Since 2008, I have been a partner of choice for organizations of all kinds and sizes.
I believe the best organizations:
Deliver products or services that meet or exceed expectations
Enhance the capability of stakeholders to work together
Have a positive net impact on employees, the environment, communities, and shareholders
Adapt to changing circumstances
I’ve learned the following principles and practices deliver unique value for clients.
Informed Services
To help effectively, I must manage assumptions and access what I don’t know (e.g., through provocative questions, listening, seeking first to understand).
To ensure the right issues are addressed with the best solutions, data should be collected and shared throughout an engagement.
Evidence-based insights from the social, behavioral, and management sciences can unlock significant value for clients.
Clarifying and maintaining expectations about the information collected, its purpose, and with whom it is shared is critical to a successful engagement.
Inclusive Teamwork
Balancing and integrating the interests of key stakeholders in the system is paramount to sustaining collective buy-in.
Co-creating custom solutions maximizes commitment and practicality. (There are no “canned” or “one-size-fits-all” solutions.)
Promoting free and informed choice (with confidentiality commitments in mind) is essential to maintaining trust and commitment.
Direct, candid, and constructive dialogue leads to better outcomes.
Adaptive Learning
Complacency is the enemy of vitality.
Awareness of our own strengths, biases, and blind spots is key to adapting and thriving.
A simple, but disciplined practice of experimenting, reflecting, and applying what you’ve learned has an unusually high ROI.
The integration of learning and day-to-day work saves time and money and leads to superior learning.
Building internal capability and capacity to lead, learn, and adjust to changing circumstances is in the best interest of the client.
Untapped creativity and innovation exists in most organizations and should be activated. Failing to do so costs the employee and organization.
Further differentiation comes from the individual strengths and life experience of the advisor(s) and from the unique way the partnership work flows.
