During a meeting with a client, the conversation shifted to assessment tools. We both agreed that there was a multitude of options and how important it is to choose the right tool for the group. He was interested in having a program conducted for their administration team. The group was fairly young, most of the employees under 30 years old. They had never conducted an assessment in the past. He wanted an assessment that would be fun and also easy to transfer back to the workplace. We decided on True Colors for a number of reasons, but primarily due to the interactive nature of the program. True Colors programs are often referred to as “Edutainment.” I recently did a 6 month follow up call with this client and he said the employees still use the tools they learned in the program and their communication has improved significantly. He said the reason he thought his team retained the learning was because he purchased small items (ie clock, dice, picture) for his employees in their primary color that they displayed openly on their desk. It served as a constant reminder of each others preferences. Simple solution with great results!
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How do get a good fit to become a perfect fit?
Customer Service – Going Beyond Expectations
I was called into a meeting with a new client. The industry of this client is highly emotional and required a special skill set to interact effectively with their customers. My client was interested in providing some of their staff with customer service training. I met with both the Director and Manager of Human Resources. They were both very clear as to the outcomes they wanted to achieve as a result of the training. They wanted the experience of their customers to be one of compassion, empathy and professional. Given the very sensitive nature of their business I could see there were two members of our alliance that would be able to provide them with the customized solution they were looking for. Both these alliance members had extensive experience with this type of training and they both had very different approaches. I thought either of them would do a great job and recommended that the client meet with both of them.
I met with the client to discuss next steps after they had met with both alliance partners. The client loved them both and I suggested we combine the programs of the two alliance partners to create a totally unique and customized program. They were thrilled with the suggestion and my alliance partners were eager to collaborate. Once the final program was approved the client concluded this program would be so impactful they wanted the entire company to take the program. In the month that followed small groups were taken through this highly engaging course and the feedback from the participants was fantastic. Three years later the client is still pleased with the difference this training made in the way their employees interact with their customers.
Breaking Down Silos on an Executive Team
I received a call from a client requesting an introduction to a facilitator who could work with his senior executive team. This client had been hired as the President of a financial organization that recently gone through a merger. He very quickly saw there were some major problems with communication, trust and leadership. He knew he had to address these issues with his leadership team if the company was going to be successful. I spent an hour with him discussing what was happening and not happening that was causing him concern. He had experienced a lot of his senior team operating in silos, very little trust, no sharing of information, and in some cases out and out anger. He was planning a three day strategic planning session to set the vision for his team. The first day was to be a day of breaking down the silos, opening the doors for honest communication and start the process of rebuilding a powerful executive team. This would set the foundation for the next two days of planning.
When I left his office I had a clear understanding of his objectives, outcomes and his vision for the future. I also had good understanding that I needed to connect him with a very strong and experienced facilitator to support our client in meeting his goals. I connected him to one of our most powerful facilitators in the Athena Alliance the next day and they proceeded to map out their strategy.
During the first day of the program the facilitator asked some extremely tough questions and conducted many challenging exercises. There was a lot of emotion and discussions got a little heated at times. By the end of the day, progress was made and the foundation was set for moving forward into the next two days of planning. This team still had a lot of work to do and at the time of my last follow up they were definitely moving in the right direction.
Our client left me a voice message at the end of the first day telling me that he could have looked for weeks on the internet and never found a perfect facilitator as I had provided. I also received a voice message from the facilitator telling me while the day was challenging, progress was made.