We Advise

Projects are unique undertakings with a defined start and end date, scope and resources, planned to accomplish a singular goal. Many organisations struggle with this as they have a process orientation and lack the structures and discipline to manage projects effectively. Mindavation helps with the basic knowledge to set this up and then with driving project initiatives from inception to implementation and creating the organisational awareness and capabilities required to continue a project approach to getting work done.

• Agile/Waterfall/Hybrid Assessment
• Deliverable Based Outcome Design
• Project Management Office Reviews
• Project Management Office Maturity Assessment
• Project Recovery Services
• Software Vendor Package Selection, Configuration And Implementation
• Support Solution Design
• Transition Management
• Infrastructure And Architecture Design

Projects are used to create change. That change can significantly improve the abilities and efficiencies of an organization. Without any proper analysis, attempts to improve the organization can go very badly, resulting in confusion and difficulties in achieving organizational objectives. As a business analyst, you seek to understand the process strengths and the weaknesses your organization uses, and then validate any improvements to be implemented by a project. Mindavation leverages the skillsets, mindsets and tool sets that successful business analysts bring in developing the right change. Allow Mindavation to demonstrate the value Business Analysis can bring to your organisation and change program.

• Strategic Needs Assessment
• Competency Assessment
• Agile Business Analysis Practices
• Analysis Planning And Design
• Business Case Development
• Technique Identification & Selection

Arguably the most vital partnership in the project world is the partnership between the project manager and the sponsor. Unfortunately, the project manager-sponsor partnership is the one most often described through gnashed teeth. The good news is… it doesn’t have to be this way!

This workshop will examine different sponsorship and governance approaches, the pros and cons of each, and how to tailor the project management approach for each of these sponsorship schemes. Attendees will work through an assessment of the degree of trust and sponsorship knowledge that resides with the sponsor, and what to do as a result. The workshop presents the project manager-sponsor partnership as a process, and addresses the pitfalls and strengths that a process approach can surface. How to create the sponsorship process at the start of the project and how to recover a sponsorship process that is failing is a major focus of the workshop.

At the forefront of a successful sponsorship approach is an effective decision making process. This workshop concludes with an examination of various successful decision making schemes and the customization of a personalized sponsorship management worksheet that attendees can apply in their workplace.

This course is not about how to avoid litigations, be politically correct in the workplace, or equal opportunity employment. Although those are important aspects to a work environment, this diversity conversation is broader – it’s about perspectives, ideas, experiences and a culture.
In “Making Diversity the Solution” participants will learn and apply skills and techniques to capitalise on diversity in the workplace. They will discover how their individuality supports success and gain insight into other’s strengths so as to access and leverage the possibilities. Perspectives, ideas and productivity will shift so as to generate sustainable results when it comes to the triple bottom-line: profit, process and people. Participants will leave with an understanding of the role they play and the impact they have, as individuals and as team, when it comes to unleashing the potential of a multifarious environment.

Innovation leaders need to recognise and utilise every phase of the innovation process to develop effective policy, services and products that successfully deliver or exceed the expected benefits to the organisation and stakeholders. Innovation implementation we will cover the proven methodologies and best practices (although they are seldom correctly applied) to lead and participate in innovation efforts for your organisation to gain or maintain sustainable offerings. This course covers the complete innovation life cycle, from goods and service ideation through to launch and ongoing lifecycle management.

Facilitation means ‘to make easier’. In other words the facilitator’s real job is to make it easier for a group to accomplish its goals and objectives. Skilled facilitation helps facilitators and teams to recognise and effectively deal with problems, generate ideas, create project deliverables, improve processes or simply, to be more productive in less time with better results. This course teaches participants ‘best in class’ skills to enable effective group performance. Participants are engaged and learn through dialogue, feedback, videotaping and group activities.

How do we establish enough influence over key stakeholders to get our work done when we have no ‘real’ authority over them? We know what needs to be done and we know how to do it, yet we cannot get our boss, our colleagues, and yes, even the people who report to us, to do ‘the right thing.’ Some days it feels like we are just banging our head against the wall. The result…a whopping headache!

When we encounter problems we often go to what we know to solve them. All that means is we tend to base our solutions skills what’s familiar. Creative Problem Solving is a deliberate process by which you get to a new and different solution, or add a twist to a previous solution. Or perhaps you have a familiar problem and you need a different result this time. For example, in six months you need to increase profit by 25% instead of 15%. This is a great opportunity for creative problem solving. Creative problem is a team sport – it works better with more people in that you have that many more ideas to use when developing the best solution. This workshop will focus on ways to support and conduct creative problem solving in the workplace with your teams in new and experiential ways.

It has long been discussed that technology has made our world “smaller” and we are more interconnected than ever. Whether it is a crisis or a celebration, our public (whether they are our employees, teams, supervisors, etc.) often expects “immediate” action and decisiveness. As such, leadership is evolving and different skills and abilities are required – specifically the ability to adapt. More and more often we are tested and measured by the situations we face in which we must make take action without a known or proven “good” or “right” answer. Adaptive leadership can support you and your organisation with growth, gaining a competitive edge, ensuring sustainability and more. Learning how to recognise, understand and improve your personal adaptive leadership will give you access to new and different ways to more successfully respond, instead of react, to the many opportunities in your business environment. In this fun and fully interactive workshop, you will experience and explore proven improvisational techniques and principles, designed to help you grow and effectively become more adaptive as a leader.

Use Cases provide a structured, industry-standard way of eliciting and documenting functional requirements. The process enhances communication between business analysts and business customers, and lays the foundation for user interface design and test case development. They also provide insights into data requirements, and help clients articulate their needs in ways other requirements activities cannot.
This course provides the right blend of knowledge and skills for people to understand and model Use Cases effectively. Attendees will learn where Use Cases are most effective, a step-by-step method for creating them, and numerous guidelines and tips to enhance creating them. Participants also receive a comprehensive Use Case template that can be readily used back in the office.

When you’re trying to grapple with user demands and market changes, it can be difficult to mentally zoom out and assess your organization’s operations. Business process modeling helps you see the big picture by allowing you to translate your business processes into easily understood pictures. In this course, instructor Haydn Thomas walks you through the most widely used business process modeling diagrams—context, functional flow, cross-functional flow, and flowchart—and explains the purpose of each one. As Haydn touches on each modeling technique, he shares its unique features, explains how to use that technique to create a diagram, and points out how to avoid common pitfalls. He pulls it all together by comparing process diagrams to help you determine which diagram you should use to document your organization’s business process.

An examination of requirements gathering, verification, and documentation processes to ensure your project starts off on the right foot. Students will learn to discern between needs, characteristics and solution elements as well as techniques for managing the scope of the project throughout the project life cycle.

A strategic project you’re working on is going to require that people change the way they do their work, or who they work with, or what they care about, or how they’re performance is measured, or….. you get the picture! Organizations reach their goals through projects; projects require that people change. BUT – as a wise man once told me, “The only person who really likes change is a wet baby – and even they usually kick and scream throughout the change process!”

Ethical behavior starts at the top. If leadership sets a good example, the rest of the organization will follow. Yet while most managers try to run ethical organizations, the headlines are rife with stories of corporate corruption. In this course, Bob McGannon helps you understand what business ethics is and why it is critical to the success of your business (especially in the era of social media). He also describes some of the behaviors and expectations you can put in place at your company today to promote ethical behavior from top to bottom.
Bob also discusses ethics in relationship to specific business scenarios: working with suppliers and vendors, organizational decision making, and doing business internationally. He addresses how to handle business ethics violations and provides a checklist of items for staff to evaluate if something is ethical.