Panorama Use

The Project Know-how Panorama™ is for early career people who value both self-directed, experiential learning, and collaboration in project teams. It guides those wishing to continuously improve their projects near-term and their individual know-how long-term.

Guidance is organized by the definitive cycle of continuous improvement: “Plan - Do - Study - Act", set out as rubrics at the top of the panorama, as shown below.  For each phase, the panorama (digital version) offers step-by-step guidance, accessible vi the Outline functionality of the Mural® infinite canvas platform, seen here on the far right.

To learn know-how for the real world, the panorama guides learning based on user project experience in their own real worlds. For this, panorama users select three projects in which they have experience as a team member:  a current project, and two past projects, one successful, the other troubled. 

It will be convenient for users to note these on the panorama itself. There are spaces for this on the panorama just below the “Plan - Do - Study - Act" rubrics. The troubled project should be noted under the "Study" rubric, the succesful project under "Act", and the current one under "Plan".

The user “know-how” that the panorama aims to grow is organized by purpose, that is, by purposes of project teams in every project. Eight of these are defined, as set out on the leftmost column of the panorama. By ongoing action research on these purposes, users can grow their own project know-how, steadily and continuously, long-term. 

The four panorama zones where know-how grows are shown at the center of the diagram below. The growing process itself – the continuous improvement in the user's know-how – is explained in the text that follows. 

Study

As can be seen from the rubrics at the top of the panorama, user learning begins at the Study moment. That is, as first steps in growing know-how, the user studies the past project where troubles occurred.  To assist in this, the panorama provides “gemba maps”, conceptual diagrams of work contexts pertinent to each project team purpose.

The user summarizes findings about what what did not work to achieve the target purpose in short entries via notes, drawings, and/or text boxes, digital or done by hand.

Most importantly, what users need to discover in the Study phase are the root causes of what did not work to achieve the project team purpose.

Act

Under the “Act” rubric of the panorama, users act to discover the practical ideas that did or could work to achieve the target project team purpose. These are the project "constructs" - the actionable ideas shared by the team by whatever name – processes, techniques, methods, etc. -  that did or could work to achieve the target purpose. For panorama users, the seed for growing project know-how is precisely such discovery work at the gemba, on project team purposes, constructs, and know-how.

Users act first by considering the past project that was successful. In that project what “constructs” did work?

Next is to discover the know-how the organization already has regarding the given team purpose.

Based on this activity, users then act to see if there might be better ways outside the organization for teams inside to achieve the target purpose, 

To assist users in this second discovery activity, under the “Act” rubric, the panorama displays project know-how accumulated in 6 paradigms and communities of practice. This display is by way of visual counters representing of 80+ key constructs. Each counter is color-coded to show a paradigm whose practice is strongly informed by the construct. For example, agile paradigm constructs, such as “Product Backlog” are in orange counters, while constructs such as “Work Breakdown Structure” (WBS) that inform the plan-driven (or "waterfall") paradigm are displayed in lavender.

Each counter includes links to video explanations of the construct. Users of the digital panorama can easily record their findings about these constructs by sticky notes, annotations, copy/pasting, and or/moving counters around under the Act, Plan, and Do rubrics.

Plan

Users begin the Plan phase by identifying constructs discovered in the Act phase that are potentially most pertinent to their careers. These potentially pertinent constructs are then prioritized by users. It helps to prioritize largely on the basis of which constructs are most likely to enhance near-term performance of current teams. This prioritization benefits not only the teams. It also benefits the individual user, for many reasons. Developing a user construct (as knowledge in the head) into practical user know-how happens best via collaborative project work, informed by the construct. Suitable opportunities to develop know-how from a given construct are transient. Prioritization by “most likely to enhance near term performance of current teams” provides the largest number of such opportunities at a given moment.

Under the Plan rubric, the panorama offers space for users to tailor an individual plan aiming to grow prioritized constructs into real-world know-how (whether or not user panorama is shared with teams). More specific guidance and advice on planning is available for digital panorama users by the "Outline" functionality of the Mural platform, shown above on the far right.

Do

Under the Do rubric, users keeps track of progress toward achieving team purposes that teams make, specifically the progress informed by the constructs users had prioritized for learning. When such progress is confirmed, by project KPI's and/or celebrated by teammates, it shows that constructs the user had prioritized – initially “in the head” only – have now added value for the organization, and have also become practical know-how – in the real world, and in the head, heart, and hands of the panorama user. Congratulations! Time to celebrate!  And then to iterate and keep growing.