What We Do
We specialize in helping organizations build the infrastructure for ongoing, positive change using Human-Centered Leadership. We focus on building the capacity of senior leaders, middle managers, and front-line workers to master three critical skills:
1) building a culture of trust
2) using data to make smart decisions
3) communicating in ways that inspire
Why We Do It
There’s a popular saying in the corporate world: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” No matter how wonderful the strategy, if relationships on the team are strained, the organization's efforts won't be successful over the long term.
Pretty much all managers want to foster effective culture on their teams -- but most simply don't know how. That's because most supervisors are unaware that they are creating culture using the OLD method of management.
This traditional style is based on a factory-based model where people at the top tell those underneath them what to do, and if those underlings don't comply, they get penalized - sometimes harshly. It's a pretty standard practice that built on what we knew about motivating employees at the time. But we now know that this model of management leads to huge levels of disengagement at work, diminished efficiency, perception of favoritism, conflict, and about 85% of people hating their jobs (Gallup, 2017).
On the other hand, the New method of management (AKA Human-Centered Leadership), flips our understanding of power and offers ways to engage employees using techniques that catapult organizational efficiency, collaboration and innovation. It’s not hard to learn, but it is relatively new to our knowledge of how to engage teams.
Some may be nervous to dip their toes into these waters because it includes developing emotional intelligence. Many don’t want to deal with messy stuff like that at work because emotions are weird and hard to navigate. It’s easier to just ignore the relationship elements and focus on the deliverables.
That’s where our group, the Center for Transforming Culture comes in. We make it easy for newbies to learn the ropes on creating high-performing culture by providing concrete systems that are easy to understand and simple to implement. This isn't a Kumbaya approach. We use data-driven tools and step-by-step guides to help make nebulous concepts like trust-building and creating psychological safety feel more practical to apply – especially in fast-paced environments.
The research is showing that when managers implement these tools and systems, there’s a huge uptick in team performance in a bunch of areas including: increased productivity, improved quality of work, reduced employee absenteeism, better collaboration, more innovation, and more joy and wellness. (There's also a huge decrease in things like employee apathy, conflict, gossip, and perceived favoritism.)
We believe that all organizations will thrive at surprisingly higher levels when they’ve transformed their culture and developed an environment that supports high-performing teams. Our mission is to help as many organizations as we can through the transformation process.