Client Success Stories
hr administrator becomes valued strategic partner
“I just crossed the graduation stage, having earned my MBA! I feel a level of confidence I was hoping for. My VP has openly praised me and my work publicly, recommended me for an extra raise, and said in part, ‘She has become an invaluable advisor to the VP and executive managers in this division.’ He recognizes how I’ve become more analytical, strategic, and business-focused in problem solving. The conversations and interactions are very different than they were two years ago and much of the time he listens and takes my advice! I have become a prominent voice that advances the thinking at the table. You may be tired of me thanking you but truly, I likely would not have embarked on this journey when I did without your coaching.”
-University HR Director
From small professional society to global leader & change maker
This health-care organization board, which includes MDs, RNs, academic researchers, administrators, and clinicians, needed astute attention to group dynamics as well as a new vision. The organization’s purpose is to advance lower-cost, safer alternatives to a common surgical practice.
Before our work together, it was a small society of passionately driven visionaries and advocates who conducted and shared research among themselves but struggled to advance their cause beyond their own borders. The first strategic plan we built together, according to the organization’s president:
“brought us to our biggest aha moment, which was our purpose, and the difference between being a professional society and a mission-driven non-profit organization. It has helped guide and discipline us and define the kind of work we take on.”
Their bold, new vision was to challenge “business as usual” and make their system the global standard of care. By choosing to become an organization of leaders and influencers, with a key (or “lever”) strategy of increasing medical professionals’ and patients’ awareness, they were able to build momentum.
“It has helped guide and discipline us and define the kind of work we take on. We’re better able to understand which piece we’re working towards in any given moment. The end-product was a very useful format for us – the boiled-down plan, very productive.”
Just three years later the landscape had changed dramatically. Their chief competitor, a well-known, worldwide organization, had gone from rejecting to embracing the concept, and the organization’s leaders wondered whether their work was done or what to do next. And so the next planning process was designed to take them further and create even more rigor.
The team realized their mission and vision were still on target, but that they needed to make more concrete plans, objectives, and timelines. “The second time was meatier, harder, because a lot more homework came with it and it took time. It forced us to really align projects and decisions and metrics with reality and bring us a lot more back to the practical aspects of getting our work done. We’re very good at the visionary, but you also need to address your metrics. It helped transform us into an organization much more metrics and vision driven. This time, you helped us a lot with the what and how vs the why.
“You build the right framework, teach them the right skills and principles, and we still have to go out there and do it. You taught us the discipline of discussing what’s really important. I still refer back to those sessions. ‘Do you remember when we had the strategic planning session? We realized xyz, this was one of our key strategies.’”
The organization is rapidly realizing its vision in the U.S., with positive results for hospitals and for patient outcomes and safety. Two other countries have adopted the practice as a standard of care, and a third has begun implementing it. Our third strategic plan together in our long-term working relationship focuses on global expansion.
New strategy guides a successful leadership change
A statewide partner of a national organization whose purpose is to develop and support successful historic downtowns needed a new mission and strategic plan. The most transformative result of the planning process was the realization that it was the only organization in the state whose mandate crossed every aspect of downtown development – real estate development, financing, zoning, transportation, housing, retail, cultural programs. This shift changed the board and staff mindset from one of primarily serving local neighborhood organizations, one by one, to taking on the role of leading a statewide movement by convening leaders and building partnerships.
A few months after the plan was completed and implementation was underway, the founding CEO announced his retirement. The strategic plan positioned the organization well for the transition: the extended team had a clear and confident sense of direction that helped in the selection of the new CEO and gave him a road map when he arrived. They also credit the plan for the important ability to choose what not to do.
“You want new board members, the CEO, partners, to come in with fresh ideas, but as the keeper of the plan you need to, as objectively as possible, evaluate whether the new ideas advance the big picture you said you wanted.”
The plan has helped guide the organization not only through the CEO transition, but also through board turnover from a large number of term ending. It has kept the staff on task and the organization flexible but true to the mission and vision and its new lever strategy – to lead as a convener and partnership-builder.
The act of planning transforms a culture
University faculty are notoriously independent, and in some disciplines seem to almost pride themselves on being contrary. Following many years of a very centralized leadership, the new dean of a well-known graduate school chose to engage the entire faculty in building consensus about the school’s future and create its first strategic plan in 150 years.
To overcome the hurdle of disagreement, the first planning retreat with the faculty included an exercise to determine what points the faculty agreed on, what issues were not yet resolved, and what issues they considered to be “unresolvable,” or where they could simply agree to disagree and therefore not be distracted by them during their discussions. According to the Dean:
“After eighteen years of no conversation among the faculty about our direction, Nancy’s process allowed us to have much-needed and effective conversation that led the way to a new curriculum and strategic plan. It was immediate in its impact. The conversations allowed us to identify the disconnects in the curriculum: areas of study, separated by areas of expertise – people didn’t have a vehicle to talk across specialties. Strategic planning set up a process by which that became possible. Before we could update and correct a very out-of-date curriculum we had to address deep-seated bad habits of non-communication. Step one was to give us vehicles to communicate, and step two was to use those to address a very specific issue: transforming a long-standing three-year curriculum that wasn’t serving the students or the future well. The result was something forward-looking to offer students, and a process to allow communication across students, faculty, staff.”
In addition to improving communication and enabling an almost-immediate curriculum overhaul, the plan with its new mission and vision has sparked a transformation in how the school sees its role in the world. It is changing the school’s culture, including a fresh emphasis on equity, diversity, and inclusion. A new associate dean has been hired specifically to oversee the plan’s implementation, lead decision-making in a more collaborative way, and screen and select priorities. Students, faculty, and staff feel the difference in how their voices are responded to.
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