. Measure and report only what matters There was a tendency to report everything. The lesson that less is better than more was not practiced.
4. Source KPIs from the critical success factors Never occurred.
5. Abandon processes that do not deliver There were many activities that could have been culled that would have freed up time for this project.
6. Appointment of a home-grown chief measurement officer Never occurred.
7. Organization-wide understanding of the winning KPIs definition Never occurred.

Government Department Case Study #2

A key government department in a small Pacific country wanted to utilize the KPI methodology. To finance the workshop they asked other organizations from the public and private sectors whether they wished to attend.

Thirty staff members from the department attended with another 70 from over 10 other organizations. Organizations with over seven attending were broken into smaller workgroups.

It was interesting to see that the feedback from the workshop exercises created an environment where teams wished to excel. Once a couple of teams had impressed the group with their accomplishments, the impact this had in lifting the work rate in other workgroups was clearly visible.

Professional Accounting Body Case Study

A professional accounting body, in Asia, with a CEO who had been exposed to the winning KPI methodology. A two-day workshop was held in its head office, attended by all members of the senior management team. The agenda and processes were the same as the workshop in Chapter 11.

At that stage the professional body was awaiting a team leader to fully implement the project. The recruitment process has been delayed because of workload and the CEO moving on.

The timing of the workshop was not right. The manager for the project should have been identified and should have attended the two-day workshop. The attendees understood the seven foundation stones and responded particularly well to Peter Drucker's abandonment foundation stone. The attendees did not take the vital step of removing the procedures and processes they had identified to abandon and, therefore, they were too tied up in the existing workflow to implement the project swiftly.

Charity Case Study

A charity based in Europe, whose main mission was to fight key diseases, wanted to revisit the use of its KPIs. It used both external KRIs (Key Result Indicators), which were in a published document, and operational KPIs.

The project manager, who was very experienced with both the organization and with performance management issues, arranged for me to deliver the two-day workshop.

It was decided to commence with a series of web-based workshops prior to the visit to fine-tune the likely success factors. Progress was made with success factors, and the two-day workshop did succeed in achieving this result: to ascertain the critical success factors.

The report back to the board identified the problem that board members rightly pointed out: the CSFs tabled (the operational CSFs) were internally focused. They wanted to see, understandably, the external picture: the external outcomes. The board was naturally looking from the outside in. The board wanted to see the CSFs expressed as naturally as outcomes and impacts they wanted to see. The board wanted the organization to “deliver this,” “deliver that,” which will demonstrate that there has been a successful implementation of the organization's strategy.

Although the board attended a brief presentation using videoconferencing, the concept of the critical success factors being operational and thus internal was not fully understood.

This clash over terminology (CSFs versus external outcomes) created a hurdle for the project and further emphasized the clarity that is required between operational CSFs and external focused outcomes. I hope that Chapter 11 will aid with this issue.

Due to the small size of the charity, they were unable to assign a staff member full time in this project, nor were they able to establish a chief measurement officer as described in this book. This difficulty will be a reality for many other SMEs, and it is one that will slow progress.