Dept of VA: Service Integration Workshop
Project Type: Facilitated Ideation Workshop
Artifacts/Deliverable types: Concept Posters (9), 350+ ideas generated, Workshop Summary Report
Timeframe: November 2023 – February 2024
Veteran Experience Office (VEO) Teams: Customer Experience Strategists (myself and 3 other Strategists)
My Role: Lead Facilitator, Stakeholder Relationship Lead, Workshop Planner
VEO Goals for Service Integration Workshop:
The purpose of the ideation workshop was to engage VA field leaders in discussions about how to embed the PACT Act into VA’s organizational culture and processes, and to brainstorm ways to catalyze efforts that further integration across VA. In small groups, the VA leaders participated in a set of fast-paced activities facilitated by designers at the Veterans Experience Office (VEO) to identify and prioritize integration opportunities.
Overview
The Veterans Experience Office was invited to create a high‐level VA leadership ideation workshop around the future of VA integration across the three administrations – Veterans Health Administration, Veteran Benefits Administration and the National Cemetery Administration. Nine cross-agency groups were formed to participate in ideation activities designed to promote collaboration and creative thinking.
This workshop laid an important foundation for the desire to continue to unify the VA and present ourselves as one organization to our customers.
The group brainstormed around four themes that could be turned into feasible concepts to be shared across VA leaders and offices for future strategic planning opportunities.
Approach
We thoughtfully designed the agenda, materials, and experience for 50 leaders across VA to collaborate across Administrations which led to three tangible concepts that could be carried forward.
Our team made stakeholder accommodations for the Integration ideation workshop agenda to support their desire for over 50 participants, four hours of initial program briefing, and the Secretary of VA speaking. We were able to design a shorter agenda with a larger audience that was successful in the intended outcomes of tangible concepts and Administration collaboration.
Ideation Workshop Activities:
Partner Portrait Energizer activity
Workshop expectations, participant agreement, goals and agenda
Relevant customer experience research shared for participant reference
Divergent and convergent brainstorming within the team across four themes
Impact prioritization activity
Concept poster development and presentation
Below are the ways I supported this workshop:
Workshop Planner/ Lead Facilitator
Consulted rapidly over two months with the hosting office to understand the scope and outputs needed for the workshop
Managed competing and changing priorities, growing participant list, and less time provided to conduct the workshop
Led the CX Strategist team in the development of workshop tools and activities
Created agenda, facilitator guide, and talking points for host leaders
Was lead facilitator during the workshop and supported table facilitators where needed
Led the synthesis of workshop outputs and developed workshop summary document and presented to host leaders
Provided summary presentation during second workshop that host leaders facilitated some months later
Was primary consultant when questions about the outputs of this workshop came up across VA teams
Outcome: Similar concepts emerged from the nine participant-led solutions to form three opportunities. The three opportunities are representative of the nine concepts developed by the 50 event participants and were presented back to participants and other leaders across VA. Additional ideas that surfaced from the workshop were also shared to leadership. A second workshop led by the hosting office was developed afterwards to continue the work of these three concepts.
“I’ve been with this group [of participants] multiple times and I’ve never seen them this engaged before. It was refreshing to see.”
“Laura is an excellent facilitator, planner, interviewer, relationship builder/manager, presenter and collaborator.
In the work that Laura has led she has been meticulous about managing stakeholder input and in setting up those efforts for success by creating a shared understanding of the project and mobilizing stakeholders support to carry the work forward.”