The Problem
Shadowfax is a private, non-profit human services agency that supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The CEO contacted Dering to assist with getting alignment among the executive team on the future direction of the organization as it dealt with its changing regulatory environment.
The Approach
In preliminary discussions with the CEO, the Dering consultant uncovered a need for the executive team to breakdown existing silos between themselves and the departments they oversaw. This need was defined as critical to the successful transition to new ways of working that needed to be implemented across the entire organization.
Additionally, the entire executive team was struggling with redefining its middle manager job description. Executive team members wanted to have more decision-making occurring at lower levels in the organization.
The Solution
To address both needs the Dering consultant designed an integrated series of workshops based on the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team® (in which Dering is a certified Training Provider). In each of the seven, three-hour workshops, the team reviewed the results of the assessment, participated in team building activities focused on building relationships and applied these skills to the development of a universal management capability model.
The Results
By the end of the three-month engagement, the executive team had clearly identified where interpersonal challenges were hindering the organization. They identified a set of team commitments during their interactions. And collaboratively they developed a manager capability model to communicate their expectations to this critical level in the organization.