The Challenge: Determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the practices and the organizational structure for a service group of 50 staff within a larger organization.

The Solution: Collect information from staff and their internal and external customers, review performance data. Involve staff in developing improvements.

The Details: We interviewed staff to get their input on practices, policies and procedures as well as asking each staff member to complete a confidential questionnaire on the same topics. We also interviewed several of the groups’ internal and external customers to determine their perceptions of the quality of the groups’ services. We also reviewed performance and cost data. We worked with the group to develop several procedural and organizational changes, which the group implemented. After five years, we were asked to perform a follow-up assessment to determine what the effects of the changes had been. The assessment showed that the implemented changes had resulted in a 30% improvement in the ratings of the group’s practices, policies and procedures.

The Challenge: Improve the Leadership Skills of a Company’s Management Team

The Solution: Provide an initial two-day leadership workshop followed by a series of follow-up group and individual sessions.

The Details: Each participant completed a leadership assessment instrument prior to the workshop in which the participant rated his/her current level for several key leadership characteristics. Each participant also had 5-8 observers (2-4 peers, 2-4 direct reports and his/her manager) rate the participant’s leadership characteristics prior to the workshop using the same the leadership assessment instrument. During the workshop, each participant compared their own perception of their leadership effectiveness with how others perceive their effectiveness. Each participant also completed a Myers Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI) prior to the workshop. The MBTI provides information on an individual’s behavioral preferences for communicating, taking in information, making decisions and interacting with others. During the workshop, the participants gained an understanding of how their individual behavioral preferences contributed to the perceptions of others of their leadership strengths and leadership challenges. The workshop included exercises in which the participants could see how their effectiveness in delegating, resolving conflict and providing effective feedback was affected by their behavioral preferences. Each participant developed a plan to improve their leadership skills. The workshop participants met for two hours on a monthly basis to review progress on their plans, get input from the group on how to address challenges they were encountering and to continue the discussion of leadership.

The Challenge: Overcome the tendency of a global company’s project managers to focus solely on the technical content of their work.

The Solution: Conduct person-centered project management training over a global satellite network.

The Details: The company was concerned that the technical focus of their project managers impacted the managers’ relationships with customers and with other internal staff. We developed a training that stressed the people aspects of project management and delivered the training over a satellite television network . The satellite system enabled us to not only present the material simultaneously to many locations but participants in each location were also able to ask us questions via the satellite link.