By Bruce Lenzer, CVSL, FSAVE, CQM/OE, CLA, CAQMSA – President, Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation
Facilitation skills have become more imperative over the years to effectively guide teams through the VM job plan. In fact, it’s the skill set which has helped increase the output of teams to brainstorm and develop even greater opportunities for value improvement. In the Quality Assurance world, it’s known as “High Performance Work Teams.” For any “High Performance Work Team” to function effectively, the team needs a leader trained in facilitation skills. The same applies to a Value Methodology VA/VE team.
According to a SAVE International survey, facilitation skills was the second most requested training next to Function Analysis and Function Analysis System Technique (FAST). Therefore, several seasoned practitioners have been selected to create the next guide which will focus on “Facilitation Skills for the VM Practitioner.”
A collaborative team from the Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation and SAVE International is in the process of developing and co-authoring the next in a series of guides to help improve the skill set for Value Methodology practitioners. The team consists of the following professionals:
- Ginger Adams, Chair
- Drew Algase
- Randy Barber
- Richard Harrington
- Bruce Lenzer
Ginger Adams is certified as a professional facilitator by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). Her participation, contributions, insights and experience will add significant credibility to this next guide product. Ginger has taught courses on facilitation both at SAVE conferences and to her clients. At SAVE’s request, in 2011-2012 Ginger developed an 8-hour course on Facilitation Skills for Value Practitioners, and delivered the inaugural session at the 2012 SAVE Conference in Orlando.
In the late 80’s, Jeff Parker, CVS-Life (Retired) took facilitation courses from founders of the IAF. The IAF wasn’t formed until 1994. Parker went on to mentor Richard Harrington who together imparted this expertise to Lenzer. Harrington and Lenzer incorporated several facilitation techniques in their VM practices from The Joiner Team Handbook, IAF, Stephen Covey and several others sources on facilitation.
In the late 90s and 2002, Lenzer packaged a facilitation training course titled “Facilitation and Team Leadership Skills for the Value Practitioner” for Samsung Electronics to help their CVS’ learn the art of facilitation. Shortly thereafter, Lenzer re-packaged this course into an introductory one-day course, re-titled as “Facilitation Skills for the Value Pracitioner” taught at SAVE conferences. Harrington also taught part of this course along with Lenzer.
Drew Algase has a broad set of experiences facilitating not only VE teams, but also Quality SixSigma and Lean Manufacturing teams. Therefore, his broad base of experience will be invaluable as we incorporate his lessons learned from his practice facilitating improvement teams using different tools and techniques.
Randy Barber has worked with various facilitators, took Lenzer’s Facilitation course at a SAVE conference years ago and Ginger’s course in 2012, and serves on the SAVE International Certification Board. Barber will provide his professional insights from his learned experiences as well as coordinating for the Certification Board the goals, learning objectives and core competencies for what practitioners need to know.
The team is currently reviewing a variety of facilitation materials and sources to make a determination that a Facilitation Guide for VM Practitioners focused on facilitating the Job Plan, will be of value for SAVE International members and Certified Professionals. Assuming the team of authors moves forward, it’s the intent to package a product of facilitation tools and techniques which will benefit the VM practitioner toward getting the highest performance possible out of their VM teams, and to deliver the highest quality value results for the customer.
Should the team move forward, this guide book is expected to be rolled out at next year’s SAVE conference in Philadelphia.
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