Management Consulting

Our passion is helping managers solve the problems that keep them — and their teams — working late and struggling to keep up. We bring an industrial engineering approach to management problems, backed by ongoing research into leadership and management practices.

Our approach normally starts with a one- or two-day on-site assessment, working with key staff to isolate pain points, bottlenecks, and procedural weaknesses. We then work with the management team to develop a plan for moving forward. Components often include…

• Process improvement
  We work with your staff to identify major breakpoints in the process. We then combine industry best practices with the combined experience of your staff and our consultants to create a process that fits the unique needs of your organization and staff.
• Staff development
  Training staff leads to higher productivity, improved compliance, better consistency, and higher levels of employee engagement. Well-trained staff tend to enjoy their jobs more, and their managers are more likely to eat dinner at home.
• Process realignment
  Sometimes, the process is perfect…a little too perfect for the way the organization has to operate. If you run an imperfect (but functional) group, a laser-engraved set of policies may not fit the realities your team faces. We can help realign the process and policies to better fit the needs of the organization. Sometimes we just need the process to match reality.
• Succession planning
  At every level of an organization — especially at the top — it’s important to have the next generation of leadership ready when they are called. There’s little that can slow a business down as much as a sudden leadership vacuum, when someone moves on or moves up. We can work with your existing leadership team to help ensure there’s someone to take the reins.
• Best practices implementation
  Have you ever wondered what sets your best performers apart from the rest of your operations staff? It’s often not what they think it is. We carefully review how the work is actually processed, find what’s working better (and make sure we know why), and help bring those practices to the rest of the group. We also set up a process for making sure new improvements are shared across the team.
• Team development and integration
  Strong teams consistently outproduce individuals who don’t work together. But putting a group of people in low cubicles where they can see each other (and have to talk over each other) doesn’t automatically build teamwork. In fact, with some teams it can hinder the process. We work with management and the team to build understanding, coordination, and support.

We also offer management coaching programs, to work 1-on-1 with managers to address their individual challenges and help them improve their personal approach.