When Carl Stimson at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
(BCBS-MN) started receiving inquiries from other BCBS
organizations about Minnesota’s three-year-old Lean Six Sigma
program, he quickly realized how Minnesota’s knowledge and
experience could benefit others. “The better we do as members
of the association, the more successful we all are,” Stimson
believes. “Being able to share what we’ve done, how we did it
and see how others did it, will help us all be more competitive.”

Stimson, Director of the BCBS-MN Center for Performance
Excellence, and Dana Lien, VP of Process and Performance
Excellence, called on Breakthrough Management Group to help
plan an open house for BCBS association members. Stimson says
they initially hoped for 25-30 attendees. However, after several
months of marketing the event, registrations totaled 65 attendees
– mostly Directors, VPs and managers – from all over the country.

Try to step out of the role of
event planner and think like
a participant.

Open house or summit?

Such tremendous response to an information sharing event like
this is not surprising. Open houses allow visitors to see firsthand
how your organization applies process improvement methodologies.
Attendees may be part of the same industry but from non-
competitive markets, as in the case of BCBS. Or, they might have
a different clientele but face similar business challenges (such as
a car stereo manufacturer attending an auto manufacturer’s open
house).

Alternatively, an internal summit such as the "Siemens US Top+
Quality Six Sigma Conference" offers company employees a chance
to network and share best practices face-to-face. The Siemens
conference gathers 120-150 people annually reports Top+ Quality
Process Improvement Leader Kevin Nourse. “Siemens US is pretty
large and diverse,” he says. “The conference was put together
primarily to bring the different operating companies together to
share and learn. However, external speakers who can bring a
different perspective on successful implementation have also
been a well-received component.”

What's the takeaway?

How do you get the most out of a gathering like this, especially
if it’s an annual function? Logistics such as location, food quality,
transportation and cost are all important. But gourmet meals and
fabulous accommodations can only go so far if the event doesn’t
engage participants on a level that is meaningful to their roles in
the deployment, and in the company at large.

The key is to step out of the role of event planner and think like
a participant. If you can, involve participants from past events in
the planning stages. The question you need to answer is “What
do you want attendees to take away from the event?” This will
determine not only your agenda, but also who you will invite,
which should be your first consideration.

Who is the audience?

BCBS-MN spent ample time thinking about their open house guest
list. After doing a bit of research, they decided to invite only
high- level participants. Since many BCBS organizations don’t have comprehensive process improvement initiatives in place, it seemed
that “big picture” information sharing would be the most beneficial.
As it turned out, only three organizations that attended the open
house had full deployments. The rest boasted a handful of TQM,
BPM, Six Sigma or Lean practitioners. Had BCBS-MN aimed the
event at practitioners, they may have had a less inspiring turnout.

Whether you’re holding an open house or a summit, there is no
perfect number of participants. As a general rule, there should be
more attendees than speakers (don’t laugh, it happens). You can
also end up with too large a crowd. “The first Hess Summit was
global and we invited everyone from every location,” says Cindy
Bivians, an MBB at Hess Corporation. “It was too big and the
agenda could not satisfy everyone. Breaking it down into Regional
Summits and one small Global Summit was a better option for us.”
[Editor’s Note – Read more about the Hess Summit in this month’s
Ask an Expert column.]

Planning the agenda

Once you determine who your audience will be, you can begin
working on an agenda. Planning the agenda before you determine
who to invite could result in a gap between your content and
attendees.

The Siemens conference, for example, features a variety of topics
designed to appeal to both executive-level sponsors (e.g., deploy-
ment strategies, successes and failures, incorporating Lean and
Six Sigma) and practitioners (e.g., project reviews and tool primers).
In the three years since the event’s inception, the agenda has
remained fairly stable, with the exception of the growing presence
of Lean topics in addition to Six Sigma – a result of internal and
industry trends.

In contrast, the open house at BCBS-MN included two project
case studies, but featured mostly high-level topics such as
“Strategic Six Sigma” and the BCBS-MN deployment story. The
event also included apanel discussion, moderated by Stimson
and representatives from BCBS-Florida and Wellmark Blue Cross
of Iowa and South Dakota, which focused on the issues each
group faced prior to deployment, and what led them to choose
Lean Six Sigma.

Secrets to success

In addition to carefully selecting your program topics, there are
other keys to planning a successful agenda. Try to seek out
polished speakers, or at least people with some presentation
experience. “This can be difficult,” admits Nourse. “It’s basically
a function of leveraging personal and professional contacts across
the Six Sigma leaders from the Siemens operating companies.” 

If you’re not personally familiar with a speaker’s skill, you can
usually get a reference from someone who is. Alternatively, you
could ask speakers to prepare brief, five-minute presentations
on the topic they wish to address, and present to you in person,
or via webcam or video. This should give you an idea of their
“stage presence,” and also their ability to create an interesting
PowerPoint slideshow and to stick to the designated presentation
time.

Regardless of the speaker’s experience, you should allow ample
time to review all presentations to make sure each one is coherent,
relevant, interesting, and that the details don’t overlap with other presentations. If possible, ask each person to present to you or
your team during a practice run. It may seem like a lot of work,
but, given such a high profile event, the presentations need to be
top-notch.

In addition to presentations, plan time for small group discussions,
interactive activities, networking and socializing. For example, the
Siemens conference features "Cracker Barrel" sessions between
presentations that promote conversation at a more personal level. 
The one-day BCBS-MN open house featured a welcome reception
that gave attendees the opportunity to meet each other and network
before the actual event.  

Following up with participants

Finally, make sure to follow up with attendees after the event. Both
Siemens and BCBS-MN send out a brief survey to participants. Such
a questionnaire doesn’t have to be fancy (check out Survey Monkey
for a free online tool), nor should it take a lot of time to complete.
The point is to capture the VOC of participants and then modify the
event as needed. Heeding their advice will undoubtedly make your
event an eagerly anticipated success year after year.