A PRIVATELY HELD TECHNOLOGY SERVICES COMPANY
Growth was part of the conversation, but “growth” didn’t mean the same thing to everyone in the room. What could sound like making more money for the owners was also something else: becoming the kind of company capable of doing better work.
The leadership team built a shared picture of the future it wanted to create. That made the gaps between where the company was and where it wanted to be easier to see — and gave people something concrete to work on together.
The work continued well after the original engagement ended. Later, as the company changed, the CEO came back to ask whether the Vision still described the future she wanted to build.
A NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION, LAW
The organization came to us wanting to understand what members needed and expected. Across interviews, focus groups and a large member survey, we began to hear something more. Members held a strong sense of purpose for their profession — and the organization’s own language wasn’t reflecting it back to them.
Leadership used that as the basis for a Vision. The Vision became the basis for a strategic plan. The strategic plan became the basis for an organizational road map that tied roles and structure directly to what the Vision required.
As the work progressed, internal leadership took on more of it — shaping the Vision, driving the road map, carrying organizational redesign. Our role shifted from continuous involvement to occasional counsel. Years later, the organization was still carrying that planning work itself, calling on us selectively when another perspective was useful.
A NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP ASSOCIATION
The organization came to us with a marketing and member-engagement question: how do you communicate value to a membership base that seems increasingly hard to reach?
Broad listening across the membership surfaced something the marketing question hadn’t anticipated. Many members held a much larger sense of purpose for their profession than the organization’s own language reflected back to them. The gap between what members already believed and what the institution said about itself became the real work.
The organization built a Vision from what it heard. It tested that Vision with staff, board, and members. The Vision then became the basis for setting priorities and planning the work. That carried into annual operating plans and continued into subsequent planning cycles without us in the room.
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