C.A.

Schifman and Company

Organizational development since 1986

Change management
Leader development
Team and board development
Facilitation
WorkOut (since 1989)

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 WorkOut Clients Include

International Multifoods Frito Lay Co

L.L. Bean Yellow Freight
General Electric Acme Steel
Metavante Dresser, Inc.
World Kitchen Northeast Utilities
PNC NStar Utilities
FDIC Metropolitan Life
National Steel Wawa Food Markets
PG&E Varco International
IBM Avery Dennison
Alstom Power AES Corporation
C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364
www.developingpeople-business.com
 WorkOut Engages People’s

Experience

Creativity

Enthusiasm

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 WorkOut Involves Everyone

Top Down
Leaders or managers identify a
key business improvement goal,
then challenge those closest to
the work to recommend ways
to reach the goal.

Bottom Up
Those closest to the work make
specific recommendations to
meet the goal, then implement
the approved recommendations
within 90 days.

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 WorkOut Builds a Productive Culture

A. C. T.
 Accountability for taking ownership of the
work, making improvements to the work and
implementing improvements quickly
 Collaboration across functions and between
levels
 Trust in yourself, your peers, your reports,
your managers, leadership and the process

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

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WorkOut Delivers Measurable Results

 Reduces operating costs

 Speeds cycle times
 Reduces bureaucracy and busy work
 Obtains strategic business objectives
 Gets existing business done quicker
 Unblocks log jams
C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364
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 Your WorkOut Opportunities
WorkOut can fit different levels of business goals, time frames and resources.

Level A Level B Level C

Strategic Functional Local department RAMMPP
organization-wide business unit improvement Streamline and
goal goal goal Simplify

Total planning time: Total planning time: Total planning time: Total planning time:
4 to 6 weeks 2 to 4 weeks 1 to 2 weeks 1 week
Planning Team Planning Team Planning Team Planning Team
2.5 Days 1.5 Days 1 Day ½ Day
# of WorkOut teams # of WorkOut teams # of WorkOut teams # of WorkOut teams
3 or more 2 or more 1 or more 1 or more
Length of WorkOut Length of WorkOut Length of WorkOut Length of WorkOut
session session session session
3 to 5 days 2 to 3 days 1 to 2 days 1 day

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 Level A,B,C
Goal Driven
Goals typically originate at or near the top of the
organization or division. Goals include specific
measurable objectives (time, money) or a specific
restructuring objective (move people, consolidate
resources, improve processes).
Goals expressed as a WorkOut topic
sound like:
“How do we reduce the time it takes to process
and pay invoices by 20%?”
“How do we create one world-wide, integrated
employee performance review process?”
“How do we complete our annual business plan
in half the time while maintaining or increasing
its accuracy?”
“How can we bring together all three of our
vehicle tracking stations into one centralized
location by Sept. without disrupting service?”
C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364
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RAMMPP
Manager / Supervisor Driven
Typically a manager or supervisor believes some part
of their functional area is spending too much time and
effort on non-value added work. They may believe
there are too many reports generated, meetings
occurring, needless approvals, unnecessary
measurements, burdensome procedures or outdated
practices.
Or they may not specifically identify a troublesome
category but want to execute a ‘RAMMPP raid’.
RAMMPP Challenges sounds like:
“How do we streamline and simplify the way we
currently do our day to day work?”
“How do we reduce or eliminate non-value added
work from our XYZ group?”
“How can we simplify the way we work so we have
more time and energy for important, challenging
initiatives?”
 Is Your Issue a WorkOut Issue?
Not every business improvement opportunity is a WorkOut opportunity.
These are some of the key criteria for WorkOut opportunities.

 Where many people agree there is room for improvement

 Where many people most likely have suggestions on how to make
an improvement
 Where you can get - or where you need to get - results quickly
 Where an issue touches people from several functional areas
 Where multiple changes can be made to improve one issue
 Where peoples’ experience and common sense can provide
significant background information
 Where buy-in and support from many people can accelerate change

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 Process Overview
1 of 4

1) Sponsor:
Selects a critical business goal
Selects a Champion to oversee the goal and
produce a WorkOut
2.) Champion:
Selects a Planning Team to guide the WorkOut
Serves as lead of the Planning Team

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 Process Overview
2 of 4

3.) Planning Team:

Refines the challenge into sub-challenges

Defines measurable goals
Identifies WorkOut team participants for each
sub-challenge
Compiles data and background information
critical for the WorkOut team(s)

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 Process Overview
3 of 4

4.) WorkOut team(s) in the WorkOut Session:

Systematically analyze causes of sub-challenge
Generate recommendations to the sub-challenge
Define the cost and benefits of recommendations
Create action plans to be implemented
within 90 days
Present their recommendations to the Sponsor and
others attending the Town Meeting

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 Process Overview
4 of 4

5.) Sponsor and appropriate Decision Makers:

Make “yes” or “no” decisions on each
recommendation at the Town Meeting

6.) WorkOut Team Leads:

Oversee the 90 day implementation of the “yes”
recommendations along with recommendation
Owners, supported by the Champion and Planning
Team members
C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364
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 The Key Elements of WorkOut
WorkOut aims to … People closest to the work…
– Create the forum for – Know it best
dialogue and change
– Have significantly more to contribute
– Eliminate bureaucracy to achieving business goals—and want
and barriers to do so
– Cultivate grass root – Will respond favorably to a team
solutions challenge
Actions begin immediately because…
– Leadership decides ‘live’ on the recommended solutions
– Teams implement their solutions with updates to leadership
at 30, 60 and 90 days
– Recommendations must be completed in 90 days

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

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 Leadership’s Role

People are likely to become committed to a course of action when leaders

create three conditions:
 Provide people with opportunities to choose a course of action
 Provide people with visible forums to make public their
choices
 Stand behind people’s decisions and make them difficult to
back out of or revoke.
Leadership principles from “The Leadership Challenge”
by James Kouzes & Barry Posner

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

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 Examples of WorkOut
Outcomes

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

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 GE Superabrasives, looking for
productivity gains in their manufacturing
process, pulled the engineering and
manufacturing functions together in a
WorkOut to reduce cycle time on one
manufacturing process by
34% in 90 days.

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 L.L.Bean employed WorkOut to
increase efficiencies in their
warehouse operations.

The result was a 20% reduction in

damaged goods, the implementation
of a new warehouse transition system
installed without customer service
interruptions, and an increase in
accuracy of warehouse picking of
.25% during peak season -- to
improve their current accuracy rate of
99%.

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 An international consumer goods
company increased sales by
$500,000 annually during its first
WorkOut session by figuring out
how to sell to and through their own
businesses.

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 “The Workout team submitted 7 opportunities
that will make us much more efficient and
effective. The best part is that the issues
addressed will not only save us time, but will
also save the General Managers time.

The time saved by making the changes in our

work will ultimately save approximately
19,000 labor hours over the course of the
year.”
– Manager of Internal Audit,
Wawa Food Markets

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 A steel company used WorkOut to reduce
errors in order shipments by 15% and
significantly increase response time to
customer complaints.

A nation-wide bank used WorkOut to

integrate two disparate compensation
systems into one during a merger
process.

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 A financial business’s WorkOut team
recommended they send auto leasing
customers only summary reports of
monthly usage.

When all the savings from this one

WorkOut solution were totaled: paper,
postage, computer time, labor,
customer service time, it amounted to
over $100,000 in annual savings.

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com
 “ When we need to cut cycle time, we go
to the people who manage the process
and those around them.

We don’t tell them how to do it. We

give them a STRETCH goal then we
say: Do a WorkOut, and come up with
an answer.”

– GE Manager

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

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 WorkOut creates the spirit of the start-
up firm. Different levels and functions
work together. Issues are debated in
the spirit of what will be best for the
overall organization.
Decisions are made quickly, in an
interactive forum where everyone can
participate and have a voice. And
people are empowered to implement
solutions quickly.
“GE Work-Out”
McGraw-Hill 2002

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

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 Getting Started

Our Entry Points to the WorkOut Process:

 Complete roll-out and delivery

 Internal Capacity Building for organizations that want to commit

their internal resources to WorkOut

 WorkOut In a Box for organizations that currently have

significant experience with facilitation and process improvements

C.A. Schifman and Company - 231-941-8364

www.developingpeople-business.com