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Change and Transformation
“The Beacon Group’s program proved to be a transformational experience for our staff, and has created a new, more open culture of creativity and collaboration that has given The Globe and Mail a marked and measurable competitive advantage.” — Phillip Crawley
“The Beacon Group’s thought provoking curriculum utilizes best practice tools and interactive media for evaluation, assessment and overall learning. It has helped us raise the bar on our calibre of talent.” — Ernst Lieb
“The Beacon Group was able to handle our 360 reviews across 9 offices in a manner that brought significant value to our partners, the firm and ultimately our clients.” — Judson Whiteside
“The human capital programs provided by The Beacon Group are best in class.” — Tye Burt
“The Beacon Group acted as a strategic partner and was instrumental in helping us raise the bar on candid dialogue and team performance.” — Robert Courteau
“The Beacon Group approaches very serious and difficult topics in an accessible and insightful way.” — Eric Siegel
“We engaged The Beacon Group when we needed to bring two cultures together after our first major international acquisition: the evidence of their success lies in both the subsequent growth in our business and our presence in more than twelve countries on five continents.” — Rupert Duchesne
“The Beacon Group excels in facilitating open & candid dialogue that has fostered superior team performance.” — Mary Ellen Carlyle
“Top-level thought leadership, combined with practical, cost-effective solutions—that’s the real value the Beacon Group team brings to bear on Foresters talent challenges.” — Suanne Nielsen
“The Beacon Group delivered cutting edge perspectives on many human capital topics that were tailored and customized to our company in a way that we could not have obtained at more generic, cookie-cutter advising shops.” — Doug Lord
“Doug Williamson and his team were of invaluable assistance in helping our organization navigate through a completely new strategic planning process and emerge with a three year plan resoundingly endorsed by our Board. Doug’s global perspectives and ability to drive consensus was an integral part of our success.” — Don Forgeron
“The Global HR & Communications senior team engaged the Beacon Group in shepherding us through a unique strategic planning process that involved an outside-in view of our current and future workforce and how this aligns to our business strategy. Thanks to Doug and his team it was a thought provoking process that sharpened our strategic thinking and, in the end, made our strategy stronger.” — Sylvia Chrominska
“The Beacon Group’s customized and personalized approach fit our needs perfectly. From the initial self-discovery phase all the way to recommending solutions, the work they have done has been consistently world-class. They combine strong analytics with a wealth of real world experience. They are focused, targeted and are experts at taking theoretic concepts and making them real. We look forward to working with Doug and his team as we continue to elevate our business and improve our internal performance.” — Don Romano
“I have had the pleasure of working with The Beacon Group and Doug Williamson for several years across several organizations and have always been impressed with their professionalism, work ethic and customer orientation. Doug's own highly energetic and highly customized approach to the specific needs of our business and our leadership team sets him apart from other strategic facilitators and objective "thought provokers" I have experienced. I am always grateful and impressed by the tangible results his interventions tend to produce.” — Lloyd A. Perlmutter
“The big contribution was The Beacon Group challenged our culture and our comfort level. We then arrived at a clear plan of concise deliverables that we needed to execute to move forward on our vision.” — Tony Ambler
“SKF approached The Beacon Group to develop our Talent Management program. The process implemented by Doug Williamson and his team was extremely important for us in determining how to execute the program on a clear, organized and systematic way. This was one of our most important projects that will enable us to ensure our sustainable growth.” — João Ricciarelli
“Through its sound and strategically practical business knowledge and experience The Beacon Group has and continues to assist SCI in better understanding and enabling our organization to build engaged teams and leadership capability to help make our supply chain clients more competitive.” —John Ferguson |
Provocative PropositionsIn the hyperactive and challenging world in which we all live, it is becoming harder and harder for business leaders to find time to read, reflect and gain insight from the many valuable sources at our disposal. In "Provocative Propositions", The Beacon Group attempts to fill that void by offering our opinion, often rather pointed, on a wide array of issues we believe are relevant to leading a modern organization. The articles are catalogued into 12 categories so you can quickly and easily find a topic of particular interest. We then offer three easy steps under the heading "In Our Opinion" to help business leaders take action on the key themes. Simply click on the category and read away. The Courage to Speak Up
"Now, are we clear on what needs to be done here?"
A long pause grips the room, nervous glances all around. "Great, I'm glad to see we are all in agreement." The boss gets up, and leaves the room. The rest of the team sits frozen. Finally, someone speaks up. "So, what do you think needs to be done?" "To be honest, I really don’t know either." Nobody says it, but it’s weighing heavily on everyone's mind and at the upper reaches of their subconscious ... "I clearly don’t understand the purpose of this initiative, why didn’t I speak up?" The fact is - in business, as in any other aspect of life, no one wants to be embarrassed. The common belief is that it is better to remain quiet and thought to be stupid, rather than open one's mouth and remove all doubt. The problem is - in business, there are other issues at play (aside from embarrassment) that cause these episodes of "vocal paralysis". Issues such as politics, power struggles, and departmental silos all contribute to the slow slide into less than excellent organizational performance. The outcome is - organizations become infected with a lack of candour, poor understanding of expectations, reduced accountability, and a culture that cannot truly embrace its full potential. The solution is - leaders within organizations have to believe in the power of "many"; to welcome dissent, and ultimately encourage straight talk from all employees. Apple CEO Steve Jobs once said that "it doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do", rather "hire smart people so they can tell us what to do". This realization may be one of the critical differentiators that has led to Apple�s recent success. The sad reality is that most organizations do not embrace this mindset, and many even see it as being the equivalent of "allowing the inmates to run the asylum". Decisions, Decisions, Decisions The bottom line is really quite simple. Michael Roberto in his book "Why Great Leaders Don’t Take Yes for an Answer" argues the success and value of an organization is based on the cumulative total of the decisions that are made within the organization. Actually, to be more precise, the success of an organization is based on the sum total of the "successful" decisions that are made. In other words, the more decisions that are made, that are ultimately successful, the better off the organization will (should) be. The challenge, therefore, is for the boss, yes - you, to realize that the collective intelligence of your team is far superior to your own personal intellect. Sad, but true. NEVER! Glad it’s true. To illustrate the point more effectively, when the "poll the audience" life-line was chosen on ABC's hit game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", the audience was right 97% of the time. The question, therefore, is are you willing to listen? Remember your C,C,C's As a leader, in order to truly develop an organization that embraces the concept of straight talk and dissent, you must work hard to develop: Candour - Up until now, speaking up has generally been a "career limiting move". The point has been to keep the boss happy, in order to move up. From now on, striving to simply keep the boss happy will be the sure path to career suicide. Consensus - Be careful - consensus and collaboration are radically different concepts. For an organization to move "at pace", all (not just some) of the issues affecting the team and its performance must be brought to resolution based on the full collaboration of all team members. Commitment - At the end of the day, no one, no initiative, no project nor any organization will reach its true potential unless all team members involved have "skin in the game". Commitment to the task at hand is crucial to ensure there can be accountability. Better yet, when a problem arises, it will be brought to the attention of the team, who can then develop a solution. In Our Opinion The Beacon Group’s Key's to Developing an Organizational Backbone Say No - As in... I will no longer think of myself as the smartest person in the room. Your employees are smarter than you. Let them know it - often. Pool their knowledge, encourage their ideas, and listen to them. Say No- As in... I will no longer invite team members to meetings and then let them remain quiet throughout the entire meeting. Realize that meetings are "meetings of the minds", not "meetings of the bums". If They're in your meeting, They're expected to participate - fully. Say No - As in... No one will be reprimanded for speaking up. As long as the "counter-point" is constructive and focused on the facts, rather than opinion, it is valid, and welcomed. Say No- As in... No matter what, the organization comes first, and all decisions will be made with the best outcome possible for the organization in mind. As Duke Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) repeatedly tells his players "Never let the name on the back of your jersey become more important than the name on the front of your jersey." |
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