Rehearsals of Concept

Have a big, cross-functional process you're trying to iron out? Feel like it's full of buffers? Try a Rehearsal of Concept. To get started you'll need to think about the people, the process, and the guidelines. 

The People: Coordinate a time for key participants to rehearse.* Key participants usually look like the following:

• Function reps for each role involved
• E.g. if looking at invoice-to-cash cycles you might include customer support, delivery, collections, and accounting
• Reps for the systems involved
• E.g. if using an ERP to coordinate work, someone should "speak" for the ERP
• A facilitator to keep the group within the guidelines and on track

The Process: To use the group's time effectively, be specific about what will be rehearsed. A rehearsal can't cover everything, and that's okay. 

• Describe specific conditions
• Create a specific example that represents a likely scenario. This may feel limiting, but that's not the point. Your goal is to create a shared sense of understanding among the participants. Coordination and communication problems likely cut across products and services. 
• Start with a written plan
• Similar to a script for a play that gets edited as the actors try it out on stage. For some great reading on building descriptive process languages, I recommend Bruce Silver. 

The Guidelines: I'll lay these out like ground rules, but recognize them for the guidelines that they are. 

• Each rep speaks for themselves
• Including systems reps
• This is the hardest and most important guideline to follow!
• When speaking, think:
• What is received
• What is done to it
• What completes the work
• Mind the gaps!
• Everyone should listen for logic gaps or assumptions as the "work" goes from rep to rep
• Accept change!
• The whole purpose of the rehearsal is to smoke out the little gremlins that always creep into big plans. Be prepared to change your plan based on the interactions you observe in the rehearsal. In the inimitable words of an 82nd Airborne Division NCO, as recorded by Gordon Livingston, "if the map don't agree with the ground, then the map is wrong."

In my experience, "practice" is seen as a nice-to-have that is the first thing cut when resources or time get tight. Consider, however, the last big change you worked through. Did you practice before hand? How did it go?

Remember, the purpose of a rehearsal is as much or more about developing a shared sense of understanding for the participants than it is about the mechanics of any particular process. That shared understanding can then become a foundation for future changes. Without a cross-team understanding, how sustainable is effective cross-team action? Run a rehearsal, reduce the buffers, and learn as you go. 

Say what you will about the military, I think ADRP 5-0 nicely sums up rehearsals, "Effective rehearsals imprint a mental picture of the sequence of the operation's key actions and improve mutual understanding and coordination."

* Can't find a time for all your key participants to rehearse? Consider what that might signal about the long-term prospects of your group's project.