Here are some mini-case studies - typical situations that I’ve worked with - and what my clients have reported as results of our facilitation and training work with them.   

Facilitated Meetings:

The membership accounting department of Kaiser Health Plan needed to be able to “turn on a dime” the manageer said. We helped them create a shared vision, new strategies, and an implementation plan that enabled them to quickly become customer focused, flexible and agile in responding to the rapid changes in the organization and health care industry. They reduced the turnaround time for membership enrollment from two weeks to two days. The Manager told me,

“In the six years I’ve been in Membership Accounting, this effort has resulted in the most significant, positive, necessary shift in the department.”

In a the first one hundred days of a productivity acceleration project of LaSuerte, a manufacturing company in Manila, the packing section reduced their breakdowns by 50% and broke their historical production records. The factory as a whole realized enough cost savings to pay factory salaries for one month. The Senior V. P. told me,

“You do it (change attitudes) by drawing from people their ideas and help them see what’s needed. Other companies tell people what they ought to do and see. You help them see it and that changes attitudes.”

McDonald’s focused the talent of regional marketing teams into their first unified national marketing plan.  Intuitive, innovative processes combined with analysis and systems thinking resulted in a profitable plan which improved teamwork and dramatically increased market effectiveness. They adapted the methods as an in-house program they named TMA. The National Marketing Director wrote me,

“The results of TMA have consistently demonstrated the power of comprehensive, participative planning along with team action as the winning combination in improving performance and position in the marketplace. Of the markets using TMA, 90% have experienced sales increases within 12 months.”

The R&D Division of a major aerospace company acknowledged major changes were needed to remain viable in a shrinking marketplace.  In three days time, 60 research managers addressed issues of customer satisfaction, process redesign and employee development that catalyzed commitment and ownership of their plans at all levels. The results of their work were increased proposal submissions and bids accepted outside of their usual military market. The research scientists became market focused. The General Manager said,

“I believe the proven process you brought to R&DD enabled us to make the necessary changes happen more efficiently and quickly than we could have accomplished otherwise.  The results obtained will be long lived because the basic process is now ingrained in our culture.”

The merger of four state agencies into the MN Department of Transportation created huge issues of reorganization. Facilitated cross-sectional planning for organizational effectiveness in meeting customer needs brought alignment and focus to the merger, resulting in overwhelming acceptance of the changes with 85% of proposals implemented in the first year. The Commissioner wrote,

“Just a note to thank you and your people for the excellent job you did assisting MN/DOT in identifying key issues, concerns, and solutions needed within our Department. This step will take us a long way toward finalizing our in-house reorganization process.”

A manufacturing plant in China had made recent organizational changes. The multi-cultural management team was feeling overworked, stressed and experiencing some conflict. The General Manager asked me to lead an off-site teambuilding and visioning retreat. A few months later the GM told me that because of our work together they had

“become a unified team, had reduced cycle time for closing the books from 7 days to 4, had made a 30% reduction in cycle time for material in the door to shipping, and opened a new factory.”

Participants in My ToP Facilitation Training speak:

Members of a professional association of organization administrators needed simple, effective methods to lead discussions and build consensus in groups representing multiple perspectives and agendas. The executive director found the ToP® methods extremely effective and invited us to present our training at their annual conference. He wrote me,

“You were right. Your methods helped me to run a meeting in which everyone’s points of view were expressed and where new ideas were brought forth in a constructive and supportive way.”

The Director of Rural Development in the Nevada Commission on Economic Development and two of her staff took my facilitation training workshop. They were able to use the methods immediately and powerfully in their work with communities. Audrey Allan, the director, said in an interview,

“In our work prior to this training, the way we approached these meetings, was generally with our contacts in the community.  This has taken a broader, all-community-wide scope, and we invite everybody in the community.  So everybody knows that their opinion counts.  It’s their town, it’s their future; we care about what they think.  And nobody’s going to move until everybody has considered their viewpoint, so to speak.  The facilitation, I think, is really the key, especially with those two diverse groups.  What I love more than anything about the ToP® methods is that they really have a way of allowing a meeting to go forward without the vocal minority who want to just take over.”

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts trains their all of staff in the ToP® methods. The Executive Director told me ,

“My staff finds this approach produces concrete results in a short amount of time and builds confidence and ownership in planning for events or long range plans. Utilizing this training has made it possible for a small agency like the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to succeed far beyond what we imagined.”

Kaiser Permanente was going through major changes. The Organizaational Development Consultants needed ways to help doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators work collaboratively and strategically.  Our facilitative methods and participative strategic planning courses gave them tools to use in many situations. One of the consultants wrote me:

“I have used them (the methods) with physicians and controllers in strategic planning and with many groups in evaluating learnings.  They generate and focus energy on achieving common goals.”

The Chair of the California Alliance for Arts Education used ToP® methods to revitalize the board. She wrote,

“These methods contributed to re-engaging our board members and have shifted the board to a very active one. Our meetings have become very productive, with lots of in depth conversation, even of the tough issues that face any organization in today’s world of limited funding sources.”  

Lyn De Lou, an Organizational Development consultant wrote, 

“(I am) using the processes in a reorganization project with county and nfp agencies; I couldn’t have accomplished all that if I hadn’t gone through your training. The tools of OD are not as effective.”

Sharon Keating, OD consultant told me,

 ” A big thank you for sharing your expertise and experience during my 4 days of ICA training. I have found the methodologies very useful in my OD practice and the task orientation sure matches my personal style.”

The Principal of the Kings Beach Elementary School wrote,

“This training kept me focused during one of my busiest weeks. Who else should participate? Leaders in any educational setting – teachers, administrators, parents.”

 David Wayne, Director, Arizona Leadership Academy wrote,

“ICA’s Facilitation Methods workshop provided an elegant but easily applied technology to help empower our faculty. Feedback from school principals and teachers has been uniformly positive.”

 Diane Metz, Cooperative Extension, UC Davis, wrote,

“Thank you for sharing the excellent participation methodology at the recent ICA training. Carole and I both feel we’ve come home with ways to get information from community people and volunteers with whom we work. Thanks again for your effort.”

If you would like to know how my clients get these kinds of results, please read about How I Work.