Articles: WorkOut Process

Active Facilitation: How to Help Groups Break Through Mutual Stalemate, Celia Kirwan and Wes Siegal, chapter 14 of "The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups" Sandy Schuman (ed.), Jossey-Bass, 2010.

This article describes how groups might abdicate their responsibilities for achieving results by waiting for another group to make the first move - and the steps consultants can take to help organizations break through this paralyzing dynamic.
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Best Foot Forward, Matthew McCreight and Ronald Ashkenas, Northeast Executive, Fall 2009.

This article is an excellent overview of our firm and how we help our clients realize their fullest potential.
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WorkOut, a chapter from "The Change Handbook: The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems"; Ron Ashkenas and Patrice Murphy; Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.; 2007; p. 533-540.

This chapter explains the basics of WorkOut and details when it works best.
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Mobilize Large Numbers of People In Change: Chapter 5 of Rapid Results!, by Robert H. Schaffer, Ronald N. Ashkenas, and Associates, Jossey-Bass 2005.

This chapter shows how Rapid Results projects and WorkOut can serve as a vehicle for engaging large numbers of people into the change and improvement process and how a modified version of the well-known GE “WorkOut process” provides a structured methodology to support this rapid engagement. The experiences of Avery Dennison, Zurich U.K. and Armstrong cited in this chapter show that rapid-cycle projects, even if somewhat modest to begin with, can quickly be turned into powerful engines for accelerating change—change that can advance as fast as you want it to happen and can involve huge numbers of people as quickly as you want to involve them. As more and more people lead and participate in Rapid Results teams, more and more change management competence is developed at every level in the organization. And as this competence grows, so does the organization’s overall capacity to implement large-scale change.
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Why WorkOut Works: Lessons from GE‘s Transformation Process, Ronald N. Ashkenas, Handbook of Business Strategy, 2003.

This article describes how GE's WorkOut process enables a kind of communication that is often missing in large, complex, global organizations.
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WorkOut and Six Sigma, by Ron Ashkenas, Matthew McCreight and Patrice Murphy in Rath & Strong’s Six Sigma Leadership Handbook, edited by Thomas Bertels

Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. WorkOut is a process for bringing together large numbers of people to improve business performance. It offers a structure for capturing the collective creativity and wisdom of an organization on critical business issues, for translating those ideas into rapid action, and for doing it all at high speed.
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General Electric‘s Leadership WorkOut, Dave Ulrich, Steve Kerr and Ron Ashkenas, Leader to Leader, Spring 2002.

This article describes how GE developed WorkOut and used it to transform the leadership of its organization; gives step-by-step details.
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WorkOut Session Tackles Line Crew Utilization, The Compass, Public Service of New Hampshire, Winter 2001.

This newsletter describes how Schaffer Consulting (then called RHS&A) helped PSNH increase the amount of line work their own crews could handle and decrease the use of outside contractors.
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How WorkOut Works: How Eagle Star was saved by a high-flier, Andrew Bolger, Financial Times, 30 June 2000.

When Patrick O’Sullivan, chief executive of the UK insurer, introduced a concept called WorkOut, it helped shake the 190-year-old company out of its complacency.
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How to Create Successful Business-to-Business Partnerships, Richard A. Heinick, 2001 Handbook of Business Strategy, Faulkner & Gray, 2000.

A specialty chemicals company used the structured customer partnering methodology described in this article to reduce costs, improve delivery time, boost both companies’ profitability, and augment customer relationships.
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Workout Annual Review 2000: Staying Power, Zurich Financial Services.

This report reviews Zurich Financial Services’ successes in the company’s first three years using Workout.
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Results-Driven Change: A New Look at Re-Engineering, Elaine M. Mandrish and Robert H. Schaffer, Human Resources Professional, Volume 8, Number 5, September-October 1995.

By concentrating on results in one area and using initial success to expand into other processes, results-driven process redesign proves to be an effective mechanism for implementing organizational change.
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Results-Driven Change: Time to Rewire Re-engineering, Elaine M. Mandrish and Robert H. Schaffer, The Electricity Journal, Volume 8, Number 7, August-September 1995.

Similar to C-11 and C-12, focused on the electrical utility industry.
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From Dialogue to Action in GE WorkOut: Developmental Learning in a Change Process, Ronald N. Ashkenas and Todd D. Jick, in Research in Organization Change and Development, Volume 6, pages 267-287, JAI Press Inc., 1992, ISBN 1-55938-434-4.

Two of the designers of GE’s WorkOut process provide a conceptual framework explaining WorkOut’s success. Using real examples, they show how WorkOut generates both results and learning through organizational dialogue.
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