Consulting
We consult with clients to achieve practical and measurable solutions, including training solutions, to drive better business performance based on expanding freedom of action for individuals in organizations. We work diligently to clarify expectations and to develop a solution or solutions that demonstrably achieve those expectations. Once a solution is implemented, we follow up with any necessary training and education to sustain the improvement. We enjoy consulting with extraordinary clients in the following subject matter areas:
• Organization Design / Organization Development
No single organizational design will work for every organization. The goal of organization design is to effectively integrate the shape and form of an organization with its mission and purpose. Since we believe in the benefits of freedom, we try to identify the highest quantum of freedom consistent with the mission of a new or existing organization, and design accordingly. When an existing organization is ready for change, we will partner with that organization to identify and implement ways for it to become more adaptable, flexible and dynamic.
• Succession Planning & Management
Succession Planning & Management is commonly viewed as the third most critical business issue, trailing only financial results and strategy. It is generally defined as a systematic effort to insure continuity, retain intellectual capital, and encourage individual development. Modern businesses are challenged by the need to increase the talent pool, identify and boost high performers (HIPOs), drive engagement, and maintain competitive advantage. Effective Succession Planning & Management supports a free and effective workplace—when people help design their own future career path, they are free to energetically engage the present. We are experts in helping companies deploy effective Succession Planning & Management (SP&M).
• Performance Management & Metrics
Performance Management demands clarity of expectations and reliable, valid and trustworthy performance metrics. Performance Management in a free, self-managed environment demands the ultimate in clarity and reliability. We work with clients to clearly define the expectations against which leaders are measured, and the measures that will be used. We work with organizations to implement solid processes to sustain free and effective business performance.
• 360-Degree / Multi-Rater Feedback Systems
While performance metrics provide excellent objective feedback to people, especially in workplaces characterized by freedom, subjective feedback is also valuable and important. Most colleagues who work together form hundreds or thousands of impressions of each other, many of which can be shaped into actionable feedback. The volume of observations spread among multiple colleagues forms a natural quality control function, and the feedback can be just as valid as an objective performance number. According to the Center for Creative Leadership, most people don’t have time to fully reflect on themselves; and, even while working interdependently, colleagues don’t talk enough about what bothers them. We create custom 360-degree feedback systems for single or multiple uses to help people react to the important observations of their peers. Feedback, objective or subjective, is the ‘breakfast of champions.’ We create effective support systems for champions, the demand for which is particularly acute in free work environments.
• Cultural Change / Cultural Alignment
Cultural change is hard, but it can be done. It requires full commitment by the client coupled with the knowledge of how to make it happen. We employ practical, tested and effective methods to move corporate culture from the current state to the envisioned future state. For organizations contemplating the shift to a freer, more dynamic workplace, intentional culture work is often a critical success factor, creating a state of receptiveness and buy-in for change.
Everyone is familiar with the ‘iceberg effect.’ When we look at an iceberg, we only see the exposed 10%, not the submerged 90%. A candidate interview process is subject to the same principle—no matter how focused the questions, we only see the 10% that the candidate is willing to expose. We show you how to learn more about a candidate—to topgrade effectively to instantly improve your successful hire rate. We also understand the ramifications of HR legal compliance, effective compensation and benefits programs, and most other aspects of current HR practice—and show you how to synchronize workplace freedom with HR. Topgrading make workplace liberation possible—by populating the organization with people who are natural self-managers. Freedom in the workplace also requires HR policies and practices that are properly aligned with a free culture.
* Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People, Revised and Updated Edition, Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D., Portfolio Hardcover, 2005.
• Business Process Management (BPM)
All businesses have four basic domains: Strategy, Systems, Processes and People. Processes can be defined as sequences of activities that result in the creation of value for a customer, either internal or external. Core processes consist of those processes that result in the creation of value to the ultimate customer—usually, the ultimate customer is the one who buys products or services, without whom a business would not exist.
Solid business processes are extremely valuable enterprise assets: they can be a source of differentiation and strategic advantage (think cross-docking logistics at Wal-Mart, or flexible production lines at Toyota). On the other hand, poorly planned or executed processes can become liabilities. The best companies pay attention to their processes and have a process in place to continually improve them. They build a process mindset into the culture to harvest the knowledge base of their people, who are in the best position to identify and make improvements. Excellent processes are liberating, because they free people up to innovate, improve and strategize.
We can build a business process mindset into the culture through training and coaching. We can also analyze a client’s processes to identify break points, business rules and opportunities for improvement—then work with the client to implement change. When processes are tuned up, people are free to work on developing the business for customers—the very reason for being in business.