Building Collaboration And Team-Based Organizations: There is an ongoing need to collaborate in order to operate effectively within and across organizations. I helped Fortune 300 companies and large government agencies learn the collaborative skills that enabled them to improve their staff utilization, morale and improve productivity using new technology. At Domtar Gypsum, I guided self-managing teams to have the necessary collaboration skills to operate the fastest production line in the world in that industry. I will help you learn the personal and organizational skills of collaboration that support being effective when working with others. I will also help you develop the appropriate collaboration skills to respond effectively in an Enterprise 2.0 environment.
Strengthening Your Knowledge-Based Organization: Being effective at sharing your knowledge and absorbing the knowledge of others is key to organizational success or personal success in working with others. We constantly need to work across cultures where the perspectives, habits, attitudes, behaviors, and guiding missions differ. These cultures can be national, organizational, discipline, or generational. Our efforts at sharing and absorbing knowledge have to take these cultural differences into account.
I have identified tools and developmental experiences that will help both individuals and organizations be more effective in utilizing knowledge. I have provided workshops for the U.S. Intelligence Community that have resulted in building competencies in these areas. I can work with you to identify the tools that will support your effective use of knowledge.
Building Transparent and Open Government Organizations: The Obama Administration has made clear that transparency and openness are criteria for effective governance. Transparency, participation and collaboration are the necessary components according to the President. I have worked over many decades to help government organizations increase their level of participation and collaboration appropriate to the mission and the values of the organization. I have done this with military as well as civilian organizations, in small departments and across entire agencies, with staff and with senior executives and officers. My efforts were recognized in awards and citations by Vice President Gore and the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
IT Implementation and Adoption: Over the years, I have been involved in helping to implement state-of-the-art IT approaches in organizations. This work has included: Introducing CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) in a sub-assembly plant at Polaroid Corporation; Guiding the CIO and Senior Staff of the U.S. Coast Guard in developing a Coast Guard wide IT Strategic Plan; Helping Domtar Gypsum deploy the fastest production line in the world in a newly designed organization using self-managing teams; Deploying Field Of The Future virtual, digital technology covering off-shore oil platforms on a global basis with British Petroleum; Developing the organizational framework for implementing imaging and scanning technology at the IRS. Currently, I am focusing on helping organizations secure the adoption of Web 2.0 tools and Enterprise Collaboration Approaches in pursuit of their mission.
Strength-Based Consulting: I will help you look at the core of your strengths as an individual, as a member of an organization, as a department or as the entire organization. We all do many things well such as interacting effectively with others and as teams or departments. The challenge is to reach our full individual and collective potential. We can build on and expand what is working well. We can continue to develop what is under-developed. I will help you align your strengths with your strategic direction. This can be accomplished through day to day guidance or through more formal approaches like "Appreciative Inquiry."
Improving Effectiveness Through Process and Organization Design: Over the years, I have helped organizations like Polaroid, British Petroleum and the IRS design their work processes and resulting organizational components to match their strategic needs. The approaches that I use tap customer and stakeholder input and utilize the expertise of organization members to arrive at a design that optimizes the technological and people strengths of the organization. At British Petroleum the result was increased offshore oil production.
Successfully Managing Organizational Change: There are many components to organizational change. I utilize a variety of tools, models and approaches that enable an organization to take an encompassing view to change in order to ensure their success. I have a sensitivity to the practicalities of a change process such as the need to build ownership of the change through the involvement of organizational members and stakeholders.
Other aspects of change that I help organizations attend to are: aligning change with the goals and mission of the organization; making improvements to or redesigning work processes and making changes in technology used in the work processes; making changes that impact how individuals and groups work together and the structures and networks they use; developing new skills among employees, managers and leaders and relating change to the organization's culture.
Let's Talk
I would be happy to talk with you about your personal or organizational possibilities and how I can assist you in further clarifying them, preparing for them and achieving them. You can reach me at the email address right above my picture.
