Board members seem to be unable to keep up with the shifting trends and opportunities as the sector evolves. Decisions are poor and time is wasted at meetings given the knowledge imbalances.
Conduct a board training session to outline the sector trends at play and review the opportunities to ensure ongoing institutional trust, relevance, and impact in line with the organization’s overall vision and mission. Discuss the trends to watch in the landscape, options for how the organization could adapt, and what’s required for future success.
The Board Chair and CEO report renewed energy, clarity, and consensus, and better decision quality and outcomes.
A CEO was overwhelmed with the myriad of mission-critical challenges facing him. He was moving his organization from a start-up to the next level of operations and doing so in the times of COVID as well as responding to complex operational challenges, including losing his most senior executive.
We engaged with the CEO in executive advising that included (1) workshopping his vision, goals, and priorities for the organization and clarifying a timeline and (2) monthly virtual sessions to provide advice, be a sounding board, offer guidance, and support the executive in being consistent and persistent with his goals.
The CEO reported having a high degree of focus and drive regarding his goals. The Board Chair and his staff reported being clear on the goals and direction which lead to greater engagement.
After more than 2 years of working virtually and with new members, the executive team was more like polite strangers at a cocktail party than a well-oiled soccer team. The CEO did not feel 100% that the team was aligned with her.
With our design and facilitation, the team identified a shared vision and charter, agree on priorities, improved collaboration and communication, and established a process for monitoring progress.
The CEO reported that the team collaboration and communication had improved by 50%.
Battling through the myriad of opinions, viewpoints, risks, and uncertainty while trying to design a vision and process for localization proved to be beyond the time and expert resources of a large foundation.
We lead a multi-phased process that answered the question: how do you localize internally and externally? What will it look like when we get there?
Consensus around a vision and process as well as a concrete roadmap forward.
The organizational culture felt wrong, but the leadership team could not put their finger on what was making it wrong. Staff weren’t happy with their work and managers weren’t happy with the staff, and the leaders weren’t happy with the managers. Staff continued to quit – choosing to seek a better work environment elsewhere.
We proposed a Discovery Process to get the facts out and recommend a process forward to a more productive culture. Interviews, meetings with leadership, focus groups, and a deep dive into old surveys, exit interviews, and other data were the initial steps. With that data, the ELT created its “Blue Sky” vision for the culture of the organization.
A roadmap forward with action steps to launch a larger culture renovation effort.