We specialize in developing individuals and organizations to more effective teamwork, learning, and creativity, through two related approaches: participation in a successful, intensive collaboration with organizational colleagues or the Action Research approach in which a team collaboration specifically focuses on organizational issues.
Every collaborative team project we lead has a strong effect on the relationships among the participants as well as the ability of participants to affect others with their deliberate leadership. Frequently our selection of participants in a cross-functional team effort will be driven by organizational development issues as much as who can bring the knowledge to the meeting. We encourage organizations to think ahead to both the implementation of the team's findings and to the long term strategies of the organization in the choice of participants.
In even the most results-focused design or problem solving effort we must develop the participants attitudes, knowledge, and skills in ways that have immediate impact, but will also impact organizational effectiveness in the long run.
Our preferred recommendation for organizational development is to think about who needs to learn, change, and be connected, and choose a project that fits their competency that is important enough to the organization to justify the effort, thus making the organizational development effect essentially free.
As we develop the leadership and education plan for the project, we integrate the fundamentals of leadership, creativity, communication, and business strategy that are needed to address the project with specific knowledge and methods that are expected to impact the long term organizational development goals. We structure teams and exercises to not only address the problem, but to build strong relationships across organizational boundaries. We have also employed supplementary tools, such as developing a company wide directory of participants, so that they can stay in touch with each other and work together to design and implement further changes.
Action research is a well established approach in organizational behavior and organizational development which closely fits our values and assumptions about teamwork and organizational development. Basically, the approach involves assembling a team of people from an organization around a particular organizational problem or opportunity, rather than bringing in outside researchers, consultant, and interviewers. This team is educated in basic principles of organizational assessment and development, then develop their own plan for gathering data about the organization in regards to this issue. They analyze the data they gather to determine if the issue actually exists, to estimate its potential impact on the organization, and to discover the underlying dynamics of the issue. The team then develops a plan of action to shift the organization to a more advantageous point on the issue, then works together to carry out that plan. Finally, the team assesses the impact of their intervention, and takes further corrective action if it seems appropriate.
Our resources not only allow us to help select, educate, and guide these teams, but we bring unique skills in problem solving that greatly increase their ability to comprehend and address complex organizational issues effectively. In addition, our ability to deliver education in business fundamentals and business strategy in combination with organizational behavior knowledge, enables the team to solve organizational issues in ways which better fit business realities and corporate strategy.