Chai Board is the
tool we use in facilitating DNA crafting (strategy Development). Flip charts
and the marker pens are the usual tools that we use in the facilitation
process. We have observed that this simple process brings certain significant
and important value to the key players who are participating in the Chai Boards
(DNA sessions).
Some of the conspicuous ones are….
It brings Focus: Because
everyone is looking at one display: the flip charts, the key players do not have
many different versions inside their own imaginations. Slowly shared awareness
and understanding is built. This shared understanding forms the basis for
future social capital needed for the business growth.
It promotes camaraderie:
The participants begin to feel they are part of one team. The provocative,
interactive, engaging qualities of working with flipcharts and dialoging are
found to be more effective at supporting relationship building, trust, and
participation than pushy PPT presentations and lectures.
It prevents fragmentation:
Fragmentation suggests a condition in which the people involved see themselves
as more separate than united, and in which direction and focus are scattered. It
is a phenomenon that pulls apart business that is whole. We have found that
fragmentation is hidden, intangible and people in the organization do not
even realize that there are incompatible tacit assumptions about the business
and each key person believes that his or her understanding is complete and is
shared by all. Our flip chart display is
a direct support to common findings, and allows the key players to aggregate
and analyze the issues on a common platform. Most of the outputs that the key
players are making in understanding the dynamics of their business are from displaying
on flipcharts and dialoguing on the issue. This process prevents fragmentation
but enhances shared understanding. This is key to business growth, without this
it is less probable.
It allows easy follow-through:
Connecting everyone’s activity over time is essential to producing anything.
The difference between relying on everyone’s individual perception and having a
shared schedule and road map everyone buys-in is night and day. The output
flipcharts allow the key players to brief themselves, remind, repeat the
matters of business, support after-action reviews, and document key outputs for
broadcasting to others in the organization.
Contributed by
Sasikanth Prabhu
