“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Mark Field, Ford Motor Company

Culture Matters
Kotter and Hesket lead a research project that of 201 companies over 11 years and researched two types of company cultures:  The defensive culture and the collaborative culture and found the following results…

These results are staggering.  The difference between a nine-hundred percent, and a seventy-five percent appreciation in equity value is attributable to the strength of a company’s corporate culture.  It highlights the significance of this often, overlooked issue.  Experience shows that people will do what they do – until they learn something different.  Adding new tools to their tool kit can make small, but significant shifts, that yield long term dramatic and positive results for your company.

We offer:

  • Facilitated strategic planning
  • Team building
  • Leadership development
  • Professional presence coaching

By 2025 Millennials Will Make Up 75% Of Our Workforce.
Lessons from the next generation:

  • “I don’t want to wait till I’m too old to enjoy my life. I want to enjoy my life now.” – Dallen 20
  • “I don’t want to be managed. I want to be lead.” – Aaron 22
  • “I don’t want to be told. I want to be inspired.” -Jessy 29

We want to create organizations that have both gravity and pull for next generation of clients and talent.

Building a Deliberately Developmental Organization
BRINGING A WHOLE PERSON INTO A HOLE(istic) JOB

Imagine a world where what is said in at the water cooler is the same as what is said in a meeting
Imagine a fully engaged workforce where you don’t split your energy by “checking your humanity at the door”

We want to close the gap:

  • Between plans and actions,
  • Between ourselves and others,
  • Between who we are at work and our “real selves,”
  • Between what we say at the coffee machine and what we say in the meeting room.

These gaps are most often created by the conversations we are not having, the synchronicities with others we’re not achieving, and the work that, out of self-protection, we’re avoiding.

Getting to Why

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”  – Simon Sinek

Building a Contagious Corporate Narrative:  According to research by Kegan and Lahey, people prosper when deeply aligned with their strongest motivation – growth.  Specifically, we want to grow in the direction of our core values and purpose.  When organizations, and individuals are clear and committed to a well defined “why” they attract people whose beliefs align with their own.  Together, they build dynamic and agile companies that naturally pull both clients and top talent to their demonstrated beliefs.  As Simon Sinek says, “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they will work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they will work for you with blood, sweat, and tears.”

Bridging the Diversity Gap: Bridging generational differences, or personality style, requires individuals to be able to identify their own difference and style.  More importantly, to hear (or listen into) what another person’s core criteria or values are. Their core values, and purpose, are two of the biggest filters through which they make decisions.  It goes far beyond generation and personality differences.  Creating a compelling organization that is attractive to both clients, and new talent, starts with getting to your “WHY.”

When what you do appeals to more than a client’s head or intellect, and drives to the core of their heart and purpose – you will create contagion.

One Size Does NOT Fit All
Culture –  where people and structure intersect. It is a blend of powerful and elusive factors that we believe makes or breaks the success of a development platform.

To insure sustainable integration, all initiatives is aligned with your organizational:

  • Values and Principles
  • Unique Narrative
  • Specific Language
  • Specific Roles and Responsibilities

CASE STUDY: MOVING FROM OBSCURITY TO THE SPOTLIGHT

Ruby Receptionist, once known as Worksource Inc., garnered Portland Business Journal’s Lighthouse Award for “Fastest Growing Company” five years in a row.  Ruby Receptionist started with four employees.  It now has over 350, is still growing, and grosses 10 million a year.

Its genesis, Worksouce Inc., was an outsourced receptionist company with a core value focused on making businesses efficient.  Sounds solid, right?

Efficiency worked, but listening to customer feedback gave them fuel and power for the future. They learned that although efficiency was important to customers, there was something much more valuable. Their commitment to “making other people’s day” by creating personal connections, to surprise and delight, made them unique and stand out.

To surprise and delight became their working “WHY.”

Based on their focused “WHY” they honed their businesses strategy, and Worksouce inc., became the friendly, surprising and delightful, Ruby Receptionist. Their core WHY is embedded in every part of their culture. They stopped hiring people based on years of receptionist experience and started hiring based on their core value.  Their job postings started reading something like: If making other people’s day makes you happy we want to hear from you. Revenue went up, their employee retention rate grew, and their reputation for excellence got nation-wide attention.  FORTUNE magazine named them one of the top five, “Best Small Company” to work for, four years running.

Ruby Receptionist’s CEO, Jill Nelson says, “The number one driving force in today’s business is knowing what you stand for.”  When you know what you stand for you will attract customers that stand for the same thing.