Chainlink™

Chainlink replicates some of the pressures of being 'a link' in an internal supply chain.  Few people working in organisations do not find themselves, at times, both customer (or user) and supplier. You may be waiting for the IT team to fix your computer so that you can supply management accounts to your Board in advance of a meeting - you are a link in a chain.

This exercise puts every participant into the role of both user and provider of information. It asks them to focus on more than one task at once: the construction and supply of a product to a 'customer' and the liaison with a 'supplier' who is fulfilling a previously placed order.

The relationships are limited by restricted communication: face-to-face meetings are rare and therefore valuable. The communication generally occurs in writing, representing the 'remote' (usually electronic) communication now relied upon in the majority of global organisations. It can be used with groups of up to 8 participants and takes around 35 minutes (excluding review).

The exercise raises some important issues of task management, prioritisation and resource allocation.

• How does an individual make informed decisions about where and when to apply effort?
• How do pressurised individuals in internal service departments know which demand is genuinely urgent and therefore which to respond to?
• How are people encouraged to move from thinking about their own needs to those of others?
• How do we get things 'right first time' to avoid the need for re-work or correction?

Chainlink also demonstrates very clear differences in individual working style. How do teams respond to differences in the amount of contact, inter-action, preparation time, detail and feedback which individuals need? In this way, it is an ideal exercise to use with teams who have completed personal style profiles (eg MBTI) and will be able to see the different preferences in action.

Case Study