What we do...
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Home *** What we do... *** Who We Work With *** More about Todd
Contact us: todd@toddcook.com
Strategy & Values Execution *back to top*
The challenge with strategy today is that you are building a plan to arrive at some future destination, most of the time knowing that the destination doesn't yet exist. In our approach to Strategy we focus on the direction the organization needs to head, not the destination. This has a powerful effect on the organization, enlisting and focusing all resources in the same direction.
Strategic Planning has become more important in every company -- providing direction in an environment that is consistently changing.
Today more companies, than ever before, have spent valuable time with their Senior Management Teams creating a strategy for their organization. Sad, but true is that the value that most of these companies have received from this effort is a "fat binder" to put on the shelf.
Whether we assist in the initial Strategic Planning process or we are engaging when the binders have started collecting dust - we focus on "execution" - converting strategy to results.
Strategy becomes more than an idea in a binder when someone takes accountability for making it happen. We provide proven processes and tools to assist you in executing your strategy.
Values are also key to guiding an organization. In an environment that increasingly demonstrates that those organizations that do not have core values imbedded in their culture are vulnerable to internal destruction. We provide the experience, tools and processes to define an organizations values and help you instill these desired values with all employees. Values are key to a path of organization success and sustainable results.
Change Management *back to top*
All Organizations are perfectly designed to get their current results. If your company desires different results than you are currently achieving, decisions must be made to better align with your company’s business model, strategy and values.
Our Change Management technology allows you to address organization alignment problems from a systemic and holistic approach which deals with root causes, not just symptoms. This produces sustainable changes that improve your business processes and results.
Many companies find frustration and failure in change their initiatives ... often when they have done a thorough job of getting the "technical fix" right. What they have missed is "change management" elements (i.e. ownership, buy-in, commitment, communications, understanding, the case for change and the vision). We guide and facilitate the process of addressing all the key elements of change.
We use the Change Management model to assess and implement what the organization needs to do differently. The model consists of a series of design elements (formal and informal) that are controllable by management and that drive wealth creation, business results, and employee behavior.
The decisions that management make in their Leaders, Structure, Processes, People, & Rewards shapes the culture and drive business results.
"If you always do what you have always done ...
you will always get what you have always got."
Accelerated Decision Making *back to top*
Critical & important business decisions are often laced with complexity, incomplete information, time constraints, turf issues, etc.
Complicating all of this is that the people making the decisions usually see things differently – each having their own perspective.
Conversations about these important business decisions usually spin in circles - not move forward towards a decision. People continue to have their own perspectives, producing frustration for the group and the organization. Additionally, people often leave these conversations thinking that they have reached a decision only to find that each person has a different understanding of what action should be taken.
We provide the skills and tools that enable groups to effectively speed the critical business decisions.
We help by:
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drawing out the critical information (fact based) to build a common understanding of the issues |
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facilitating each member of the group to advocate their position and reasoning |
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enable people to inquire into the reasoning of others |
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moving the group to a decision that has the commitment of everyone |
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helping the group understand the consequences (positive / negative) for personally keeping their commitment |
Building Organization Capability *back to top*
"Leaders
are people, in pursuit of a common goal, who are builders of men, women, and
organizations becoming bigger than they were and better than they
dreamed" - William H. Clover
We have a proven system with the tools and processes that assist companies in formulating and implementing "talent development" systems that speed the growth of top performers ... driving business results. The system enables both leaders and employees to win.
“Organizations can do a lot to assure that they don’t have good leaders. There are things in the organization, the roots of its culture, the bureaucracy of its processes, that make it very difficult for even talented people to rise and become strong leaders” - John Sculley
The critical question for you to ask is; "Are you and others in your organization willing to make the tough decisions to assimilate dynamic leaders and employees?"
"Nothing our company does is more important than hiring and developing superior talent." - Larry Bossidy
"The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it." "The toughest decisions in organizations are people decisions – hiring, firing, promotion, etc. These are the decisions that receive the least attention and are the hardest to UNMAKE." - Peter Drucker
"…can you put your team against my team? Are you proud of everyone who reports to you? If you aren’t, you can’t win." - Jack Welch
We assist organizations in becoming "GREAT" at Building Talent to Win!
Performance Management *back to top*
Every company has a Performance Management process - some are formal and others are informal. What we have learned from working with organizations is that few have a Performance Management process that is leveraged to drive results.
Performance Management systems cannot be viewed as a "once a year" compliance process, used just to evaluate employees past performance. Performance Management systems that work are used to interact with employees daily to align with organization goals, give timely feedback on progress, and develop needed skills and competencies.
“We have to undo a 100-year-old concept and convince our managers that their role is not to control people and stay ‘on top’ of things, but rather to guide, energize and excite.” - Jack Welch
Performance Management must be usable, value added and result driven. The best systems must be linked to critical organization elements (Strategy, Values, Leadership & Employee Development, Rewards, Culture, etc.)
We provide a proven process and tools to assist you in implementing a Performance Management System that works for your people & organization!
Results Oriented Teams *back to top*
Often we are contacted to work with teams that are dysfunctional. We are asked to help with relationship and turf issues between team members.
Over time we have discovered that working with teams on relationship issues only tends to be a wasted investment. Team Development is best accomplish when focused on driving common goal to achieve team results. The fact is we have many experiences where we have worked with teams that openly dislike each other, but achieve great results.
We have developed a process that brings teams together around goals, accountability and results. This process is based on alignment to the organization's Strategy and Goals. We assist in building trust among members of the team based on the commitments and contribution of each team member.
This is not a three-day team-building workshop. This is a process with tools that a team uses in all of their interactions. The skills and tools used in this process are taught working on current/significant team issues and objectives. Development of these skills takes time, as team members must change their current behaviors and adopt behaviors that deliver the results that each member has committed to.
This process / intervention increases a teams capability to reach or exceed their objectives and productivity.
Executive Coaching *back to top*
We work with executives to assist them in creating the environment that enables both their company and employees to win.
Professional athletes, singers, actors/actress, etc. all engage coaches to build their skills through feedback. This is what is expected and what is needed to be the best in their fields. In fact, most of us would question the judgment of a professional sports team showing up to a game without their coaches.
As with athletes, singers, and other professionals - executives and managers greatly enhance their ability to build their skills through feedback. Many executives get feedback from their organization, but it is often not timely or given in a way that is useful. People in the organization have not developed the skills to give high quality / high impact feedback.
We also find that people improve faster if they have the opportunity to practice new skills before having to try them live in high stakes situations. Engaging a coach provides this opportunity to practice, evaluate, revise and improve without the consequences of making avoidable errors. This practice increases the chances of higher performance when you are on-line it critical conversations and decisions.
We help by:
| assessing and sharing with individuals their strengths and development needs |
| creating development plans to increase their impact and results by leveraging their skills |
| observe and coach them on both the positive and negative impact their behavior and decisions have on others in the organization |
| act as an independent sounding board for their ideas and planned actions |
| bring expertise in business process - helping to generate innovative approaches to organizational & employee issues |