Client Stories
I absolutely love what I do: working with other people on knotty organization challenges. It’s been my privilege to work with a lot of great people in many great companies. Here are a few stories about what we’ve done together.
And here’s a list of client companies
Involving the Customer in Decisions
A large insurance company was exploring a new customer connection model. Before they fully committed to the prototype they wanted to get customer input from the target segment. The ideas were still in concept form yet they wanted a way for the customers to ‘feel’ and interact with the options.
I suggested that a Scenario Light session with 20 customers would give them a lot of data and confirm or disconfirm their direction. Together we created four scenarios. Each was portrayed with images and descriptions and the customer panels readily understood the ‘new worlds’. I facilitated questions and answers and then a group discussion.
The client company received extremely specific and vivid reactions to the various scenarios and, happily, the customer input confirmed and clarified their planned direction. They eagerly pursued the strategy.
Coaching an Excellent Leader
Most senior leaders are extremely competent individuals. They know their business and they don’t require remedial coaching. Research suggests that emotional intelligence skills that account for at least 80% of the differentiation between good leaders and great leaders.
A rising star at a technology company was receiving excellent 360s and consistently strong performance reviews. But he didn’t feel he was having the impact he wanted. He was completely committed to his growth as a leader and sought out my advice. I had the opportunity to watch him interacting with his peers. He really just need a fine-tune adjustment. I suggested that he was relying almost too much on his excellent mediating and facilitating skills and urged him to experiment with a different behavior at the next staff meeting. He spoke less and came on stronger and with more confidence in his own voice. Others noticed a change but couldn’t quite put their finger on it. This man continues to grow as a leader and now occupies an even more senior position in the company.
Crossing the Global Divide
Associates in China were having difficulty adding to the global efforts of a large initiative. The organization structure was new and the bulk of the scientists were in the United States. Literally and figuratively, the scientists in China were not being heard. Furthermore, the leadership was thin and they wanted to build bench strength. Together we designed a visit with multiple objectives: 1) fundamental leadership skills development 2) and organization assessment to triage future development efforts 3) skills development to work more effectively with their US counterparts.
Over the period of a week I was able to identify the biggest obstacles to their success in the global structure, coach the senior leaders, provide global skills training to more junior employees and carry back a change agenda for their US counterparts.
Generating Energy for Change
A large unit in a government agency had been confronted with numerous challenges including the adoption of new technology that had resulted in scandalous cost overuns and negative attention in the press. Through it all, the individual location managers had to try and maintain morale, implement a new system, train their employees on the new system and face an annoyed public. They were exhausted.
For their annual meeting we designed a gathering for over 100 managers. These were good men and women and they needed to reconnect to the larger work of the organization, to remember why they became managers and to locate new energy for the ongoing change. The agenda relied heavily on appreciative inquiry with lots of time given to interaction with their peers. Over the day and half they realized that they were all in the same boat, all experiencing the same struggles. And by the end of the session they had renewed their commitment to making the changes–together. They determined new ways to support one another and left the meeting feeling renewed. One told me, “Maggie, you give hope.”
Strategic Planning for a Non-Profit
A theater company had been building for several years on the passion of the artistic director and a committed board of theater lovers. The company had achieved a consistent record of positive critic reviews and felt they were ready to think bigger. For their annual Board Retreat we designed the initiation of a strategic planning process. In advance of the meeting I partnered with the Artistic Director and interviewed all the board members. A collective picture began to emerge and the input was aggregated to fuel the weekend session.
The Board identified overarching goals to 1) expand board membership to include needed expertise, 2) build membership and 3) maintain artistic quality. Over the following month they refined and completed a strategic plan that they actually used for years to build their company. Two years after this first retreat they had an envious decision to make regarding an invitation to assume residence in one of the premiere arts venues in the city.
Involving the End User in Product Definition
A group of engineers was feeling stuck on defining a new product. They were enchanted with the technological aspects and had gotten feedback that they were out-of-touch with the end-user perspective. To help them explore more options I designed an Idea Lab to broaden their perspectives. I provided a variety of activities and stimuli to trigger thinking. I also recruited an actress, a musician and a teenager to diversify the thinking. The end result is that they came away with a much broader basket of options and an appreciation of the criticality of including the end-user perspective from the beginning.
