“There is no alternative to digital transformation. Visionary companies will carve out new strategic options for themselves — those that don’t adapt, will fail.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon
Realizing projects together in times of home office and lockdowns is not always easy. Vladislav Vodatinskij the founder and owner of the operational project management service provider ENGINEC developed the digital workshop format, which allows the digital collaboration of teams from any location in the world.
Workshop Concept
Communication between people. To put your heads together creatively. To create joined goals and define targets. These are the main parts for a successful start in a project. The realization of this is currently more than complex, as home office and distributed work dominate our daily work. However, digital tools can help companies continue their operations productively. In order to digitize workshop dynamics and personal exchange, you need the correct digital tools and the right format.
The workshop format of ENGINEC shows how people from all over the world can work together. It is the digital version of the interactive workshop concepts where technical and IT experts come together in one room and work together to develop solutions.
Workshop Preparation
Vladislav Vodatinskij is an IPMA/GPM certified project manager and a certified SCRUM master. Since 2012 he is leading projects all over Europe for joint-stock companies and medium-sized enterprises.
The workshop preparation is the key factor for success. The aim of the workshop and the expected outcomes need to be defined in advance and to confirmed by the key stakeholders. Once the expectations are clear and accepted, the agenda including brakes and a strict times in minutes are required. The workshop duration should be in general not longer, than 2 hours, as the attention of the participants will get lost after this time. The goal, the agenda and some specific background information about the topics of the workshop should be put in a PowerPoint presentation on some slides and send to all participants in advance
Key to virtual space
Collaborative IT tools are the basis for a platform of the online workshop. In addition to the appropriate IT tools, it is crucial to use suitable methods for developing a specific solution. ENGINEC uses, among other solution, the Microsoft application Teams. Solutions for the central topics and questions of a project are developed on digital whiteboards. A positive side effect: illegible handwriting is no longer a problem and results are immediately available digitally.
Whiteboards as map
Project leader or any other workshop experts act as moderators and bring technical and methodical workshop knowledge with them. In addition to this know-how, a clear structure helps to deliver results quickly and in a solution-oriented manner. So-called maps are successively created on the digital whiteboards, which visualize the conception and requirements of the project and record the results. The final results of the digital workshop will be presented in a web conference and summarized in PowerPoint.
Participants on same level
It is important to communicate your own expectations and to change your perspective, regardless of the function and position of the person. This is the only way to create a common understanding of the participants and a shared responsibility for the project. The ENGINEC concept does this. It creates a virtual space for real projects that is about the essentials: talking to each other. The ENGINEC solution shows that it is possible to digitize an established workshop format. Based on a clear, methodical structure, is it possible to achieve visible results in a short period of time.
More Information about ENGINEC and Vladislav Vodatinskij: