Change Management Services

Skills That Can Strengthen Your Team
While Your Organization Achieves Its Objectives
Achieving business objectives requires change, large and small, whether you are moving toward sustainability or some other vision. Most organizations encounter challenges along the way, for instance: defining measurable goals, developing leadership skills, managing conflicts, or dealing with resistance or other issues. Using proven organizational development and change management strategies, your organization can achieve its objectives and increase the capabilities of your people and systems while doing so.

Leadership Development and Executive Coaching

	Clear, aligned and committed leadership is important during times of change when resistance and confusion can emerge.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of the individuals at the top of the organization. The ability to direct, inspire, and develop employees who work for you; to advocate for your ideas while also being open to other people’s perspectives; to collaborate with peers across functional lines; and to manage conflicts and misunderstandings are just a few of the leadership capabilities needed at all levels of an organization. We believe that leadership is everyone’s responsibility, and that every individual is accountable for his or her own actions. Clear, aligned and committed leadership is important during times of change when resistance and confusion can emerge. We custom design business meetings, retreats and team building sessions, as well as design and deliver leadership development programs that develop leaders at every level of the organization while also addressing real business issues.

	Coaching translates into a higher level of organizational performance in addition to the personal benefits.

Executive coaching is a powerful tool in organizations. Often in the midst of change initiatives, anxiety starts to appear in many forms such as resistance to change and interpersonal and organizational conflicts. Performance can begin to waver, or worse, to fail. Coaching provides a confidential forum for a leader, or any employee, to reflect on his/her professional goals, to assess performance strengths and weaknesses, and to set expectations for self- or team-improvement. When an individual works with a coach, the investment translates into a higher level of organizational performance in addition to the personal benefits.

Work Culture Assessment and Transformation

	Work culture is either a catalyst for or a barrier to the success of change.

Each team and organization develops its own work culture over time. When a change initiative is undertaken, the work culture is either a catalyst for or a barrier to the success of that change. If you are shifting from a traditional business model to one based upon the principles of sustainability or the triple bottom line – the planet, people, and profit – then a work culture transformation may be the place to start the journey. We help the organization define the desired work culture. Next, we develop a work culture assessment unique to your situation to identify the values, beliefs, and behaviors that form the basis of the current culture. We explore what’s working (or helpful) and what’s not working (or not helpful) in the current culture vis a vis the desired work culture. To establish the work culture you want, we design a transition plan to transform the workplace, plus help you implement that transformation.

Strategic Planning, Process Redesign, and Change Management

	Maintain positive momentum by being clear and consistent in sponsoring change, creating organizational alignment and commitment to change initiatives, and responding to change management issues.

Establishing a future vision and the strategic plan for reaching that vision is paramount for effectively leading change. We help you create and align around a clear vision and direction, define measurable goals, set achievable strategies, and identify roles and responsibilities to accomplish specific tactical plans and change initiatives. One technique we employ using The Natural Step approach to sustainability is "backcasting" from the future vision to individual action items to get there. In addition to helping you formulate a strategic plan, or sustainability plan, we help you identify the measures of success to monitor progress. Acting as an "extra set of eyes," we often recognize the telltale signs of gaps in organizational support or misalignment of resources faster than insiders typically spot them. We bring such gaps to leaders’ attention, and assist you in easing mid-stream course-corrections.

	"In only 4 weeks, we've accomplished dramatic changes in the way we serve our 43,000 customers. The staff is highly motivated and moving forward at a rapid pace. We would not have been able to make the improvements without Zoom For Change." Lois Churchill, Dep't of Public Health State of Iowa

Instituting process redesign or process improvement teams – sometimes called "green teams" when moving toward sustainability – is often a key element for meeting an organization’s vision. In collaboration with Outside Edge, Inc., we have created a comprehensive yet streamlined program called Zoom For Change to establish and support process improvement initiatives. Our three-part approach ~ leadership consultation, ZOOM team training, and post-training coaching and team facilitation ~ has proven success with over 40 teams and organizations. Unlike stand-alone training, this complete program fully prepares your organization to successfully lead, implement, and sustain your change initiative to produce customer-oriented, sustainable, bottom-line results—fast!

A big part of any organization's success is the leader's systematic attention to change initiatives and change management issues. We assist leaders in being clear and consistent in sponsoring change, creating alignment and commitment throughout the organization to change initiatives, and responding swiftly to implementation issues and roadblocks so that positive momentum is maintained. As an objective third party, we readily notice resistance, conflicts, and misalignments. We bring these gaps to leadership's attention, and create a safe environment to explore and resolve change management issues.

Interpersonal Communications and Conflict Management

	Directly dealing with misunderstandings or disagreements, versus allowing unresolved conflicts to fester frees up everyone’s energy enabling all employees to be at their best.

Poor interpersonal communications and conflict management are barriers to reaching your organization’s vision and goals, and can impede the successful implementation of change initiatives. Even if everyone agrees with the overall vision and direction, the strategic plan, or the sustainability plan, conflicts will still happen. It’s natural. Directly dealing with minor misunderstandings or major disagreements, versus allowing unresolved points of difference or conflicts to fester underneath the surface, frees up everyone’s energy and enthusiasm, enabling all employees to be at their best. We offer training, coaching, and neutral third-party mediation to enhance interpersonal communications and to enable productive conflict management throughout the organization.

Custom Design Meetings and Facilitation, Team Retreats, and Team Building

	Successful meetings build team confidence and cohesion while generating real results on current work issues and challenges.

Sadly, people often leave business meetings, team retreats, and team building sessions with the impression, "That was a waste of time!" With today's rapid pace of change and the urgency to create more sustainable business practices, there is no such time to waste. We collaborate with executives, managers, and team leaders to specify the goals and outcomes for any type of meeting. We then custom design the working session with these in mind. During the actual meeting, we maximize everyone’s contribution and participation – as well as enhance the commitment to post-session follow-through – via our expert facilitation and in-the-moment interventions. Holding successful meetings, team retreats, and team building sessions helps build team confidence and cohesion while also generating real results on current work issues and challenges.

Implement Sustainable Business Practices, Achieve Your Objectives
Contact us to see how you can overcome the roadblocks that are keeping your team, department or organization from achieving its objectives.