THE GOAL: To help people formulate new ways of dealing with business challenges.

With the struggle to fit in extra initiatives around day job responsibilities, and an abundance of bureaucratic working groups which take forever to reach decisions, there’s a need for a better way of business problem solving.
 
A way that creates practical ways forward as well as the appetite, energy and commitment to actually put changes in place. A way that embraces uncertainty, explores the “human side” of business challenges and pushes creative and collaborative boundaries to create better solutions.
 
We have the answer. He’s called Harold.

WHAT IS IT?

A 1 to 2-day workshop that takes the essence of a 5-day design sprint, distils it down and melds it with the principles of applied improvisation in order to better explore and unpack business challenges.
 
The workshop takes a business challenge and explores the problem through a combination of improv and business-focused exercises, ending with a concrete output of solutions to test and next steps.
 
Don’t panic- “improvisation” doesn’t mean a pressure to be funny, to stand up in front of anyone, or to perform. "Applied improvisation" means taking the principles behind it and using them to collaborate, create opportunities and innovate…quicker.

WHY AN IMPROV SPRINT?

Unlike a traditional 5-day design sprint, an improv sprint is condensed into 1 or 2 days of fast-paced, creative problem-solving challenges. That not only means you get your potential solutions quicker, but the structure and exercises involved allow for far more “out of the box” thinking.

WHY DO I NEED IT?

You have a problem to solve and need a fast but thorough way of creating solutions- and you need the solutions to be carried out.

WHAT WILL THIS HELP ME WITH?

• Doing things differently, or finding better ways to do things
• Exploring human responses to a changing environment
• Making uncertainty and ambiguity something to embrace, rather than a problem to fix
• Creating practical ways forward and commitment/appetite/energy to actually take them forward
• Communicating change (org changes, team changes, ops models)
• Coping with and bouncing back from failures
• Collaborating with colleagues, team members, joint venture partners, sub-contractors, design teams or even competitors
• Expanding your creative toolkit in approaching problems

WHO IS IT FOR?

WHAT CAN IT BE USED FOR?

Teams and groups of people within organisations who have a problem to solve or challenge they want to explore- whether that’s a new product offering, upcoming organisational change, or day-to-day process to refine.
 
It’s also particularly useful for:

• Innovation teams
• Product and design teams
• Marketing teams
• Best practice/quality teams
• Customer teams

• Innovation and product creation
• Collaborating with several functions/departments
  
• Kicking off new projects or programmes
• Solving day-to-day problems
• Communicating change
• Improving customer and stakeholder relationships

HOW DOES IT WORK?

In a nutshell, it works by outlining the goal you want to get to, exploring the challenges faced and working together creatively to find potential solutions.
 
The process it goes through is as follows:

• Outlining the problem to solve, central question or theme
• Exploring the problem through visceral thoughts, experiences and points of view
• Collaborating to problem-solve through creative brainstorming techniques
• Exploring possible changes to implement and whittling down ideas
• Storyboarding and mapping out solutions, with next steps and responsibilities
• Testing the hypothesis

Interested in a using a Business Harold? Get in touch...