| |
return to top |
 |
|
| |
| The Client Perspective |
| |
Uniting a Community with Culture  Often times not-for-profit organizations face the same struggles and challenges as for-profit organizations. The economic downturns of the last decade have taken their toll on many organizations and the United Way of Washtenaw County has not been immune to those challenges. Beyond economic stresses however, in early 2005 the United Way of Washtenaw County was facing major organizational challenges – disconnects between the Board of Directors, Staff, Volunteers and the Community they served impeded them from their mission, created strife among their people, alienated them from the community and prevented them from truly serving the people they wanted to reach. They realized that they needed to make some changes and make them quickly to right the ship and get them back on track. In 2005, Sandra Rupp, President, brought together a group of people including Board Members, community leaders and an organizational consultant, Alan Barr, to initiate an environmental scan and development process to transform the organization. When they started the process, the United Way of Washtenaw County was scoring in the 1st quartile of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. They started by getting back in touch with their mission and great strides were taken to align each of the groups around this shared intent. Internal changes within the organization quickly followed to show the community that they were serious about their change efforts. Next the focus turned to the community - together key needs were identified and five focus areas were prioritized. After 14 months of dedicated effort and continuous tracking against their goals, considerable progress had been made by the United Way of Washtenaw County. Scores on the Denison Organizational Culture Survey were considerably higher, now in the 3rd and 4th quartiles, and more importantly, they reached their goals in other key measurements in that time period as well:
- They exceeded their fundraising goals by one million dollars
- They added 2,950 new members and 44 new companies to their membership
- They set an example to other United Ways across the U.S. and were able to share their model with them
To learn more about the United Way’s successful turnaround, access the case study at Making a Culture Connection: United Way of Washtenaw County.
|
| 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. |
|
 |
|
| |
return to top |
|
|
| |
| Denison Consulting Network |
| |
Contributing author, Doug Sundheim, of Clarity Consulting and a member of the Denison Consulting Network offers this food for thought based on his weekly email series. Doug is currently designing a set of his “Weekly Success Tips” that will be part of the Denison Leadership Development Survey action planning resources.
 "Do you think the people who were trying to reach the top of Everest were not full of doubts? For a hundred years, people tried and lost their lives. Not even their dead bodies came back. But still, more people tried...risking...knowing that they may never come back. Why? Because it was worth it. Because in the very risk something is born inside you: the center. It is born only in the risk. That's the beauty of risk, the gift of risk."
--Paraphrased from Osho (1931-1990), Indian Professor of Philosophy, Spiritual master
Eight years ago, while coaching a client, I stumbled upon a very important question. We were talking about the idea of living with "no regrets" when I asked him, "When in your life did you feel most alive?" He reflected for a moment and told me about the summer he overcame his fear of water and learned to sail. When he finished he was grinning ear-to-ear. Subsequently, I have asked hundreds of people the same question and have been struck by the similarity of their answers. In particular I've noticed 3 themes. (1) Nearly everyone describes a scenario in which they pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and took risks. (2) The OUTCOME of taking the risk is rarely the main thrust of the story - it's usually the process of taking them that they remember most fondly. (3) When people finish their story, they've often got a big smile on their face.
Consider This: The current market has some people skittish about taking risks. I can certainly understand their perspective, however I caution clients not to pull back too much. If they do, they miss the true gift of the process. The gift of risk-taking doesn't lie in what you achieve by risking - it lies in who you become as a result of the process. Confident. Engaged. Alive. Furthermore, it isn't something you do once in a while - it's an approach to life. Open. Exploratory. Daring. You know it when you let it slip out of your life. You feel stagnant, lethargic, bored. Risks have no shelf life - yesterday's risks are today's ego trip. Today is new. Re-engage. Re-risk.
Try this:
- Ask yourself the same question, "When in your life did you feel most alive?" If possible share it with your team in your organization.
- Were you taking risks at the time?
- How did the process feel?
- What could you and/or your team do to take intelligent risks now?
Doug Sundheim is a Principal and Co-Founder of Clarity Consulting. Since 2001, Clarity has helped organizations break through barriers that stifle execution and performance. A cornerstone of our approach is identifying Critical Areas for Momentum (CAM’s) – strategic initiatives that must show progress in short time frames (90-120 days). We use these as springboards, taking clients through rapid cycles of planning, action, & learning designed to simultaneously deliver results AND build capability.
Leading in Times of Uncertainty in China  At a recent CEO breakfast hosted by Mobley Group Pacific (Denison Asia) in partnership with RHR International, the topic of discussion was “Leading in Times of Uncertainty”. They had the honor of having 9 CEOs, mostly overseeing Asia Pacific and/or China, from industries including chemical and industrial products, natural resources, and the retail sector and services. The discussion was facilitated by Dr. Joe Allen Cook and Dr. William Mobley, and covered the current economy’s impact on their industries, challenges they are facing, available opportunities, as well as some consensus regarding what is critical for leaders to consider at the moment.  In the discussions, the CEOs agreed that almost all industry sectors are feeling the impact of decreased demand. Most companies have experienced a significant slide for the 3rd quarter and will likely see a similar 4th quarter trend. Accordingly, most are readjusting their goals and growth expectations for 2009. A range of challenges were discussed, among them:
- The squeezing market brings about a challenge in the cost of raw materials - inventory becomes a risk on the balance sheet.
- Motivating performance to get employees to do more with less. Also continuously retaining and motivating your Key Talent will continue to be important.
- Cost control becomes an overriding topic. Where does a company's true value lie and how can it better use its resources? While shutting down factories for many companies becomes an important step in controlling cost, understanding how to effectively manage communication and miscommunication becomes critical.
- Compliance Issues are also an issue. In times like these they are easily put in second or third priority, especially, but they can quickly get out of hand if left alone.
Opportunities: Although all the leaders admitted to experiencing these challenges, they also acknowledged the opportunities this time brings. This time allows organizations to:
- Use the “Sense of Urgency” to implement change. Most of the time the biggest challenge faced with initiating and implementing change is a lack in sense of urgency. Therefore, there is a chance to leverage the current situation in order to implement change and revamp the organizational culture.
- Better manage expectations and continue to develop your best people. Many leaders shared the view that it has been challenging to manage the expectation of a continuous 10~15% salary increase over the past 5 years. The current situation creates an opportunity to better manage this expectation and create a motivation scheme differentiated by performance and thus better leveraging the staff potential.
- Focus on the basics. While many of the challenges/issues are always there, the current crisis and fast change of the market make all the issues more visible, including:
- Knowing the value differentiators that we provide and how to continuously offer them to our customers.
- How to better manage the supply chain and inventory, and optimize the cash flow.
- How to build our talent pipeline and continuously find new opportunities in the market.
The current situation also offers an opportunity for most organizations to focus on the most critical issues and take actions sooner than later, for example, M&A opportunities. The market downturn allows opportunities to find better deals.
| 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. |
|
|
|
|
| |
return to top |
|
|
| |
| Research & Publications |
| |
Innovation and Diversity Research at Denison Diversity and diversity management practices are getting more and more attention in workplaces across the globe. Multi-national organizations not only have to manage the diversity of their workforce across geographic regions, but also need to pay attention to the history and traditions that are unique to each country within their corporate umbrella. To understand how diversity can be better managed in a global setting, we set out to study the effect of organizational culture and national culture on employee’s perceptions of how their organization is managing diversity. To learn more about the results of our analysis, access our Research Note: "Workplace Diversity: Is National or Organizational Culture Predominant?”In today’s fast-paced, competitive marketplace, an organizations ability to innovate is critical to its long term survival. How does an organization’s culture contribute to or hinder their ability to innovate? To understand the link between organizational culture and innovation better, we examined two different organizational indicators of innovation: new product development scores as rated by employees and the growth assumptions based on stock price. To read more about the culture-innovation connection, access our Research Note: “Organizational Culture and Innovation: Understanding the Link.”Additional Research Notes and Case Studies are available from our website. If would like to share your success story or learn how your organization can participate in our ongoing research projects, please contact Karen Luce.
|
|
|
|
| |
return to top |
|
|
| |
| Denison News & Notes |
| |
Defense Logistics Agency and Denison to Present at ASTD Annual Conference
Join us for a presentation at the upcoming ASTD Annual Conference entitled “Smoke and Mirrors or the Real Deal? Leadership Development with Results” on June 1st from 4-5:30 PM in Washington, DC. The presentation focuses on how leadership development can be implemented into a highly-demanding, fast-paced global organization: the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The Defense Logistics Agency is one of the largest government agencies and provides an annual $40 billion of logistics support to the U.S. Department of Defense and has helped with relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, the 2007 California fires, and world-wide natural disasters. Speakers, Ed Visker, Colonel, US Army (Ret.) and Deputy Commander of Defense Distribution and Paula Kluczynski from DLA; and Linda Shaffer-Vanaria, president of Enterprise Coaching; and Ryan Smerek, Researcher at Denison Consulting will address the impact of a leadership development program in DLA from four different perspectives:
- The Business Leader – will show how a commitment to the long haul is necessary and will demonstrate the results of the program over the last two years
- The Program Manager – will show how developmental activities can be systematically interjected into the highly-demanding, constantly changing, working world of supervisors so that learning is directly applicable and immediately transferable
- The Lead Coach – will address the link between self-reflection and leadership effectiveness and will explore the need for "quiet time" for leaders to discern what's really important and to see the big picture
- The Research Associate – will illustrate data showing the measureable behavior changes over time that document real evidence of impact to DLA’s bottom line
|
Denison to present at the 24th annual SIOP conference The 24th annual SIOP conference will take place April 2-4 at the Sheraton New Orleans, Louisiana and we are excited to announce that Denison researchers will be there presenting some of our new research. In one symposium chaired by Ashley Guidroz, Ryan Smerek will present some of his research speaking to the effectiveness of coaching and training programs – particularly for improving leaders’ self-perceptions. In a second presentation, co-authors Lindsey Kotrba and Ashley Guidroz explore how the performance ratings of male and female leaders are impacted by the industry in which they work. Preliminary findings suggest that in male-dominated industries, female leaders’ gave themselves lower ratings than their male counterparts, but in female-dominated industries, male leaders gave themselves lower ratings than their female counterparts. To learn more about either presentation, contact us, stop by our booth at SIOP, or attend either presentation. We hope to see you there! Event Details:
- Title: Common Practices for Implementing and Measuring Leadership Coaching
- Time: Thursday, April 2nd,2009 at 5:00 pm
- Location: Gallery (room changes possible, please check your SIOP program)
- Title: Gender Differences in Leadership: Exploring the Effect of Context
- Time: Friday, April 3rd at 5:00 pm
- Location: Rhythms 3 (room changes possible, please check your SIOP program)
For more information about our upcoming conferences and presentations, please visit Denison Events. |
|
|
|
| |
return to top |
|
|
| |
| Denison Racing |
| |
The 2009 Racing Season Calendar Join Denison Racing in the Formula 2000 Championship Series at one of our upcoming races! 
This season, the team will compete in the following races:
| · April 10-11 | Virginia International Raceway, Alton, VA |
| · May 22-25 | Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, CT |
| · June 12-14 | Mosport
International Raceway, Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada |
| · July 3-5 | Watkins Glen
International, Watkins, NY |
| · July 17-19 | Summit Point
Raceaway
, Charles Town, WV |
| · Aug 14-16 | Mid-Ohio Race Course, Lexington, OH |
We hope that you will
be able to join us at one of this seasons races. Call us to help plan your upcoming corporate or client event. We’ll help
take care of the details.
|
|
|
|
| return to top |
|
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.
|
|
|
