ANNE DE MORAISAirbus Leadership University

Collaboration vs "supplier - customer" relation

by for .  
80 - 805 - 15 Low

Move from "supplier- customer" relationship to collaboration through 3 steps: benefits and blockers for the current relation, define how to manage them in the new type of relation and identify what can be implemented to create this collaboration.

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Goal

Move from "supplier- customer" relation mindset to collaboration mindset

Attachments

Materials

    Instructions

    Introduction - Icebreaker Who is behind this secret? (5min)

    • Ask each participants to write a secret or anecdote about him/her on a post-it

    • Gather the post-its without looking at them, mix them and display them on a wall / A2 poster / paperboard.

    • Ask participants to find out who is behind each secret / anecdote.

    Step 1 - Current situation (20 min)

    • Display 2 flipcharts: "As a customer" and "As a supplier" with 2 areas inside - "Benefits of the contractual relation in term of performance" and "Blockers of the contractual relation in term of performance" (to prepare in advance)

    • Ask the group to individually write on post-its their answers and display them on the board (10min)

    • Cluster the similar answers or in case of large group, use the Bingo approach (5min). The Bingo approach consists in asking participants to say out loud “bingo” when another participant display a post-it with the same content or idea and add their own post-it(s) just next to it/them.

    • Ask the group to vote for 3 or 4 benefits or blockers which seems to be the one with the most important impact on their performance and choose the 4 to 6 with the most important number of votes. (5min)

    Step 2 - Future collaboration (30 min)

    • Create one flipchart by topic which got the most votes (benefits and blockers) (2min)

    • Ask the group to take 5 min to reflect individually on 2 questions and ask them to write their ideas on post-its:

      • How do you manage these situations with colleagues? (how do you make sure benefits happen? How do you fight blockers?)

        • Eg1 : Benefits from C/S relationship = the contract represents a pressure leverage to get deliverables ⇒ How do you ensure you get your deliverables from colleagues who are not suppliers?

        • Eg2 : Blockers from C/S relationship = the supplier limits itself to its obligations and don’t feel engaged in case of hazards not planned in the contract ⇒ How do you avoid a lack of engagement with your colleagues in case of hazards?

      • How could you manage these situations in this new collaboration relation?

    • Share your ideas with the group (20min) : each participant take one after another the time to share his/her ideas. Progressively, they add their post-its on the board / paperboard / wall. Here again, you can use the Bingo approach.

    Step3 - Let’s try (20 min)

    • Distribute the set of cards on collaborative behaviors and rituals, that the team can put in place as a team. (2min).

    • Among the different proposed exercises, ask participants to decide the ones they would like to implement to have a good collaboration relation. These exercises will have to be implemented in future regular team meetings to progressively see the results (10-15min)

      • Option A : make them work together on all cards

      • Option B : make them work in sub-groups for each theme (indicated on the cards, 5 themes).

    • Plan the follow up and feedback on these new rituals (5min)

    • Recommendations : It is not mandatory to select at least one card for each theme. Return on experience shows that teams don’t implement more than 2 or 3 exercises, if more than 3 exercises are chosen by the team, ask them to select 3 maximum and keep the other ones in the action log for future implementation. 

    Closure (5min)

    Leave the set of collaborative cards to the team, they will be able to reuse it later to integrate new exercises in their team collaborative rituals.

    Invite the team to keep the posters from step 2 on future collaboration so they can display them in their office(s).

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