In one of the reorganizations I was involved in, the intent was to redesign the change process. The method used was the “Brown Paper” method. The “Brown Paper” method is called this way, because everything is being modelled on a (large sheet of) brown paper as can be seen in this example. I personally really enjoyed this approach and think it can be very useful.

This method basically meant that people actually performing the tasks were brought together, were interviewed and actively participated to model the current way of working and its shortcomings. Afterwards this got transformed to the desired processes and what was necessary to realize it.

If you want to know more about it you can find a lot of information on the internet. To get some more insight I read the dutch book called “De Brown Paper-Methode” by The Brown Paper Company because they were the ones initially assisting us.

In this book I came across some examples of desired characteristics and competences in a working environment. These examples matched my personal preferences for a working environment and are very simple and straight forward in my personal opinion. In the images and excel files below these examples can be found (I have to admit I took some liberties in the English translation):

Excel: Examples of desired characteristics and competences

Excel: Voorbeeld van wenselijke (houdings)kenmerken en competenties

I am curious what you think of these examples and how it matches your current working environment. So please leave a comment.