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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 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 approaches very serious and difficult topics in an accessible and insightful way.” — Eric Siegel
“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 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
“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
“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
“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. Teachable Moments
Do you have an experience that defines your leadership style today?
Can you say the philosophy of the corporation you work for comes from a seminal event in its history? If you can name or recount a story like this, then you have just identified a crucible moment. Would you believe that these crucible moments are as important, if not more meaningful, to the culture and style of leadership at an organization than talent, ambition, market conditions or anything else? It is one thing to identify these moments and assume they have an impact on leadership or decisions. But, the real challenge is to learn from these events and implement their lessons. Spotting crucibles of leadership isn't easy in the first place! The Fact is you're not born a leader. Your business career is littered with crucible experiences that define your style and help you become a better leader over time. Organizations also have their crucible moments. The Problem is there is no warning before these crucible experiences take place and there are important lessons to be drawn from each of these. How can a leader or his/her organization prepare? The Outcome is that most leaders don't leverage the full benefit of their experience and key moments in their career. This may be because they don't know how to learn from these experiences and, sometimes, because they don't even recognize them. The Solution is for leaders to identify and cultivate crucible moments, as they happen, in their careers, companies and industries. Push themselves into new territory. Take setbacks in stride and learn from them and even make the best use of unexpected downtime or lulls in activity. Crucibles Whether we're talking about a company that's an industry leader or a leader at a company, the concept of crucible moments is the same In Robert Thomas' book "Crucibles of Leadership" he refers specifically to personal leadership moments. It could be a moment where adversity forces a different approach to something or it could be a moment where your experimentation in new territory uncovers new ways of doing things. A crucible moment can be described as a transformation. An ordeal or test. Robert Thomas would argue that your crucibles take place in three conditions:
These same crucibles apply to organizations in their ongoing quests to innovate. Do you know the story of IKEA? When IKEA faced competition from mail-order campaigns by other furniture companies, it created a showroom to appeal to the touch and feel needs of customers. When a fire destroyed one of their showrooms, IKEA created a much larger showroom that was less prone to fire and which allowed customers to walk around and browse furniture in mock up rooms. When IKEA wasn't able to hire enough people in the showroom, the shortage of labour led to the self-service concept where you pick your own furniture piece in a warehouse and assemble it yourself at home. Time after time, IKEA was faced with what Robert Thomas calls a reversal or a setback moment in its company's history. Every time they faced these challenges, their resilient team came up with a solution and a different way to frame their business. Similarly, leaders can take their career experiences and turn setbacks into large strides in leadership. They can extract profound insights from these experiences. Reframing Today we recognize Nokia for their cell phones. Did you know the company started out as a lumber mill on the bank of the Nokia River in the 1800s? Not quite what you'd expect for a leading technology company. When their business environment started to deteriorate, the company went through a period of stagnation. This moment of suspension in their history led the organization to re-invent themselves as a technology brand - thus exploring territory they had never experienced before. Again, organizations, like people, go through moments of stagnation when they have the opportunity to reflect and reframe issues. In Our Opinion The Beacon Group's Advice for recognizing and taking advantage of teachable moments in your organization Recognize Fear - Fear is a normal element of a crucible moment. Companies and leaders demonstrate fear, or even a crisis in confidence, when they are thrust into new territory and confront the unusual. An organization must nurture the fear and ensure that leaders deal with it in a positive manner. Feedback - Feedback is essential after a period of crisis. Even if a leader demonstrated excellent performance, it is always a good idea to provide feedback during such a memorable moment in his or her career. They will remember your words for a long time. Don't Dismiss Failure - Failure can also be a crucible moment for a leader or an organization. Often, these moments are the most memorable ones that create true change in the way a leader or organization operates. |
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