MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The first module, Successful Planning, guides participants in taking the necessary steps to establish a successful project. Planning is often an overlooked but extremely critical part of a BS project. During the workshop, participants will gain an understanding of their role as the process leader, the roles of other stakeholders, and best practices for engaging with their stakeholders. In order to effectively prepare, they’ll be introduced to several key planning tools. More importantly, they’ll be provided with a foundation for the basic components of data collection, analysis, and reporting. Getting a head start on data collection is a vital ingredient for facilitating a successful project.

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Objectives

01. Start Planning: Identify the critical factors involved in embedding the BS Process in your organization. Prepare the BS Process Leader for a Successful Launch.
02. Process Leader: Gain a deep understanding of the various roles and responsibilities of the BS Process Leader in order to successfully lead the project.
03. Define Problem: Too often, projects encounter issues when the problem is poorly defined or understood.
04. Identify Stakeholders: The BSPL identifies and describes several key stakeholder roles that are essential to the project’s success so they can find the best candidates for those positions on the team.
05. Current Evidence: The lynchpin of the BS process is based on the ability to compile evidence to make decisions.
06. Attitudes Matter: Provide an understanding of the importance of understanding the customer/employee’s perspective in the BS process and how to collect that information.
07. Research Agenda: The primary object of this session is to help the BSPL set a research agenda for the project by prioritizing data needs.
08. Collecting Evidence: This manual provides important information about several of the key data collection methods available for collecting qualitative data (observation, interviews, and focus groups) in order to help the BSPL pick the best method for the project.
09. Analyze Insights: Prepare the BSPL for effective analysis of data and reporting. In addition, it introduces the most popular and highly impactful tool – the survey.
10. Engage Stakeholders: Since stakeholders are very busy and have various different needs, interests, and motivations, the BSPL needs to understand how to keep them engaged with the project.
11. Selling Science: Prepare BSPL to introduce and describe the BS Process in a compelling and influential way.
12. Synthesize Plans: Help the BSPL put the project in perspective by pulling up after working through the various phases of planning and allowing them to reflect on their own attitudes about the process.

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Strategies

01. Clarify several important elements of planning (e.g., risk assessment, communication methods and tools, and gaining an understanding of what has worked best in the past).
02. Review each of the seven core responsibilities of the BSPL in detail to clarify the expectations of the BSPL.
03. This section clarifies the importance of BSPL’s role in understanding the problem. We provide a process for defining the problem, along with sample problem statements. The BSPL will take the first shot at defining the problem statement. It also provides instructions on how to carry out the task.
04. We describe each key role, along with the knowledge and skills required. We also provide some alternative team member options. Finally, a tool for clarifying roles and responsibilities is offered as a best practice.
05. This manual identifies and describes evidence the BSPL needs to collect. It also provides information about the value of quantitative and qualitative data in the BS process.
06. Outlines a process for collecting qualitative data about target audience’s behaviors, interests, needs, perspectives and intentions.
07. Introduce a process to capture and then systematically rate the research needs of the project in order to prioritize the most critical. In addition, learn how to identify the characteristic of the sample of the target audience.
08. The pros, cons, and best practices for three key qualitative data collections methods (observation, interviewing, and focus groups) are outlined. In addition, recommendations for procedural best practices are provided to prepare the BSPL and team.
09. Outline the pros, cons, and best practices for surveys to help BSPLs validate assumptions and data collected with small sample using other tools. Also provides instruction on analyzing and reporting on research.
10. Outlines best practices and BS principles that will increase engagement of stakeholders. This starts in the planning phase and first contact.
11. Strategies for introducing BS to stakeholders are reviewed as well as BS principles that will support stakeholder commitment to the project.
12. Also acknowledge 2 BS principles that may apply to the BSPL personally and address.

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Tasks

01. Identify key milestones. Build the first draft of a project plan.
02. Identify strengths and opportunities for development related to the key responsibilities. Identify stakeholders who can complement your skills where there may be gaps.
03. Collect preliminary, existing data related to the problem.
04. Develop the first draft of the problem statement.
05. Fill the key stakeholder jobs. Clarify responsibilities for each of the stakeholders.
06. Collect, record, and track evidence relevant to the challenge. Similarly, compile and log unanswered questions.
07. Determine a preliminary plan for collecting data. Develop a recruiting message for collecting data from customers and employees.
08. Select a data collection methodology. Establish the research agenda by prioritizing the research needs.
09. Finalize decisions on data collection methods and draft survey questions as needed.
10. Draft the initial invitation for stakeholders to meet to discuss the project. Draft the agenda for the initial meeting.
11. Develop messaging, definitions, and a story for discussing BS with stakeholders.
12. Create a to do list, work with other BSPLs in the company to develop some of the information and tools needed to proceed. Land on a project.

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Introduction

The first module in the Behavioral Science Corporate program is called Successful Planning. It focuses on helping the BSPL set the stage and prepare for leading a project that delivers extraordinary results. This module will assist the BSPL in establishing a solid foundation and successfully initiating the project.

This introduction will cover the following topics:

1. What do we mean by planning?
2. What’s the current state of planning, and why is it so important?
3. Why it’s important to focus on planning in the BS approach
4. Why planning is important
5. What BS has to offer that makes planning more effective
6. What does the planning module cover?
7. BS cases around planning

Planning simply involves considering the necessary tasks and organizing them before beginning the actual work. It involves considering the end goal, determining the steps needed to reach the goal, diagnosing the problem, identifying the resources needed to complete the steps (e.g., time, people, tools, and data), the enablers to the process (e.g., communication methods, team processes, and dynamics), barriers to success, and then creating a framework to enable the process to work as effectively as possible.

This is where you cross the T’s and dot the I’s. It’s where the scope of the project is laid out, where the timeline, costs, deliverables, and details are ironed out. We set expectations and identify assumptions at this stage. Before roles are assigned and the team starts working on the plan, project planning entails a thorough mapping and arrangement of the project’s objectives, tasks, schedules, and resources. As you can see, there is some complexity and discipline involved in this kind of work.

Before we get into the specifics of the connection between BS and planning, it would be helpful to share some information on the abysmal current state of planning in general.

Current Position

• According to the Project Management Institute, organizations were wasting an average of $97 million for every $1 billion invested due to poor project performance.

• Thirty-seven percent of projects fail because leaders don’t define project objectives and milestones clearly.

(Source: Click Here)

• 80% of organizations report that they spend at least half their time on rework. (Source: Geneca)

• When team leads don’t effectively manage requirements, 47 percent of projects fail to hit their targets.

(Source: Click Here)

• 38% of companies believe that the greatest barriers to success are confusion about team roles and responsibilities. (Source: Geneca)

The first point of connection to BS pertains to the type of work involved in planning. Planning requires us to take time to stop and think, to look ahead, to anticipate obstacles, to consider needs, different paths to get work done, potential skills, and people who might be able to help. It requires us to make some estimates about needs and resources, align resources to those needs, and organize all of that information in a way that is easy to understand and follow. Just making that list feels like a lot of work.

As humans, most of us resist this type of complex thinking involved in planning. We prefer fast, action-oriented, and easy-to-do work. For most people, the kind of work we can do automatically without thinking is preferred over work that requires consideration, contemplation, and deliberation.

However, implementing a BS process in your company will require you to move the organization toward a deeper way of thinking, a different way of operating, a new way of tackling problems, and developing solutions. This begins with planning. In fact, you can think of planning as a kind of microcosm of BS.

As you get started on your projects, one of the first things the BSPL must do is create a plan. Now for those of you who are familiar with planning may think that this is pretty basic, right? If you are already a skilled planner, great, you’ll have a jump start on applying your knowledge and experience with planning to the BS process. However, even those who are expert planners, will learn about planning is applied somewhat differently in the BS process. The following paragraphs will describe more about that. Now this may not seem like the most exciting content, but there’s more than meets the eye in this section.

BS is a different animal:

On many other kinds of projects, building a good project plan can be quick and easy. However, in the BS process, the job of planning will be much more complex and more of a drawn-out process. This is because the challenges you will tackle in the BS realm are likely to be deeper and more multi-faceted. Consider the name BS, science is not something that evolves quickly. Scientists think about what factors impact outcomes, they do research to test hypotheses, and they analyze re