Leadership, Communication, Teamwork to the Rescue
A standard approach to a Case Study is financially focused and action-driven. It is a quick overview of the situation:
- Essential needs
- Key areas where our services were provided
- Value created
- Financial savings & financial achievements
It is a quick way to articulate a baseline and a bridge identifying what is going on and, most importantly, an opening to those dynamics in place that create the situation. From there, deep collaborative investigations derive discoveries that make changes occur in a way that accomplishments can be made at a level beyond what any traditional approach could achieve. In the standard approach, as in a newspaper article, what goes on behind the scenes is most interesting and most important—that’s where understanding dynamics come into play.
We are a unique resource for businesses needing successful change or wanting to grow/expand. Growth is driven for many reasons but that’s a topic for another day. We’re unique in that we are not solution-driven, focused on what is wrong. We look to what is right, what sources of power and success already exist and are in play. Many of these forces are human in nature and/or underlying patterns, habits, challenges, restrict thinking and decision making.
Focusing on what is right (not looking for what is wrong) has made us much more successful with our clients for many years. Success is achieved in goals accomplished and helps team members engage or come alongside to support the process, instead of worrying about blame and diminishing and marginalization that goes with it. This is a more human approach and there is much less drama while allowing everyone to get things done, sooner rather than later.
We are also situation-driven: What is going on? What is happening? What does the landscape tell us? Like an Architect, we approach the situation and the business as what it can be, while considering where it was going when it got derailed or stalled because direction was lost. As is essential with architecture, our work is to design and create how things fit together for the future. From there, we create a master plan to bring the business to where it needs to be. Uncluttered by what’s wrong and how to fix it, we can move forward much more quickly, efficiently, effectively.
Our plans are dynamic and essential to our combinational approach of being a Shepherd and a Project Leader at the same time. Often using the S.H.A.R.E.™ Tools (our proprietary communications program), we reach out to train team members to be more effective in how they work with others to achieve a more team-centered approach for making the plan work. As Champion for the business overall, with us and the project itself, team members are able to attain a superior level of cohesiveness and group focus. Often, it is as if they have been waiting for a helping hand to come along so that they can move into action.
Our focus on the Situation plus creating a true team — not focusing on what is wrong (not looking to blame) — is essential in making the difference for greater success. This helps create a culture where Change is always in Motion. We don’t have to worry about what we do next as we are consistently creating and managing change successfully.
INTRO for Case Study 1
Download PDF
Stowe Management Corporation Case Study – Accounting Firm
From interviews we conducted in this first Case Study for an Accounting Firm, managers and the staff wanted to step forward and run the Firm while the Partners worked with us to deal with strategic and global challenges and necessary steps forward. With our training and coaching, team members became able to attain a superior level of cohesiveness and group focus.
More than communication or conversation, our program/training became the catalyst for the Firm’s team members to open up to each other, to us and to Firm leaders.
We helped this client create a management team structure and compensation incentives that allowed team members to run the Firm and be accountable to themselves, the clients and owners. All this became possible when they were able to communicate with each other and with us.
In our next edition, we will highlight another case study and reach into some additional perspectives into how success can come from many different directions.
