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| The Client Perspective |
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Organizations Share Best Practices on Leading Change at the Fourth Annual Forum How do leaders create change? What have we learned about using survey results to improve performance? These were some of the questions and themes at the fourth annual Denison Best Practices Forum: Leading Change. The Forum was held on September 24-26 at the Michigan League on the campus of the University of Michigan.  Dan Denison, Founding Partner, opened the two day event: "We can have the best tools but if people don't know what to do with them, they aren't worth anything. It's through people that we make a difference in organizations," Denison says. "The purpose of this year's Forum was to create a dialog between leaders and give all of us the opportunity to learn from each other." Every Denison client seems to be interested in the same thing: Change. Change in response to a crisis, change to stay competitive, or change to be innovative and proactive in the marketplace. More than just change, though, clients who come to Denison are looking for informed change that truly impacts performance. Leading Change served as the uniting theme between the organizations attending this year and the conversations were as rich and deep as ever. The Forum brought together a diverse group of organizations and presenters to talk about change in their organizations. Keynote speaker, David Barger, CEO of JetBlue Airways, discussed not only the change in JetBlue but the changes in how people experience airline travel and how the current economy in the US is affecting the industry as a whole. Presenters included:
- John W Barfield, Founder and Chairman Emeritus and David W Barfield, SVP The Bartech Group
- Alan Spielman, President and CEO, and Rajani Nelamangala, Vice President Administration for URAC
- Tim Kuppler, Senior Operating Executive
- Roy Castel, Corporate Director of Organization Change, Ingersoll Rand
- Gary Yezbick, VP Operational and Technological Services, Masco Corporation
- Fred Anderson, President and CEO, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative
- Sandra R. Rupp, President, United Way of Washtenaw County
- Donna Duvin, Executive Director, Washtenaw County Chapter of the American Red Cross
- Ken Poff, National Trainer, American Red Cross
- Roger Fraser, City Administrator, The City of Ann Arbor, MI
 During the event, participants shared stories of their organizations engagement with change: from struggling out of bankruptcy, to blending separate cultures through a merger, to increasing revenue, reducing cost and improving morale, even improving the quality of life in their communities. “I can tell you at Denison, we are honored and appreciative of the fact that we get to play a role in all of these changes,” said Bryan Adkins, President. “It’s easy to look at a circumplex and see data, but I quickly learned that it wasn't data, but people and how they work each day in their organizations.” The best practices, challenges, and personal stories shared at the Forum remind us of the significant changes that can happen within organizations and how we each play a part in making them successful.
Using Culture to Recruit Top Talent: HealthPlus of Michigan Ten years of working to build a strong culture has rewarded HealthPlus of Michigan
with accolades from U.S. News and World Report. HealthPlus, located in Flint, MI, is a leading provider of commercial and Medicare/Medicaid health coverage to over 200,000 Michigan residents. Their story is unique in showing one company’s commitment to improving culture and illustrating how a young startup in a volatile insurance market was able to achieve success. 
HealthPlus began using the Denison Culture survey in 1997 and has diligently measured their culture as a key performance metric for the last 10 years. Using Culture to Recruit Top Talent: HealthPlus of Michigan, the latest in our Case Study series, describes how CEO David Crosby and Director of HR Dan Champney transformed their company into a focused, mission-directed enterprise. They were one of five companies nationally to be named among the top 50 commercial plans by U.S. News. They were also listed in the top 25 plans for Medicare and Medicaid for the last three years. They were the only Medicare plan in Michigan to make the top 25 list. The best reward of all has been their ability to attract top national talent to their organization – HealthPlus has seen a sharp increase in interest from potential employees and have had considerable success recruiting people to their Flint, MI headquarters. Access the full Health Plus case study and additional Denison Case Studies from our website. |
| If you have a best practice story to tell, we may be able to feature it in an upcoming Denison Newsletter. Contact Karen Luce for details. |
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| Denison Consulting Network |
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Manage Your Reality with Managing Thought  Are you in charge of your thoughts? Or are your thoughts in charge of you? In her recent book, Managing Thought: How Do Your Thoughts Rule Your World? Mary J. Lore asks her readers to consider these and other questions to explore whether our thoughts help us to reach our goals or hinder us. This thoughtful and practical new book in the business landscape, aims to help each of us tap into our thoughts and harness them to serve our purpose. Lore explores what she calls the three keys to success: self-awareness, self-mastery and being on purpose each day. Without these, she says, “We live each day as we did yesterday…. We have the same frustrations and experiences over and over with different jobs, partners, customers, coworkers, employees, children, and spouses. Essentially, we continue to make the same mistakes," writes Lore.
Managing Thought provides a step-by-step process to help readers become aware of their thoughts, beliefs and assumptions, discover what they truly want in their work and to use the power of their own thoughts to help achieve their reality. She teaches us to consciously choose our futures by choosing our thoughts. We alone are responsible for what goes on in our minds. Managing Thought was honored as the winner in the business motivational category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards, by USA Book News.
Mary J Lore is an internationally recognized leader, public speaker and executive mentor. She has over 30 years of experience serving as a CPA, senior executive, entrepreneur, and mentor to corporate leaders. She serves as a chair for TEC Detroit, A Vistage Company, the world’s preeminent membership organization for the personal and professional development of CEOs. Lore references the Denison Model in Managing Thought and uses the surveys with her clients as a way to explore the underlying beliefs and assumptions of the organization. Managing Thought was also recently recognized as one of the top five self-help motivational audio books of 2008 by USA Book News. Free resources and more information are available at www.managingthought.com. Russia-based tboutique joins the Denison Consulting Network Denison teams up with Training Boutique ( tboutique), Russia’s leading independent organizational development consulting and services company to accelerate the adoption of Denison’s solutions in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.
The addition of tboutique underscores the growing demand for Denison’s diagnostic surveys among Russian and CIS organizations. “We are delighted to have tboutique because of their focus on organizational development, culture and training that fits precisely the profile of our community of worldwide consultants”, said Adam Filler, Managing Director, Denison Consulting, Europe. Dan Denison agrees, "Our objective is to meet the local demand for research based, business focused and innovative organizational development solutions delivered by local experts in their local language. Russian organizations are increasingly seeking local talent to help improve performance, increase the return on assets and improve quality, all of which are core to the fundamentals of business growth."
“We are confident that Denison’s research based diagnostic surveys combined with tboutique’s expertise in OD and training we are able to provide the most compelling solution to those organizations,” said Mark Kukushkin, senior partner, tboutique.
tboutique was founded in 2004. In 2005, the firm was rated in the top 20 training companies in Russia by the prestigious Career magazine. In 2007, Mark Kukushkin, Senior Partner, was named The Trainer of the Year. In over 3 years the firm has completed over 500 training and consulting projects in Russia and CIS, for over 100 clients in finance and insurance, manufacturing, communications and IT. The firm doesn’t work with tobacco, alcohol and gambling companies as a matter of policy. tboutique positions itself as a leader in the field of organizational culture in the Russian market, this includes diagnostics, consulting and training.
| Do you have a story you'd like to share? We may be able to feature it in an upcoming Denison Newsletter. Contact Karen Luce for details. |
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| Research & Publications |
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Denison Researchers Collaborating on New Healthcare Research Denison researchers are collaborating with Jesus (Jessie) Casida, of
Wayne State University’s Department of Nursing, on new research examining organizational culture and leadership within hospital settings. For his dissertation, Dr. Casida studied the effects that nurse manager’s leadership style has on the subsequent culture of a nursing unit. He published two articles in Nursing Economic$
describing his work with nurse managers for his dissertation as well as the advantages of using the
Denison Organizational Culture survey as an effective tool for hospitals to use to improve organizational performance and effectiveness. Denison researchers are collaborating with Dr. Casida to explore the differences in perceptions of culture between people with different roles in a hospital, such as nurses, physicians, and administrators, as well as looking at ways that organizational culture can impact important organizational outcomes for hospitals such as morbidity and mortality rates, nurse turnover, and patient satisfaction.
At Denison Consulting we pride ourselves on our research. Much of our time is dedicated to staying connected with the research community, collaborating with students and professors at universities all over the world, and presenting our research at conferences and in academic journals. Our extensive research network is one distinct advantage that we have over our competitors that allows us to provide the best and most innovative research for our clients. If you would like more information about our research network or to find out how to become a part of it please visit the
For Researchers page of our website. To learn more about our other research projects or find out how you can get your organization involved, please contact your Denison Client Manager today! |
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| Denison News & Notes |
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Dan Denison Presents Keynote Address at CONARH Dan Denison was recently featured as the keynote presenter on behalf of IMD at the 34th CONARH in Brazil. CONARH, the National Congress on People Management, is the largest congress in Brazil and the yearly conference brings together thousands of organizations and professionals to discuss people management in organizations. His presentation, entitled Building a High Performance Business Culture, was delivered to over 2000 participants supporting the theme of Cultura de Valor: Inspirar, Engajar e Superar (The Value-Added Culture: Inspiring, Engaging and Excelling). Marco Dalpozzo, executive vice president of human resources for Vale gave the introduction and commentary. New Team Members at Denison   Denison welcomes the addition of
Alice Wastag, Ari Black, Bill Bass, and Paul Curran to our staff. Alice Wastag and Ari Black both join our Client Manager team. Alice has a Master's graduate degree in Industrial/Organizational psychology from San Diego State University. Her research interests from graduate school include how personality is linked to work performance. Ari Black holds a Mater's Degree in Human Resources and Organizational Development from Eastern Michigan University. Both Alice and Ari are eager to help organizations through the culture change and leadership development process.  Bill Bass joins our IT staff. Bill received his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20 with a whopping 5 KB of RAM, in the early eighties and has been hooked on developing software ever since. As part of the IT staff, Bill’s responsibilities include supporting all existing applications, keeping on top of industry trends to create new and innovative applications, and working with members of the Denison Consulting team to provide the great solutions to our clients. Paul Curran joins us as a Research Intern. Paul is a 4th year doctoral student studying Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Michigan State University. His work at MSU focuses on a number of topics including personnel selection, feedback mechanisms, psychometrics, and leadership, to name a few. His master’s thesis was on the topic of goal setting, and worked to explain differential goal setting effects across different experimental environments. Visit the Meet Our Staff page of the Denison Web site to meet the rest of the Denison team. |
Tough Times call for Positive Leadership: Founding Partner, Bill Neale, was recently featured in a story advocating the value of positive leadership to help organizations through tough times. The article gives practical advice for keeping things positive in your organization. Read more in Positive leaders.
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As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. If you have a
comment or question about this newsletter, or would like to suggest a story for a
future newsletter, please contact Karen Luce.
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