Business Services
Services discussed include: Business Process Redesign, Change Management, Employee Engagement and Morale, Meeting and Training Facilitation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Organizational Design, and Virtual Office Implementation
Business Process Redesign
Are you finding a process or processes have become burdensome and overblown? Or in contrast, does the process have holes and critical things are falling through the gaps? It may be time to take a look at how the work is getting done and redesign the methods and processes you are using. We will work “backwards” to figure out what the desired outcomes are first - what does the ideal output entail? We will then work to map out what the ideal process would be to arrive at that outcome.
Next we will do a gap analysis to determine the delta between your current way of working and the desired state: is there technology you don’t currently have or use that could help? What is the right number of people to get the work done? Are all of the required skills already known or is there a training/knowledge gap? Can existing employees be retrained/reskilled or have we potentially identified a role that needs to be filled through a recruitment process?
As we progress through this exercise, keeping key employees engaged, ensuring all involved have a voice, and dealing with any fear or obstacles will also be key to success. Let me help you figure out how to redesign your processes.
Change Management
Whether you are implementing a new ERP, acquiring a new company, harmonizing your processes, redesigning your org structure, or struggling with culture/morale challenges, change is hard. And what's more, most organizations fail to follow through, falling short of reinforcing desired behaviors and driving lasting change. As a result they wind up with a very expensive project that falls far short of expectations. Worse still, they get "stuck" midway through the change only to see their best and brightest talent leave the organization with no pipeline to handle the "regular" work let alone the capacity to also do the work related to the change initiative.
With over 25 years experience including time in two of the Big4, and having worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies, let me help you avoid these situations. Find yourself already in one? Let's partner to get you back on track as quickly as possible toward realizing that ROI initially imagined. I am comfortable working at all levels in an organization from the C-Suite to the plant floor.
Employee Engagement and Morale
Are employees calling out sick frequently? Is performance down? Morale low? When managers ask for contributions in meetings are they met by the sound of crickets? These are only a few of the symptoms of poor employee engagement and low morale which are both indicative of a corporate culture that is not supporting the behaviors you wish to see. We will start by interviewing the executive team to hone in on their theories and suspicions about what is going on. We will then write a hypothesis and design and execute an employee survey and conduct focus groups to confirm or debunk this hypothesis. Either way, we will uncover what is going on and discuss the root causes.
Correcting these challenges are unfortunately harder than diagnosing them. The solution will entail involving multiple groups of employees at different levels within the organization to lead the charge towards repair. At an executive level we will decide what the core behaviors and values should be. We will also design a performance management system that rewards what you want to see. But most importantly we will listen to the voices of the employees and hear their primary concerns. Then show them we heard them and present a plan to address what we heard. This makes employees feel valued which is the first key step towards repair. Let me partner with you to attack this complex puzzle and untie the knots preventing employees from fully engaging at work.
Training and Meeting Facilitation
My first career was as a professional musical theater performer (a “triple threat”). We have a saying in theater, we say “break a leg” to mean “good luck.” Except I really did. With no medical insurance I found myself in need of a “real job” fast. So I got a job teaching computers. I quickly learned a few things:
- if I could get my students to smile or laugh, they would relax and start to learn, retain what they learned, and we all got to enjoy the experience
- ”click through” training of software systems doesn’t work. You have to teach functionality within the context of a process or “Day in the Life” of the user to ensure knowledge retention
- to truly change a person’s perspectives and point of view and thus their behaviors, it takes more than a training class or meeting
- you need to ensure the content is relevant to your students and that you communicate the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)
To my delight I discovered all of my skills in performing translated nicely into facilitation (the need to read and play to your audience, think on your feet, improvise, etc.).
I was hooked.
Today I possess over 25 years experience as a trainer, instructional designer, and facilitator. I strive to make each of my trainings as experiential and engaging as possible to help make the time fly and keep participants present and engaged.
Let me help you design and facilitate your next training or event. I guarantee it will be relevant, appropriate, and engaging.
Mergers and Acquisitions
I specialize in helping people from disparate companies and cultures come together and work collaboratively. This includes strategic work to ensure desired behaviors and outcomes are agreed upon and we define what the behaviors “look, sound, and smell like” in action. Performance management, bonus structures, and rewards and recognition are all utilized to help reinforce the desired behaviors once the culture change initiative is complete. Process harmonization, organizational design, meeting facilitation are services that frequently fold into this type of project.
Organizational Design
Are you looking to restructure a team, department, division, or company? I approach this work in a systematic and ordered way to ensure processes and the desired work product stay front-of-mind as we begin to examine process redesign, eliminate work product that is no longer of value, and streamline your new way of working. Only then will we discuss how the team/department/division/company needs to be structured, what the headcount will look like, and what skills will be required by role to complete the processes and work as we have defined it. By working “backwards” in this way we ensure together that the work will get done in the most efficient way. Outputs of this work include recruiting plans, job descriptions, retraining or retasking of existing employees, and lots of communications to manage the fear and trepidation that naturally accompanies this type of project for employees.
Virtual Office Implementation
Do you have too many tools? Not enough tools? Do you know which ones are the "right" tools? Once you decide, you will still need a plan to get your employees to use the tools the way you intend and realize your full investment. With experience implementing Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Skype, OneBox, hotelling and myriad other systems, let me help you determine which tools are right for your business and ensure user adoption to realize your ROI.
Ready to discuss how we can help?
Call 862-362-2M3E (2633) now or schedule a free 30-minute consultation