Return to Team Development

Return to Organizational Consulting

November 21, 2002

Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you. We appreciate your openness and your vision for the future.

We understand that the firm wishes to provide leadership and team development to the senior team in the XYZ office. From our earlier conversations with XX, we have incorporated several overarching professional development goals. In combination, our intention is to assist XXX COMPANY in meeting its business goals with less effort and greater satisfaction.

Suggested goals of the initial program for the XYZ office include:

Ø      Increase leadership confidence and competence, enabling the team to more effectively take healthy collective ownership for the overall growth and success of the XYZ Office

Ø      Increase the alignment capacity of the organization (the ability to come together quickly and powerfully to produce exceptional business outcomes)

Ø      Identify factors critical for success, including aspects of the XXX COMPANY culture that support and/or detract from the team meeting its goals

Ø      Build in key emotional intelligence competencies including anger management and conflict management

Ø      Increase customer satisfaction

Ø      Increase employee satisfaction and decrease unplanned turnover and loss of top talent

Ø      Create a program that is seen as a benefit or perk of leadership

Ø      Decrease employee relations issues and employee litigation costs

Ø      Raise the likelihood  that the XYZ office will meet its increased revenue goals for 2003 and in the future

Rationale for Leadership and Team Development

·         Leadership, now more than ever, is critical to the future success of the firm.  In a professional services firm, the firm’s professionals are its most critical resource.  Their ability to attract, develop and retain top talent ensures current and future organizational well-being.

·         Great talent leaves organizations regularly.  Two major reasons include not being able to make a difference and dissatisfaction with the organizational culture, especially the quality of interactions with others.

·         Having a high performance culture maximizes the possibility of achieving extraordinary results. The lack of a high performance culture has many costs including high employee turnover, employee litigation, disgruntled customers selecting other firms, and the degradation of high morale employees to lower morale employees after years of service

·         The cost of losing a high performing employee ranges from 70 to 200% of that person’s annual salary. These costs include recruiting, retraining, lost sales, and decrease in remaining employees’ effectiveness.

·         Research consistently shows that the Emotional Intelligence competencies of leaders positively impacts organizational performance much more than cognitive intelligence or work experience. For example, experienced partners in a multinational consulting firm were assessed on the Emotional Intelligence competencies plus three others. Partners who scored above the median on 9 or more of the 20 competencies delivered $1.2 million more profit from their accounts than did other partners--139% incremental gain (Boyatzis, 1999).

As requested, what follows is an outline for Phase I of the proposed comprehensive program to meet these goals. Again, thank you for the opportunity to present this proposal. We enjoyed speaking with both of you. We feel aligned with the values you bring to XXX COMPANY, and are enthusiastic about the work, the goals and the potential collaboration beginning with co-designing the program.

We would like to schedule a meeting to review the proposal and answer any questions that arise.

Warmest regards,

 Executive Summary: Leadership and Team Development

Suggested Program..

Assessment

Tools Overview..

100% Responsibility.

The Enneagram..

Systemic Thinking.

Dialogue Process.

Stages of Group Development

Leadership Development through Implementation and Coaching.

Suggested Schedule.

Assessment

Action Learning Modules.

Tools.

Action Planning and Follow Up.

Proposal Summary and Costs.

Assessment

Tools.

Dialogue Process, Systems Thinking, Stages of Group Development, Feedback Skills, Leadership Skills, and ongoing consulting in the Action Learning model

Coaching Clinic:

Follow Up Phase.

Initial Agreement on Package Price.

Appendix: The Tools Phase and Emotional Intelligence Competencies.

Biographies.

The High Performance Team Development Process is the culmination of a combined 60+ years working with individuals and organizations. We highly customize all of our work, and thus our recommendations may shift depending on the needs of our clients and/or the results of the Initial Assessment.

Phase I: Setting the Foundation

During the Setting the Foundation Phase we assess the alignment capacity of the organization (the ability to come together quickly and powerfully to produce exceptional business outcomes) and begin teaching essential productivity tools. This teaching is done in the context of Action Learning, applying the tools to an actual project with measurable outcomes.

Tools provide and/or strengthen key competencies that are building blocks to developing a High Performance Team.  Tools included in Phase I include:

• 100% Responsibility, a powerful tool for taking healthy individual and collective ownership of results and promoting effective problem-solving.  A copy of our 100% Responsibility Handbook is enclosed.

• The Enneagram is a tool with remarkable depth that helps people to understand their strengths and blind spots, as well as each other and the organizational culture in which they work. This results in people being more successful as leaders and working more effectively with each other and with the overall organization.

• Systemic Thinking assists the team in understanding the power of context, and addressing root causes rather than energy-sapping symptoms of obstacles to optimal success.

• Dialogue Process helps bring out the best gifts from team members by inviting them to suspend assumptions and create new and innovative solutions.

• Stages of Group Development provides a model for understanding the four very predictable stages that teams go through, and how all need to be addressed to support sustainable high functioning.

• Giving and Receiving Feedback will be strongly emphasized throughout participants’ time together including guidelines, assessments and opportunities to give and receive feedback with each other.

Implementation is the framework within which everything described above will take place. Participants will be asked to identify and collectively carry out business project(s) addressing agreed upon strategic initiatives. In the process of doing so they will be continuously applying what they are learning throughout the program. They will also be asked to report their results to the leaders of XXX COMPANY, allowing them to demonstrate their impact on the XYZ office.

Interactive Preliminary Training Phase

We begin with 90-minute confidential interviews with each of the team members, as well as 75-minute interviews with key internal customers. Doing so allows for:

1. Assessing the alignment capacity of the organization (the ability to come together quickly and powerfully to produce exceptional business outcomes)
2. Customizing the team development process, including assisting the team in separating symptoms from root causes
3. Building rapport with team members
4. Beginning to coach team members and introducing key aspects of the training

Tools Overview

What separates truly effective leaders from their counterparts? Research has consistently revealed that the most important factor is neither cognitive intelligence nor work experience. It is rather a construct called Emotional Intelligence, which includes the competencies of:

Ø      Self-Awareness (including emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment, and self-confidence)

Ø      Self-Regulation (including self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, and innovativeness)

Ø      Self-Motivation (including achievement drive, commitment, initiative, and optimism)

Ø      Social Awareness (including empathy, service orientation, developing others, leveraging diversity, and political awareness)

Ø      Social Skills (including influence, communication, leadership, change catalyst, conflict management, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, and team capabilities).

The Tools described below all have significant impact on Emotional Intelligence. Please refer to the Appendix for details.

100% Responsibility

We have learned that there are some simple, essential tools that, when implemented, radically transform the way groups work together and significantly improves the quality of what they are able to accomplish. 100% Responsibility, developed over the last 9 years, has consistently had powerful impact on teams and organizations. It puts “blame” and “victim” off limits while assisting people in taking healthy individual and collective ownership for business results. It has the potential to significantly change the way people think, feel, approach difficulties, and work together. Introducing this tool greatly reduces power struggles and needless conflict while increasing the innovation and excitement that comes from successfully addressing the key issue in motivation and retention: being able to make a difference. Please refer to the 100% Responsibility Handbook provided.

 We’ve learned that the most effective training on 100% Responsibility takes two half-days with advance preparation. Before the training participants work through the 100% Responsibility Handbook and answer two questions about what they have learned. The first half-day clarifies the essential elements of the tool.  The second half-day focuses on integration of the tool as well as application to current business situations and results. It works best to have at least one half-day between the two training segments.

 Critical benefits of 100% Responsibility

·         This tool provides healthy alternatives to the blaming and victim roles that greatly escalate conflict and impede team effectiveness. 100% Responsibility involves joining with others in the ownership for results, rather than personalizing or blaming.

·         By revealing the off-balance roles taken by “blamers” and “persecutors”, 100% Responsibility is a highly effective tool for anger management, in that it taking healthy ownership for results reduces incidence of anger in the workplace.

·         Taking healthy ownership, or 100% Responsibility, precludes gossiping as well as negative third party conversations. Teams that adopt this tool agree to address issues directly and respectfully rather than talking behind backs. Furthermore, this tool provides a framework for having such conversations be positive and productive.

The Enneagram

Another potential source of conflict is assuming others see the world through the same glasses we do, and therefore that everyone else is a more or less well-developed version of us. From this perspective, we may believe that others are deliberately trying to annoy us when they do things differently. In fact, people do have very diverse ways of approaching the same situations. It’s important for teams to have a common language for approaching differences. We’ve found the Enneagram to be the most powerful and effective tool for doing so. Effective leadership development requires leaders to understand themselves, their strengths and challenges, their filters and blind spots.

 We’ve spent a great deal of time developing expertise with the Enneagram and applying it within a business context.  The Enneagram describes nine different sets of values and filters through which the world can be seen. It does not “put people in boxes.” Rather, it provides a path of healthy development for each type, including how to build on strengths and avoid pitfalls.  Participants have the potential to understand themselves, others, and the organization through new eyes. Energy is freed for productivity and creativity that was previously lost in frustration and agitation. 

 Integration of the Enneagram allows teams and organizations to optimize individuals’ strengths, take advantage of synergy, improve teamwork, enhance mutual understanding and respect, improve leadership, enhance communication, and increase morale, productivity, and employee retention.

 We’ve found that each organization tends to have an identifiable Enneagram type as well. Understanding the organization’s type becomes very helpful in learning to work productively within its culture.

The Enneagram has richness and depth unmatched by other systems of understanding and appreciating diversity. The Enneagram is best introduced through the following process:

1.     Each person takes an online inventory at www.enneagraminstitute.com and reads The Nine Ways of Working by Michael Goldberg along with two other handouts on Filters, False Hopes and The Enneagram Triads.

2.     One four-hour meeting with the whole group for initial Enneagram training

3.     Individual 60 minute meetings with each team member to clarify Enneagram Type

4.     One follow-up four-hour meeting to help people understand their own type and how they can best work with others on the team, as well as how to best work within Company’s corporate culture

Note: The Enneagram is very helpful in anger management. Anger is rarely a primary response. Rather, it is something that covers a more basic inner response. The Enneagram plays a powerful role in identifying the core issues that are covered by responses of anger.

Systemic Thinking

Teams are often bogged down with addressing energy-sapping symptoms rather than focusing on root causes of obstacles. A systemic approach allows them to become more aware of the impact of the context in which they work. As with the other tools, systemic thinking allows members to adopt strategies that maximize the possibility of making a difference, enjoying their work, feeling re-energized, and successfully meeting or exceeding their goals.

 Until teams learn to apply systemic perspectives, they often spend their energy feeling pulled in many directions and struggling with contradictory or unrealistic goals. When strained they may engage in power struggles and blaming, and generally feel frustrated at being unable to make a difference. In summary, a systemic perspective enables the team to effectively strategize on how to best work within the team, within the organization, and with their external environment.

Dialogue Process

This process helps bring out the best gifts from team members by inviting them to suspend assumptions and create new and innovative solutions. It involves attention to four competencies: Listening without resistance or imposition; truly Respecting each other; Suspending assumptions, judgment, and certainty; and Voicing what needs to be said, speaking honestly and openly.

Stages of Group Development

Teams and groups go through four very predictable stages. These include trust building (getting to know each other), task (the most effective way to get it done), power & control (who has it and how is it defined), and closeness or synergy (how to best taken advantage of the collective talents). This is a nonlinear process whereby teams move in, out or get stuck depending on changes in circumstances and membership. For example, a team that tries to do their assigned tasks without sufficient attention to trust building, defining roles, responsibilities and lines of authority may get stuck in power struggling. They may not be able to achieve their goals effectively, or at least not without considerable cost to the individuals and the organization.

Leadership Development through Implementation

We’ve found that significant leadership development is most likely to take place through direct experience. That is why we are asking leaders to take collective responsibility for designing and implementing projects that will address strategic initiatives important for the success of their organization. Interweaving tools, skills, ongoing feedback and support are critical. This action learning is the framework for our leadership and team development programs. An essential element is being able to demonstrate results to others in the organization, and therefore we’re suggesting that the team present their results to the top leaders of XXX COMPANY. See our handout on Action Learning Projects.

Suggested outcome measures include:

¨       Increased overall profitability

¨       Improved communication, both internal and with clients

¨       Improved team building skills

Interactive Preliminary Training Phase

Introduction of the Program and beginning of Tools (two days)

Action Learning Modules

During each module the team will learn new tools and/or leadership skills and apply them to their project(s). They will also be practicing effective feedback skills. Module Two should occur within one month of Module One. Module Three should occur approximately 3 months later, and Module Four approximately 5 months after that.

Action Planning and Follow Up

Follow up will be scheduled according to the outcome of the feedback and the team’s goals.

Interactive Preliminary Training Phase

·         An initial meeting (generally two hours) between the Consultants and Leader for further clarity and understanding of what he perceives to be the goals, strengths and challenges of the team

·         Individual one-on-one confidential 90-minute meetings with each team member (for ten team members, approximately 2 consulting days)

·         Confidential 75-minute meetings with a selected group of internal and external customers, including President and/or CEO. All other meetings would be one-on-one. (2 consulting days for up to 10 such customers)

·         Assessment using the High Performing Team Checklist

·         Data compilation and feedback preparation (2 consulting days)

·         A follow up meeting with Leader and the Consultants for feedback and mutual agreement on next steps

Our package price for this Interactive Preliminary Training Phase is $XX

Tools

100% Responsibility Training:

·         One four-hour meeting with two Consultants to begin training with this tool

·         One four-hour meeting with two Consultants for integration of the tool as well as application to current business situations

·         Six months of ongoing unlimited (reasonable) e-mail and telephone follow-up to answer any questions regarding use of this tool

Our package for the 100% Responsibility training is $XX plus expenses (including $25 for each Workbook).

The Enneagram:

·         Each person takes an online inventory at www.enneagraminstitute.com as well as reading Michael Goldberg’s The Nine Ways of Working and two other handouts.

·         One four-hour meeting with the whole group for initial Enneagram training (two consultants)

·         Individual 60 minute meetings with each team member to clarify Enneagram Type (either in person or on the phone)

·         One follow-up four-hour meeting with two consultants to help people understand their own type and how they can best work with others on the team, as well as how to best work within Company’s corporate culture.

·         Six months of ongoing unlimited (reasonable) e-mail and telephone follow-up to answer any questions regarding the application of the Enneagram

The package price for this segment (assuming 10 participants for the individual interviews) is $XX plus expenses.

Dialogue Process, Systems Thinking, Stages of Group Development, Feedback Skills, and ongoing consulting in the Action Learning model

This includes two consultants for 2.5 additional days in Modules One through Four (that is, days not accounted for by the Enneagram and 100% Responsibility Trainings). The package price for this segment is $XX plus expenses.

The Package Price for Phase I of this comprehensive Team Development Process is approximately $XXX plus expenses.

Additional Expenses: Individual Coaching

Individual team members can complete a self-assessment, coupled with a 360-degree assessment, and receive three coaching session for a package price of $XX per participant.

Modules Postponed to Phase II and Phase III

·         Leadership Development Skills

·         The Coaching Clinic

·         Extended practice with communication skills and feedback skills

·         More opportunities for Action Learning