How Can I Help?

Together, we’ll focus on strong collaboration...

My process emphasizes sharing expertise and building trust. I work with you to accurately assess your current situation, identify goals and aspirations.

I am sensitive to your organizational life cycle, your strengths and areas for development, your passion, and what is important to you.

  • Challenges Clients Face

    Every client has unique strengths, challenges and opportunities. But there is one common theme that runs throughout the work I do. Few organizations can afford to stand still in the face of global and local forces of change, including:

    • Competition spurred by technology and innovation
    • Multiple generational and cultural differences in expectations within the workforce, among consumers and other stakeholders
    • The breakdown of traditional hierarchical structures
    • Ever-present access to new information that leads to assumptions being challenged, influences the demand for products and services, and how quality is perceived
    • Regulatory changes and economic conditions impacting markets both short and long term


    Adapting to change is the new normal, calling for constant learning, agility and feedback.

    The driving force in nearly every engagement is hyper-rapid change, some of which is obvious, some of which is hidden. The world moves quickly on so many levels that everyone is focused on just keeping up. It is easy to forget that below the surface, everything inside the organization is changing too.

     

    Are any of these familiar to you?

    • The team is not on the same page as me with regards the direction we are heading…
    • My No. 2 is weak: he won’t hold people accountable…
    • We’ve recently dropped the ball on a couple of important deadlines…
    • I have some difficult personalities on my team…
    • We need help with our strategic plan…
    • I need help with my Board…
    • We acquired a company last year and we’ve got some problems
    • We need to attract top talent to stay competitive but what’s the best way? A search firm is too expensive…
    • We need a competency model to develop a new performance evaluation system…
    • I need smarter people working for me…
    • We’re growing really fast, I worry the shoe is going to drop…
    • I am not sure what I need to focus on to be a better leader…

     

    Challenges like these present problems for internal and external functionality, and they often mask greater issues just below the surface. I’ve successfully worked with clients across the globe to address these and deeper issues, helping them to identify priorities and manage the forces of change.

  • We’ll Begin with a Thorough Discovery

    I have a succinct, methodical process. Working with you and your team, I lead discussions where we identify visible challenges that call for change. Then we dig deeper to understand what ability you have to manage needed changes.

    Uncovering what is covert

    Without fanfare and overblown bells and whistles, the work I do starts with engaging your system, team, group(s) and stakeholders, honoring where you stand today. Fundamental to all the work I do is asking questions, encouraging conversation about today’s experience and your aspirations for tomorrow. Often the presenting problem is just the tip of the iceberg, and so I go deeper to understand the resistance to change and tap into innovative thinking.

     

    Supporting team dialogue

    I work with you and your team to build awareness of:

    • The level of clarity around mission, strategy, and priorities
    • The level of shared ownership
    • The level of candor, and any obstacles that are getting in the way of real dialogue
    • The capacity for handling disagreement
    • The capacity for implementing actions arising from decisions

     

    Understanding you first

    No two clients are the same. I respect your uniqueness, your wisdom, and your strengths, and will carefully listen to what you aspire to be and achieve.  My thorough focus on discovery provides me with the necessary awareness of your specific challenges and experiences, so I can bring better insight to our collaboration.

     

    We are in this together

    The thread throughout our work is direct communication. I communicate clearly and directly, encouraging feedback from you, and modeling this commitment to agility and learning. We’ll build trust through our strong collaboration.

  • Next Steps, Managing Change

    Agility is core to the health and survival of organizations, teams, groups, leaders, and managers. Together, we’ll break down the mystery behind effective change and ensure we are effective agents of change operating in a highly effective and ethical manner.

    Blue Apricot Solutions helps to strengthen the core of your organization or team by applying a “systems approach.” Apparent weaknesses in one area inevitably impact not only the area concerned, but the larger system, too. I understand the salient systems within which you operate – and the challenges and opportunities you are facing. Your ecosystem revolves around:

    • Financial viability and success
    • A strong client base
    • Employee engagement
    • Talent management for building agility and teamwork
    • Having a compelling vision ripe for implementation

     

    Together, we’ll understand the complexity of your organization and its interconnected systems, processes, goals and people.

     

    Implementing change

    To encourage and manage change, we’ll pay attention to:

    • Vision
    • Values
    • Capacity
    • Differences
    • Disagreements
    • Conflict
    • Culture
    • Atmosphere

     

    These items inevitably impact performance, sustainability and meaningful accountability.

     

    Clients often have an extraordinary array of needed skills, but they don’t realize it. My non-judgmental curiosity and effective coaching and facilitation, help you to gain fresh perspective. I work with you to help you work through the issues with agreed-upon outcomes in mind, preparing you to be better equipped to handle changes going forward.

     

    Formula for organizational development success

     

    I believe that organizations are essentially made up of people, regardless of the reliance on technology and structure, so I place an emphasis on humanistic values. I pay attention to ambitions, change resistance, morale, turnover, conflict, ineffective teamwork and weak leadership. Throughout all engagements I am mindful of the inevitable resistance to change (RC) at all levels.

     

    This is why I:

     

    • Focus on identifying the level of dissatisfaction with the current state (D)
    • Support you and your team with ‘destination modeling’ to create a clear vision of the future (V), and
    • Help you to execute first steps (FS) to the new future

     

    D + V + FS > RC

     

    My experience in leading change and working with clients has given me perspective on resistance: resistance is normal! In today’s more enlightened climate, I:

    • Encourage you to engage staff at all levels to ensure vision is not just a vision, a plan is not just a plan: employees have ideas and the power to make or break the best laid plans
    • Help you to assess candidly what is working well and where change might be needed
    • Support team ownership of the desired outcome
    • Reduce the ‘fight or flight’ reaction
    • Build a feedback culture that supports honest assessment of the current situation and promotes positive change
    • Build a culture of accountability that is less about blaming and more about curiosity, learning and mutual growth

     

    I believe times change, markets change, economic conditions change – and so can people and organizational culture. When my work is done:

    • You’ll have techniques and facilitation processes to find solutions yourself
    • You’ll have built in buy-in and participation after my work is done

     

    What I leave my clients with is fairly straightforward:

    • A rewarding experience which has made a difference in clarifying, and getting desired change(s) under way
    • Greater awareness of the pitfalls to avoid and the accelerators/facilitators to achieving success
    • A lasting appreciation of the systems thinking approach to organizational wellbeing, leadership effectiveness and problem-solving