collaborative solutions
collaborative solutions
collaborative solutions
collaborative solutions
collaborative solutions

THE LOOK OF… PATRICK TORRENTS © Wortkshop’it

Article published in MANECHO’s bi-monthly magazine: WIP#24 World in progress review “Innovation and products for tomorrow”, October and November 2018

Founder of Workshop it!, the leading provider of collaborative solutions to accelerate decision-making and boost employee engagement in action. How to make a team work fruitfully ? How to involve more employees around a project ? How to engage them in action ? This is the problem that responds to the young company Workshop it! with its digital solution Solve it!, simple and easy to use.

The creation of Workshop it! responds to which request?

After five years at Cap Gemini, I founded my digital services company in 2004.

Over the years, I realized that managers often had difficulties to install a real dynamic around a project, a mission. They could have difficulties getting the teams involved in implementing the action plans. Why ? Because employees are not sufficiently involved in solving problems, making decisions, defining actions. And the use of brownpapers and post-it, to roll out methods of collective problem solving, reached their limits: too much time to provide the outcomes to the team, and thus the demobilization of the collaborators, no possibility of participating remotely. So I had the idea to create a solution to help them mobilize their energies.

In 2016, I marketed Solve it! It is a solution for collective problem solving to accelerate decision-making and engage employees in action.

How does it work?

The digital solution is based on an effective and recognized method of problem solving (Problem Solving Team Building). Before, we used the post-it and the brownpaper, with a late return of information, since you had to write all the data on your computer before sending the outcomes to the participants. With Solve it !, everyone connects to the solution (in the cloud) and can participate in a workshop. A facilitator leads the meeting and then shares with the team the contributions (ideas, solutions …) via a virtual brownpaper. Our contribution applications are downloadable for free; each participant can write down his ideas. Solve it! can be operated in the same room but also remotely, via web conference solutions (skype, webex …), between different locations, different countries, which is very interesting for large groups. An easy to use solution, wich make possible a collaborative work with any type of service : marketing, sales, human resources, after-sales service, operational entities …

Feedbacks from our customers are very positive. They find that the digital aspect facilitates participation and increases the number of contributions, and above all, they appreciate the fact of having the results immediately, at the end of the meeting. This is a solution to engage and federate employees towards a common goal that is the success of their company’s projects.

Are there still obstacles to its diffusion?

The first obstacle is the use of a new tool and especially the change in work habits. That’s why we help our client to set up and manage their first workshops. It’s fundamental. Once Solve it! was used, the first doubts are raised and we get then, very good results!

The purchase is on subscription with a number of credits to use over one year.

What changes have you seen in companies in recent years?

In 2007, the iPhone came out. The deployment of smartphones in our daily lives, in the company, the development of social networks, in particular, have upset our ways of working. We must therefore be more reactive, we can not wait three weeks a meeting summary detailing the decisions and action plan ad hoc. It must be acted immediately. This is what allows to involve more employees.

You have to trust them! The more they can work together, the better is. The more people are involved, the more loyal and successful they are.

This ability to share information still disrupts the management, but we can not ignore it: the company must adapt to it, transfer its organizations in this direction.

What are the values of your own company?

Performance, first. Economic, as the performance of the solutions brought. The pleasure, then. A happy employee, who flourishes at work, will be better than an embittered employee.

And finally, respect. Since we collaborate more in teams, it is essential to accept the differences of each one, to cultivate them to take advantage of all these sources of creativity.

Discover the interview : WIP#24 – Workshop it!

More information : Do it!

More information : Solve it!

More information : MANECHO, a consultancy firm specialising in business strategy