The Phoenix Consortium Hits the Road At the Indianapolis Speedway!
As part of its annual calendar of three Work Sessions in different locations around the country, the Phoenix membership went to Indianapolis on June 2-3, to give final reports on the 2009-10 research topics, and also to brainstorm on a ballot of new issues to be explored for the 2010-2011 Research Year.
Hammer and Company pulled some serious strings with the Indy-500 racetrack management and was able to offer the membership the thrill of a lifetime—actually driving a real “Indy Car” around the one of the most famous tracks in the racing world—the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!
Members and their guests gathered at the Speedway on June 1, just hours after this year’s race, suited up, and took a quick lesson on how to drive a real race car. Then one, by one, everyone took a turn at the wheel, assisted and encouraged by the Indy 500 Racing Experience Team! As a group, the Phoenix members made an impressive showing, with top speeds approaching 120 mph!
Following this experience, the two days of Work Session discussion and reports might seem a little tame, but the membership is so enthusiastic and the topics so interesting, that energy levels continued high throughout.
The Phoenix Research Consortium Selects New Research Topics
During the June Work Session in Indianapolis, the Phoenix members went into an intensive brainstorming session to come up with three terrific research topics for the 2010-2011 Research Year:
1) Explore and define the roles of resource/functional managers and process owners/experts: Define and describe the traditional roles and contrast with the comparable roles in a process organization. Describe how the roles evolve/change over time in terms of responsibilities, authorities, and development and also how these change as the organization reaches higher levels of process maturity.
2) Select and Prioritize Initiatives: How do organizations select and prioritize the initiatives to which available resources are devoted? How is the appropriate level and timing of engagement determined? Should this engagement be continuous, full-time, part-time, or intermittent?
3) Executive PEMM™: The team will create an effective, high-level, non-facilitated PEMM™ tool for use by executives and/or other senior leadership or those unfamiliar with process jargon. The research output would be used to a). Introduce enterprise maturity, b). Determine how best to tailor it to a specific organization’s current state, and c). Use for self-assessment.
The three teams will meet by teleconference on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for the coming months. The team leaders will work closely with Mindy Woolf, Hammer and Company’s Phoenix Research Assistant, on developing the meeting agendas as well as setting and maintaining the timeline for report-outs at each of the three annual Phoenix Work Sessions.
If you would like more information on the Phoenix Consortium or this year’s Research Topics, please contact Lindsay Field at 617.354.5555 ext. 110 or email: lfield@hammerandco.com.
