The Yellow Pages assignment is very straightforward, and will require a minimal amount of adaptation. If anything, you may want to adapt the questions a bit to suit the focus of the client’s work in the event. For instance, if the participants are designing a CRM approach, you may want at least a couple of the questions in the Yellow Pages assignment to focus on the customers of the merged entity. (For example: Who are the customers of the new business? How will you address the needs of both companies’ customers in the new organization?)
Remember, keep this assignment short. The teams have very little time to complete their work. It should not be difficult for them to read and understand what they have to do.
The most difficult aspect of this module from the writing team perspective is selecting the Yellow Pages ads. Selecting good pairs of ads is fun, but it takes more time than it might seem. Budget at least an hour or so for this.
UPDATE:
Instead of creating team lists and dividing teams into break out groups, simply have the participants break into small Kotter groups. This increases the energy in the room, speeds up the exercise while still generating all of the desired outcomes.
Click to download an example assignment.
