# From lab to plant: rewriting the project process together

> At a chemicals manufacturer, development and industrialisation worked in silos. In one day, some fifteen people from both teams stepped into each other’s shoes, reviewed their process phase by phase and drew a new one. The action plan was followed up for months.

*Real case, anonymised: the company name is invented.*

- Company (invented name) : Tessaline
- Sector : Industrial chemicals
- Size : Mid-sized group
- Format : One day
- Audience : Some fifteen people from two teams at odds, development and industrialisation, with their managers.
- URL : https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/cas-clients/processus-projet-labo-usine

## Context

- The two teams work in silos. The matrix structure gives them responsibilities without the recognition that should come with them.
- They do not listen to each other. Industrialisation is brought in too late.
- Choices between doing things in-house and outsourcing remain unclear.

## The challenge

Clarify roles, build a shared project process, align ways of working and set up rituals. In one day, with people who had grievances against each other.

## Design ideas

- **Empathy before mapping** : “In the shoes of”: in two mixed groups, everyone takes the other team’s place. Three lessons come out of it: be brought in earlier, understand the other side’s real constraints, name the different timeframes.
- **A before-and-after portrait** : “How we see the team, how we want it to be”: a collective portrait in two steps.
- **The current process in three colours** : Four teams, one per phase: frame, develop, deploy, optimise. A three-colour code: what works, what needs improving, what is missing or should stop.
- **The new process, gate by gate** : Teams are reshuffled. Each one draws its phase with its decision gates, separating the in-house route from the outsourced one. Then a “questions and workstreams to launch” page and a What, Who, When table.

## Run of show

- 9.30am · **Welcome and check-in** : Mood and expectations, which the facilitator brings down to four levers: roles, links between teams, quality of relationships, clarity of the organisation.
- **Portrait of the team** : How we see it, how we want it.
- **In the shoes of** : In two mixed groups, in the other team’s place.
- **Current process, phase by phase** : Four teams, one per phase, three colours.
- **The new process** : Reshuffled teams, decision gates, in-house and outsourced routes.
- **What, Who, When** : Questions, workstreams to launch, action plan per phase.
- **Reading across** : Common threads, including “visible decisions”, “safe handovers”, “formalise without weighing down”.
- 5.30pm · **Close** : End of the day.

## Deliverables

- A full report, with an action plan for each phase.
- A plan followed over time: statuses (done, in progress, to start) were updated several months after the day.

## Key takeaways

- Human tension responds well to process work, and process work responds well to empathy. “In the shoes of” comes before any mapping.
- An action plan is only as good as its follow-up. This one was kept and updated over the following months.

Related expertise : [Collective intelligence](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/intelligence-collective), [Seminar facilitation](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/facilitation-de-seminaire), [Seminar design](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/design-de-seminaire)

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Source: Flow Design, https://www.getflowdesign.com
Contact: victoire@getflowdesign.com, marie-violaine@getflowdesign.com, +33 6 72 15 94 77. Request a quote: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/nous-contacter. Draft a run of show online: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/concevoir-mon-seminaire.