- Organizational Development Consultant
- barrett@onfoot.net
Services
TEAM COACHING, STRATEGIC PLANNING, QUALITATIVE/QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
ONFOOT CONSULTING SERVICES
Team Effectiveness Interventions and Coaching
The substantive work in most organizations is accomplished by teams. Groups of people who, working together, are responsible for accomplishing nearly every aspect of the organization’s purpose. Many people in organizations are members of multiple teams. To say that team effectiveness is critical to the success of any organization would be a gross understatement. But every team is as unique as each individual in it. There are no one-size-fits-all recipes for building and leading effective teams. Onfoot Consulting meets teams where they are at, helping them determine what it will take for their team to be effective and then providing coaching support as they put their own insights into action.
Strategic Planning
We live in a VUCA world—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.
Thinking strategically is thus incredibly important and incredibly challenging. It is this reality that lies behind General Dwight Eisenhower’s observation that, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
This because, as another general noted, “No Battle Plan survives contact with the enemy.” (General Helmuth von Moltke)
Onfoot Consulting takes seriously the VUCA conditions of the world. As opposed to a ‘blueprint’ that ends up on a boardroom shelf, we help organizations identify their strategic priorities, helping them clarify and take ownership of their shared commitments and values. The culmination is a 'strategic framework'--a living document for making effective decisions in an unpredictable world.
Onfoot Consulting’s approach to strategic planning equips organizations to be adaptive and nimble—responding to emerging conditions with wisdom and confidence.
Qualitative/Quantitative Research—Making Sense of Human ‘Stuff’
Making wise decisions in complex contexts is hugely challenging. Using powerful narrative research tools that combine qualitative and quantitative data, Onfoot Consulting enables organizations to gain meaningful and actionable insights into human contexts that matter to them. With this ‘active sensemaking’ data, organizations are able to discern where and how to allocate resources and set priorities towards accomplishing their purposes.
From employee engagement to humanitarian aid for displaced persons to customer experiences, organizations gain an invaluable lens for making the best possible decisions.
Leadership Master Classes—Sharing Knowledge and Experience
Most organizations have senior employees and leaders whose expertise and depth of specialized knowledge is invaluable to the work of the organization—the kind of folks without whom it may be hard to imagine surviving, let alone thriving. But typically, their expertise and knowledge are largely tacit—the sort of wisdom that accumulates through many years of experience—impossible to capture in manuals and PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, these folks often are not natural ‘teachers’. This leaves organizations with a pressing quandary: How do they capture and pass along the expertise and specialized wisdom of these key staff?
Leadership master classes are a powerfully effective approach to tap into the tacit knowledge of those organization ‘masters’, making their thinking and expertise clear and accessible to their emerging colleagues. The model is not new—drawing on the ancient distinction between ‘masters’ and ‘journeymen’ and not dissimilar in practice to how master classes serve in other fields of expert practice such as music and sports. What’s new is applying this approach to sharing knowledge within organizational leadership teams, whether dealing with technical knowledge like engineering or human management skills.
With the master class model, Onfoot Consulting can help organizations creatively and effectively address their most pressing knowledge sharing challenges.
Odds and Ends
Every client is unique, with their own challenges, opportunities, questions and decisions. Onfoot Consulting is here to help clients ‘figure things out’. This is the core of our expertise—empowering clients to reach into their collective experience, intelligence and wisdom, discovering within themselves what is their ‘next wise step’.
