Organizational Consulting, Mentoring, Meeting Design & Facilitation

I have helped clients successfully integrate the leadership of newly acquired companies; I have ve designed formal mentoring programs to foster a culture of learning, engagement and development; and I have designed and facilitated critical meetings for jumpstarting collaboration and implementing strategy across functions and geographies.

And increasingly I find myself developing two additional areas of expertise: helping clients develop strategies for engaging and harnessing the power of a multi-generational workforce; and helping them overcome resistance as they choose to shift from non-sustainable to sustainable business practices.

When designing my recommendations …

I view organizations from a systems perspective and consider the whole entity: an organization made up of teams, which are, in turn, made up of individuals. I address change management with the utilization of both small- and large-group interventions and utilize strategic training and coaching to introduce, develop, and reinforce the behaviors and attitudes required to foster and sustain positive change.

Some of the organization change tools I use are employee surveys, focus groups, strategic planning, appreciative inquiry, dialog, feedback and town hall meetings, open space, future search, experiential learning simulations, and psychological instruments such as the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and DISC.

My organizational consulting falls into four practice areas:

Discovery/Assessment - Know where you're going before you start. I approach each client organization/system with fresh eyes and an open mind. Typically, I conduct a confidential assessment with key stakeholders to gain an objective understanding of the issues, opportunities and concerns that are on the table. My findings then become a compass for the design and implementation of the intervention — the path you or the organization chooses to take with us. Our discovery/assessment tools include:
Employee Web-Based Surveys
Focus Groups (in person, Skype, video conference)
One-on-one Interviews (360º feedback)

Mentoring - A proven effective strategy for engaging, developing, aligning and retaining high potential talent. According to a 2004 Corporate Leadership Council study, having an effective mentor is the single most potent lever for employee engagement and results in a 25.5% increase in productivity. We have spent the last decade conducting research on what makes a great mentor, and how successful companies use mentoring to engage, develop and retain their top talent. We've developed a highly focused mentoring training process that can be customized for launching either a formal or an informal mentoring program in your organization. Read the White Paper.

Strategic Meeting Design & Facilitation - Effective organization-wide meetings create the opportunity to set and communicate new directions, manage expectations, identify and address critical issues in real time, and make course corrections with key stakeholders in the same room. We have helped clients transform their national and global meetings from command-and-control downloads where participants check their hearts and minds at the door — to engaging, results-oriented forums that stimulate vigorous dialog and decision-making and promote meaningful follow-up. Clients regularly report that such forums have led to the forging of new business relationships, the creation and sharing of knowledge across all divisions and functions, and measurable contributions to the bottom line.

Large Scale Change Process - Choose the right path to get to the right destination. Fact: 70% of all change initiatives fail primarily due to the lack of senior executive buy-in and alignment. Our team of senior consultants has extensive experience assisting clients in the co-creation of change initiatives that are designed to introduce new elements or modify existing aspects of culture, and to help you get buy-in from the top and from other stakeholders. We've successfully helped organizations shift from working in traditional hierarchical structures (think smokestacks and silos) to more nimble horizontal ones. We've partnered with clients who were anticipating or moving beyond major reorganizations and mergers and acquisitions, and stepped in to help them respond quickly and aggressively to the economic downturn with strategies that resulted in greater alignment, higher morale and increased market share.