How do you tackle a major initiative when none of your leaders have time to take it on? You partner with us to guide the project to a successful completion.
Think about a significant change you want to make in your organization. Unfortunately the change represents a lot of work, and your best people are already at full capacity leading their teams.
Because projects come and go, you don’t want to add headcount. Ideally, you can contract with someone who can quickly get up to speed on how your organization works, take charge of the project, see it through to the end, and then leave when the goals have been achieved.
We are available to serve as this person for your larger initiatives. We know how to bring people together into a high-performance team and keep them focused and moving toward the goal.
If you’d like help with just one phase of the project we’re flexible enough to accommodate your requirements. This might mean leading the planning, taking on the change management function, or rolling up our sleeves and boosting your capacity during implementation.
Potential projects
Most of the projects we’ve worked on have something to do with improving the way people work together. Here are the kinds of projects on which could lend a hand.
Organizational redesign
When the existing structure no longer serves your needs, it might be time to develop a new structure that better matches the current conditions. Creating a new org chart is easy. Realigning the roles and responsibilities is the hard part and requires concentrated effort.
These days, the pandemic has created a lot of questions around where and when will people work? Will the work be done by employees or contractors? What policies need to be updated? How do managers deal with employees working from home?
The questions are endless. They shouldn’t be answered without careful consideration.
Culture change
These projects are our favorites. They are about changing behaviors by transforming the way people think and what they value. Here are examples of what your organization might set off to accomplish during a culture change project.
- From reactive to proactive.
- From individual focus to team focus.
- From information hoarding to information sharing.
- From internal focus to external focus.
- From micromanaging and control to self-managing and empowerment.
- From distrust to trust.
- From fear to comfort.
- From slow to nimble.
- From department-oriented to process-oriented.
- From short-term to long-term focus.
- From haphazard to systematic.
- From closed to open.
You get the idea. Think about your own organization. What’s the first “From-To” statement that are on your wish list?
Strategic planning
An effective planning process involves more than taking a team of leaders off site for a day or two. The list of activities includes:
- Getting the lay of the land
- Identifying and involving stakeholders
- Analyzing data to identify key issues
- Setting goals
- Building plans
- Communicating ideas
- Gathering feedback
- Developing buy-in
- Creating alignment
- Launching initiatives
- Monitoring progress
- Troubleshooting problems
We’re happy to jump in on any part of this list or lead the whole initiative for you.
Employee engagement
Identifying what keeps employees from giving it their best and implementing ideas to build higher levels of performance is what engagement projects are all about. This usually starts with an assessment and then involves employees in developing and implementing an action plan.
Process improvement
If the same problems keep coming up, chances are it’s because you don’t have a process or the process you have needs serious attention. When the process is critical to your organization’s success and it touches many functions, it’s time to tackle this project using time-tested methods.
Talent development
Does your organization have a strategy for keeping employees’ skills up-to-date? What would you do if there was a new skill that everyone had to learn and begin using? How does your company handle performance management? These questions all represent potential projects in the talent development arena.
Internal communication systems
Getting the word out quickly and consistently is harder than it seems, particularly when the organization is large or the employees are geographically dispersed. Figuring out the best way for employees to have the information they need when they need it is a project that can provide most organizations with major benefits.
The people side of IT system implementations
These days when the phrase “major project” is used, it typically refers to some sort of technology implementation. The IT folks and consultants are all about getting the systems to work. They know their tech, but often come up short on the people side of the project. We focus on making sure the people can and will use the technology to achieve better results.
What’s on your plate?
If you’ve got a project that needs leadership or another set of hands, let’s talk. If it’s not the right fit for us, we may know someone and would be happy to make the connection.