Consulting with Tech Company Founder
Consulting with tech company founder rekindles his passion, which leads to a new $10 million business initiative!
Challenge
An IT company’s CEO asked me to solve an unusual problem. The company founder was a young man of 22. As with many startups that grow exponentially, the young software genius had hired an experienced executive to run the company.
Soon, the founder was coming in later and later every day. The CEO saw this as a red flag: The founder seemed disengaged, and his behavior was impacting employee morale.
Solution
I consulted with the CEO regarding the situation and the approach I would take to ensure we did not work at cross-purposes. Next, I held several one-on-one discussions with the founder, with the goal of rekindling the passion and the extraordinary level of involvement that came so naturally when he was developing the business. The founder began to re-engage and his level of involvement took off, including arriving early at work.
Once we had rekindled the spark, the founder recommended a business initiative to the CEO and took on the assignment with gusto. Within 18 months, he developed a $10 million subsidiary operation!
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NYPD Police Chief Stress Management
The NYPD sought stress-management skills for Police Chiefs
Challenge
Remember Frank Serpico? He was the New York City undercover cop who revealed extensive corruption in the NYPD. As a result of this disclosure, the Serpico Commission convened and set forth multiple recommendations. The first priority of the commission was to provide the police chiefs with stress-management skills.
Solution
As a result of NYPD’s interest in my Thrival work, I was privileged to present two 2-day stress-management seminars that included all of the NYPD police chiefs and the Commissioner. The chiefs immediately put to use the stress-management techniques to deal with emerging issues. For example, the 55th precinct was under investigation for a new scandal, and a particularly large and potentially explosive meth lab was discovered in Manhattan and shut down. No single day was without challenges. And even small steps like turning down the ringer on an office phone were found to help reduce stress.
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Laboratory Accuracy Threatened by Staff Soap Opera
Drama distracted lab staff from focusing on professional issues
Challenge
This federal scientific laboratory is responsible for assuring accurate test results, which hold life-or-death consequences for many US citizens. The team’s specialization and expertise required continual initiative and precise communication among staff members.
Instead, there was a great deal of drama. A chief problem was high-school-like cliques that resulted in people feeling excluded, demeaned, and bullied, which caused low morale and placed an inordinate focus on personal – rather than professional – issues.
I was engaged for organizational development consulting and I began interviewing all managers and employees. When questioned, the lead manager provided well-rehearsed, textbook-perfect responses about the team’s situation. Backed by my extensive management experience and psychological training, I determined that this manager was bluffing by always saying the “right” thing, but failed to produce any normal outcomes. Then the manager took an extended sick leave, making it impossible under EEOC procedures to implement corrective action. To make matters worse, my contract came to an end.
Solution
A supervisor with management experience in the military had an excellent grasp of management practice. She was alert to the sensitive issues and ready to step up and manage the situation. Plus, she was motivated to build a case in which this sociopathic manager could rightfully be terminated.
In this scientific lab, the team was required to function at a high level – an exacting level – to produce accurate test results. The organization dealt with life and death issues. People’s lives were at stake. For over 2 years, free of charge, I maintained phone consultations with this supervisor to guide and support her, restore morale, and offer guidance to restore the operation to function effectively. For me, restoring public safety with safe practices and procedures were of primary importance, even though the consulting contract and funds had ended.
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Facilitating FDA Communication
Improved FDA managers' communication and leadership skills shortened the approval process and cost for medicines and medical devices
Challenge
The Food and Drug Administration approval process for medicines and devices drew criticism, because the approval process took so long. This increased consumer costs and delayed getting vital new products to market. The process was protracted due to deficient management skills and poor communication throughout the ranks and between department “silos.”
Solution
As part of a team of facilitators, I worked with over half of the 900 FDA managers to improve their communication, team building, and leadership skills. Over the course of 8 years, I facilitated open, honest, and results-proven workshops. As a result, the organization significantly streamlined its approval process, due in large part to improved management practices and communication skills (guided by Myers-Briggs assessments). These changes were essential to breaking down silos and getting the job done!
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Consulting with the American Red Cross
Quality Assurance Division organizational improvement provides a vital milestone in recertifying the US blood supply
Challenge
Back when the national blood supply was not certifiably safe, the FDA required the American Red Cross national organization to improve its protocols and practices to get recertified. I was called in by the Quality Assurance Administrator (this division’s top leader) to improve the functioning of his division and the professionalism of his directors through direct interventions with QA Directors and division seminars.
Solution
Improvements began to occur immediately after my initial one-on-one consultations with individual directors. Specifically, the directors began to take initiative! I split my consulting time between advising the QA directors and the QA Administrator, who needed to adapt his leadership style to support his directors’ new-found initiative. The entire Quality Assurance division broke through intra-departmental silos and began to collaborate and function at a higher capacity as a team – accomplishing a critical milestone in the recertification process.
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Strategic Planning with AARP
Facilitating nationwide strategic planning guides AARP to identify fresh strategies to meet members' needs and to empower the organization's Advisory Council
Challenge
As a consultant, I worked for AARP in two capacities: (1.) I ran and synthesized the results of 4 regional meetings of AARP staff members nationwide. The goal was to identify and meet future trends and anticipate needs of AARP members in the near future. (2.) I facilitated the Executive Director’s Advisory Council to support their goal of being heard by the Executive Director in order to influence policy and make improvements at the highest level.
Solution
As the meeting facilitator, I led vibrant and fruitful discussions to elicit ideas, then prioritized and developed the best ideas. We combined those with best-of-the-best ideas that came to light in the regional meetings. Through these facilitated discussions, fresh strategies arose to predict and meet the organization’s and members’ future needs.
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