Options Case Studies

For those organizations that are wanting to lower absenteeism, turnover, and conflict and/or raise performance, morale, and productivity...

For those organizations that are wanting a clearer understanding of where they've been, where they are, and where they're going...

For those organizations that want a plan and support in helping their people move from a reactive, brainstem mindset, to a Top of the Mind perspective and thus bring more clarity, confidence, and creativity to their roles and responsibilities...

Dr. Crawford offers his services as an organizational consultant.

Options

Option 1 - Getting a lay of the land. This relatively low cost, low risk option involves an assessment of your organization's present state with regard to the degree to which your people are applying their best thinking and highest productivity to your stated business goals. This customized assessment generally takes the form of a confidential survey after which the results are reported with general suggestions to address any areas where potential is not being realized.
• Timeline for this option: three weeks to a month, start to finish depending, of course, on the timeliness of the survey respondents.

Option 2 - Understand the true nature of the beast. This is a more in-depth process that would involve not only a survey, but also interviews with key people from all aspects of the organization. The report generated from these instruments and interviews would also contain much more specific suggestions on potential solutions, and a detailed action plan that would be designed to address any areas of concern.
• Timeline for this option: two to four months, start to finish depending on the timeliness of the survey respondents and interview access to key employees.

Option 3 - Becoming part of your team. This highly customized option would entail all aspects of option 2, as well as, create an ongoing relationship between Dr. Crawford and your organization. He would be available during this nine month to two year period to consult with members of your organization on every aspect of the action plan. During this period of time, Dr. Crawford would also be available to deal with any question or obstacle to success that might arise.

Case Studies

Below are some examples of consultations where Dr. Crawford has helped his corporate clients navigate the white water of interpersonal dynamics.

Case Study #1

In consulting with one multinational organization, the customer service representatives were being seen as the "bad guys," and resented by many other departments within the organization. Basically, the problem was that customers were expressing rather intense worry and concern about whether their work was going to be done on time, and the customer service reps were communicating this urgency and concern to the people responsible for getting the work done. Unfortunately, this was adding to the level of stress already inherent in that industry and the people within the organization had a tendency to want to "shoot the messenger."

Through a series of trainings and individual coaching sessions, Dr. Crawford was able to move the departments from a "moat mentality" (where the departments tended to see themselves as individual kingdoms), to people who understood and appreciated each other's unique positions and challenges. The result was that the customer service reps were more cognizant of how to communicate with other departments to avoid misunderstandings, and the other departments were able to recognize that the reps were just trying to meet the customer's needs, which was something that would be beneficial to all concerned.

Case Study # 2

In another organization, Dr. Crawford was hired by senior management to create a comprehensive, year-long program where employees were not only taught skills in communication and stress management, but were also given the opportunity to define their corporate culture (i.e., how they interacted with each other and their customers) in a more purposeful manner. Each employee was then given an email address and phone number where they could contact Dr. Crawford if they had questions about application. In addition, an intensive training for the managers was created where issues such as selecting and keeping good employees, conflict resolution, and the impact of personality type on managerial effectiveness were discussed.

Dr. Crawford then worked with the director of training to create follow-up sessions and he was asked to write a column in the company newsletter where he answered questions pertaining to the training initiative.

Case Study # 3

Dr. Crawford also works with CEO's and senior management of organizations where potentially volatile personnel issues needed to be handled in the most sensitive and productive way possible. In one such example, due to a series of misunderstandings and personality conflicts, a key player was going to be asked to either change or leave. Because Dr. Crawford had an ongoing consulting relationship with that organization, he was able to facilitate a series of meetings between the key employee and senior management that resulted in the parties agreeing to part ways feeling grateful for the opportunity to have worked together, and supportive of each other's future endeavors...no lawsuits, no armed guards.