Leadership Coaching

Overview

A large US government agency responsible for tax collection and enforcement has been undergoing efforts to improve its employee engagement levels and become an employer of choice. The Human Capital Office is responsible for ensuring the success of every operating unit by providing human capital strategies and tools for recruiting, hiring, developing, retaining and transitioning a highly-skilled and high-performing workforce to support mission accomplishment. We were engaged to work with the executive team and Human Capital Office’s Special Project staff to ensure the critical link between the people and the business strategies and organizational success by improving the employee engagement levels and overall leadership capacity service wide.

Approach/Solution

We applied our performance management, facilitation, leadership development and coaching methodologies to this project. At the beginning of the project, the focus was on providing coaching to managers and their workgroups to create action plans to address the annual employee engagement survey results. However as time progressed, leadership responded so well to the coaching concept, that managers were referred or self nominated to receive assistance for both personal and organization success. We have coached approximately 400 managers and workgroups throughout the enterprise.

Throughout the coaching engagements, we applied organizational development and conflict management expertise which includes developing strategies, conducting workshops, and other interventions to resolve and mitigate conflict. We used our skills in interpreting quantitative data, such as employee survey results and customer satisfaction studies. We used our analytical tools to quickly diagnose the organization and help management determine the appropriate interventions to address the challenges facing the individual and/or the work group. Our efforts, process and results consistently exceeded the manager and workgroup expectations and facilitated marked improvements service wide.

Results/Key Metrics/ROI

• Provided tools to help managers identify, address and remove barriers to customer satisfaction and employee engagement at the organizational, branch, workgroup and individual level
• Identified the next steps and worked with the managers on individual actions plans for improving the work environment, customer service levels and overall productivity
• Provided processes, tools and techniques to for the managers, leaders and staff to use to improve leadership skills, remove barriers to organizational success, interpersonal conflicts and sustain improved performance improvement within the organization.
• Helped managers understand their role and how they can use leadership skills to achieve their objectives through others

Leadership Development

Overview

The United States’ ability to detect and counter bio-terrorism depends to a large extent on the scientists and researchers in biomedical science. As the threats change and missions evolve, our national research and development institutes routinely face the daunting task of successfully attracting, hiring, assimilating, and training hundreds of new employees to meet the changing needs. These include hard to find talent such as scientists, lab technicians, research associates, and administrative personnel. The WHG consultants were members of a consulting team engaged to transform employee assimilation and development. Our role was to work with new leadership to design the strategic planning process, conduct working sessions to make the strategic plan actionable as well as providing overall program management support to ensure the plan was executed. Task included the design and delivery of strategic planning session, organization transformation, change management, work process and policy design and implementation, assimilation, retention, mentoring, and systems solutions.

Approach/Solution

We applied our strategic planning, organization development and change management methodologies to this engagement. First we worked with the executive sponsor to design the strategic planning session that would create the call to action needed to address the changing mission and evolving needs of the organization. We conducted workshops with the leadership to determine the organization structure and operating model and a road map for achieving the organization’s revised mission. We provided business advisory and program management support. This was a collaborative project where we worked in partnership with the client to ensure successful strategy execution.

Next, the team led the process for institutionalizing adaptable processes and developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure consistent service delivery. The goal of the SOPs was to rely less and less on contractor support and train internal staff to execute the processes efficiently. In this capacity, we served as the process facilitator and subject matter experts regarding best practices and procedures for typical learning and development and project management processes. We worked with the client to develop processes and protocols that ensured comprehensive front-end requirements analysis and diagnose issues that allowed the organization to identify systemic performance problems and address root causes as they developed and deployed new programs. SOPs were used in design and development of new training and assimilation programs. The SOPs are still being used today.

We then designed, developed and refined the classroom training sessions that accompanied the key development and assimilation programs—Navigating and Mentoring. We managed and coordinated the design and development efforts of key programs from needs assessment to evaluation. We designed, developed, delivered and provided program management support for the mentoring program used to facilitate knowledge transfer and more rapidly develop leaders and scientist.

We developed learning and knowledge transfer solutions, designed management systems, and SOPs that incorporated industry best practices and leveraged cost-efficient, schedule-responsive processes.

Results/Key Metrics/ROI

• Provided a strategic planning framework and methodology for executing the plan
• Created a new culture – that embraced innovation, speed and efficiency
• Introduced new tools to accelerate indoctrination and development processes
• Improved process efficiencies and reduced administrative cycle time
• Oriented and assimilated hundreds of new employees, training them on agency unique topics
• Implemented web-based solutions and performance support strategies to support new hires and new managers throughout the assimilation process
• Worked with leadership to build organization capacity and future potential

Human Capital Transformation

Overview

A large strategy and technology consulting firm has been helping clients solve their toughest problems for close to a century. We were engaged to provide a systematic, best-practices based approach to communications and change management for the firm's PeopleSoft implementation within HR. While the initiative established a technology foundation for the firm's future, it did not offer many compelling or immediate benefits for employees. Despite this, the communications and change management efforts needed to inspire and motivate employees to embrace change willingly and quickly.

Approach/Solution

We applied our integrated communications and change management (ICCM) approach to this project. We first met with key stakeholders over a period of time to "build the big picture." The big picture provided the organization with a pictorial vision or end point that the program was trying to achieve. Next we performed a change-focused stakeholder analysis. This analysis focused first on identifying the key stakeholder groups and then identifying their change and information needs. We identified items such as, what they know about this program, how it will benefit them, what is going to be difficult for them, what they need to understand, and how we want them to behave.

After the stakeholder analysis, we developed targeted messaging and a message platform for each audience. Our platform focused on an authentic message that communicated the programs strengths and challenges. We communicated what made this program unique and sustainable, and why it was relevant to each stakeholder group, identifying "what's in it for me?" Before launching the ICCM campaign, we tested and refined the solutions and the messaging - facilitating focus groups, hosting webinars, and conducting surveys. These activities allowed us to socialize the solution and our communications tactics prior to turning the campaign into a tactical and executable plan. Finally, we evaluated our efforts in conjunction with the evaluation of the program - how successful were we in achieving our goals? Our evaluation helped us redirect and refine certain elements of the program.

Results/Key Metrics/ROI

• Provided a framework and a forward-looking plan that helped to guide activities, reduce ad-hoc communications and ensure the delivery of information to various audiences with the right information at the right time
• Created a unifying brand, message platform and visual identity
• Worked innovatively by moving beyond traditional channels to creatively reach and engage employees
• Worked closely with the firm's leadership groups (for example, HR Managers and senior frontline managers) to carry the message and be advisors and implementers of the change
• Worked closely with the firm's marketing and communications resources to fully leverage firm-wide messaging and vehicles, and adhere to existing brand guidelines
• Helped employees to see beyond the baseline capabilities of the systems to envision the transformation's future potential