The 🗣 Share It phase of the Sense It, Share It, Solve It approach focuses on fostering open communication about the blockers you’ve identified. Effective sharing transforms individual observations into shared understanding, setting the stage for collaborative problem-solving.

What Does It Mean to “Share It”?

Sharing isn’t just about pointing out problems; it’s about creating clarity and alignment. In this phase, you’ll translate your observations into a format that others can understand and act on. Key aspects of effective sharing include:

  • Visualizing challenges: Use tools to clearly map out workflows, dependencies, or team interactions.
  • Facilitating open discussions: Create spaces for teams to discuss observations constructively.
  • Aligning on root causes: Ensure everyone agrees on the underlying causes of the challenges, not just the symptoms.

Tools and Techniques for Sharing

Sharing is more effective when supported by structured tools and methods:

  • Team Interaction Modeling: Visualize how teams interact, highlighting misalignments or unnecessary dependencies. This can reveal unclear ownership boundaries or communication gaps.
  • User Needs Mapping: Align team priorities with user needs to clarify which challenges are impeding value delivery and why they matter.
  • Value Stream Mapping: Use this technique to display the flow of work and identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies that slow down progress.
  • Independent Service Heuristics: Evaluate team independence and determine where unnecessary coordination is creating delays.
  • Facilitated workshops: Host workshops to share and discuss observations, ensuring all voices are heard and perspectives considered.

Why Share It Matters

Open communication ensures that problems are not just recognized but fully understood by all stakeholders. Benefits of effective sharing include:

  • Shared understanding: Align teams around the root causes of blockers, avoiding miscommunication or misaligned efforts.
  • Collaborative solutions: Facilitate diverse perspectives, enabling teams to co-create better solutions.
  • Informed decision-making: Provide leaders and teams with the information they need to make impactful changes.

Example in Action

Imagine a team struggles with frequent delays due to unclear ownership of a key system. Using team interaction modeling during a facilitated workshop, the team identifies that dependencies on another team are causing the bottleneck. By sharing this insight with both teams, they align on the root cause and prepare to adjust team boundaries to improve flow.

What’s Next?

After achieving a shared understanding of the challenges, it’s time to Solve It. This phase focuses on collaboratively implementing changes to minimize dependencies, reduce cognitive load, and optimize workflows.

Explore the next step in the Sense It, Share It, Solve It approach to drive real change in your organization.