Target Group: 10+ year old organisations with transition in the management team

Taking on the feeling of being "stuck"
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Organisations with some level of success and history always acquire "debt", for example technical debt or cultural debt. Complexity increases and flexibility decreases. You feel stuck. This is a natural consequence of growth. Change on the management team offers the opportunity for a new beginning. It also often fails. In the best case, that costs significant time and money for the organisation. It can also sink it.

When a new CEO takes over or when the management team composition changes significantly (often triggered by a sale, merger or generational transfer of ownership), everything gets renegotiated; strategy, culture, key posts, processes and values. I have personally found it impossible to transform grown organisations alone. That is why in my opinion, you as the CEO will be much more successful if you have support.

Approach: Action Research in Leadership & Strategy

The combination of deep presence and a structured goal-oriented and reflexive process
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Action research is a globally practices scientific method which is particularly suited for a complex world. The underlying belief is that the pattern that most hinders effective work is observable in the group dynamic of the team. It can best be uncovered in strategy sessions, workshops, off-sites or other important meetings. Most times, this impediment lies on the emotional or interpersonal level rather than on the information level.

Once identified, you need a structured, goal-oriented and reflexive process to improve. From my operational management experience, the main things a CEO should improve are the effectiveness of strategy throughout the organisation, the interpersonal dynamic in the leadership team and the design of the organisation. Those are the highest impact contributions that unlock drive.

The Offering: An extra supportive weight on the management team to maximise transition success

As a CEO pursuing change, you need allies

People do not dislike change. They are afraid of loss. The longer anything has been stable (culture, leadership, individual responsibility or team set-up), the more potential loss is associated with change. And the fear of loss creates resistance. As a CEO, this can be a lonely journey. You need allies to persevere but it might create more resistance than benefit to staff your inner circle with them. As a consultant I offer the supportive weight for the management team.

Very specifically, my offering includes
- the design, facilitation and analysis of strategy-level workshops, Off-sites and important meetings  
- sparring for CEO-decisions, particularly those which are conflicts inside yourself and ambiguous
- 1:1 coaching focussed on the personal development of management team members
- mentoring on conflict resolution and difficult leadership situations

Engagement Model: 1-3 days per month for 2 budget cycles maximise the chance of lasting change

Positive marginal effectiveness ‍

It is widely accepted that change to personal habits takes 21 days when practiced daily. For the transition of a management team to be effective and productive, it needs prove itself for two budget cycles. This is the ideal duration of engagement.
Individuals as well as organisations can handle a certain level of change and not more. Some management teams have monthly strategy days, others focus on working "on" the organisation in a yearly off-site. 1-3 days per month of engagement are enough to keep accountability high and make sure the speed of change is not compromised. It is usually also the maximum a management team can process productively.

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