Methodology
When we agree to work on a project with a client you can expect us to provide a certain standard level of service to include:
- Clarification of expectations – Up front we will meet with the organization leader and management team; establishing your expectations as well as identifying the client contact person (project manager), time line for the project, and agreed to project outcomes and deliverables. In addition we will work with you to define you and your team's participation in the project.
- Data gathering – We will spend time at the beginning of a project to gather background information and performance data. This is a key step in ensuring that any analysis later in the project will be completely fact based.
- Interim updates – Throughout a project we will check in with our clients to keep them informed on the progress and to ensure that we are continuing to meet their needs and expectations and we will make any adjustments necessary.
- Review of Findings – Prior to completion of any final report, we will meet with the Project Manager and the Management Team to share preliminary findings, strengths, weaknesses, issues and recommendations. This provides leadership the opportunity to evaluate the draft report and to suggest changes to insure a high quality and useable final product.
- Final Report –We recommend a presentation to the management team at the end of a project to review the final report or product. This allows leaders the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification to fully understand the findings and recommendations.
General Consulting Approach
It is our intent that all our consulting efforts lead to self sufficiency of our clients. Our style is to be a “guide by the side”, so that the client learns from us and will not be dependent upon us in the future for the same activities. We will work with a client Project Manager or team throughout the project to build their capacity to carry on any future work.
It is our practice to assign an adequate number of consultants to a project to give the client more flexibility and mitigating any calendar conflicts to insure that all deadlines are met. It has been our experience that when working with a large group or with very senior executives it is best to have an extra set of eyes and ears in the room to assist in facilitation and in breakout sessions.
Our basic purpose is to aid you in succeeding in your business. We believe that in partnership we will be able to help you sustain your strategic focus and gain improved performance. The true measurement of our success will be your improved and sustained business results.
Strategic Planning Approach
We believe that long term success will be achieved only if there is an overall strategy on how to develop, deploy, measure and monitor your strategic plan. Key to your success is the development of a plan that is integrated into your business management practices.
This top down approach ensures that the organization understands their key direction and goals and that all parts of the organization are aligned with these same common goals. We will work with your senior management team to come to a common understanding of the vision for your organization, your current state, and develop a transition plan of key strategies to achieve that desired future state.
The strategic plan will include a scorecard to monitor progress toward your vision. The plan is designed not to be “shelf art” but a real working document that management can utilize for decision making.
A central part of the strategic plan will include approaches about how the plan will be cascaded and deployed throughout the organization, including how to align the employees to support the goals, communicating of the plan, the role of the senior team in launching and sustaining the strategic focus, how you measure effectiveness of your efforts short and long term, and the use of a scorecard for monitoring your progress.
Training Philosophy
Our training philosophy is based on research and experience that tells us adults do not learn well in a lecture type classroom environment. Adults learn better by doing things, hands on, using a more pragmatic versus theoretical approach. Therefore, when we train it is more a facilitated learning experience. We present a principle then have the participants apply the principle in a real life scenario.
In designing a workshop or curriculum for a client, we will work with the client to understand the organization’s current level of understanding on a specific topic. Then we will tailor the training to bring participants to the desired level of knowledge using real life examples from within the organization as well as from outside.
We attempt to keep training sessions focused on 3 or 4 key learning points which are reinforced throughout the workshop. Our goal is to have the participants walk out of the session and be able to articulate those key learning points and apply them. In other words instead of trying to teach everything we know about a topic, our desired outcome is to have the participants able to apply the learning in the workplace.