Brainstorming and action planning to achieve cost reductions

Problem/Situation: The operations group of a large medical device company needed creative new ways to pare unnecessary costs without jeopardizing the quality of their products and services. A team of more than 20 people was convening in Boston from across the U.S. and Europe, with just four hours available for brainstorming new ideas, agreeing on priorities and assigning actions.

Solution: We used a combination of virtual and in-person facilitation techniques. First, we opened a virtual conference room a week prior to the workshop, inviting meeting participants to submit ideas, which we printed as handouts for the onsite session. Four subteams, each assigned a different slice of the business, reviewed and built on these ideas. Teams decided which ideas deserved the most attention according to certain criteria, and then mapped out action plans for buy-in by the whole team.

The result: The operations group met its ambitious objectives in just four hours by engaging people ahead of time. This way, the bulk of the discussion time was devoted to needed problem solving and action planning. A happy byproduct: Team members generated so many viable cost-saving ideas before the workshop that the team had many more ideas to explore in future sessions.