Strategic Change

COHERENT CHANGE uses an awareness-based approach to systemic change that comes out of our research on the impact of moment-to-moment awareness at work (or read PDF), experience with the creative work of Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer on systems change and presencing, and learning from teachers in several wisdom traditions (or read PDF).

Strategic change works well when there is aligned leadership from the executive group, with all leaders heading in the same direction, at roughly the same pace. Sounds simple, but it isn’t.

Historic patterns of separation, turf protection, and simple differences in terminology across organizational boundaries create real issues that need to be worked out. If they are buried or ignored, people at lower levels find obstacles in their attempts to change. Everyone seems well-intentioned, but change becomes difficult or impossible.

Over the years we saw ways to help clients think about the relationship among various types and levels of change: the POWER LINE that you see below is one such framework.

We provide organizational and executive development to companies undergoing rapid change. We are most interested in supporting you in creating or shifting your organizational culture to one that is healthy in all ways: The organization serves a meaningful purpose in society, can address a solid market, is responsive to its customers and employees, and does no harm.

COHERENT CHANGE can also serve as a confidential sounding board, bringing an outside perspective, the ability to supportively challenge the status quo, and methods to assist executives in creating and working through the implications of a given action plan. When a CEO or Board of Directors wishes to introduce fundamental change, it can be threatening to other executives. COHERENT CHANGE provides the opportunity to think through the entire process, examine the strengths and development areas of the key players, and generate alternative solutions.

Achievements

We have seen what works and what doesn’t in creating and responding to change. We have extensive experience with individual coaching, team development, training design, organization-wide strategic change planning and large-group collaborative change sessions.

We supported the leaders of a nationally-recognized heath education department of an HMO in ongoing strategic change. Over a period of several years, the leadership team created a work culture where people felt that their accomplishments were recognized, knew how decisions were made, and were satisfied with the coaching they received.
A $375 million division of a pharmaceuticals company had Dr. Goldman Schuyler formulate and implement a project to accelerate product development. They built cross-functional teams and shifted the culture from an emphasis on ‘who-you-know’ to a focus on streamlining basic work processes. This led to increased work satisfaction and significant improvement in collaboration between marketing and product development.