By the time I met them, they were ready for change. They were locked into old patterns and conflicted about their direction. Work had become an exercise in frustration, and their stress levels were rising.
This healthcare organization faced real challenges so their team dynamics mattered. Seismic shifts in the marketplace required them to redesign their structures, processes and delivery approaches. And just over the horizon was a wave of likely retirements that would rob them of critical expertise.
Their organization cried out for effective leadership at all levels. Could this team lead the charge?
Opening the “Insights” Box
The answer was a resounding yes, and that shift began with individual and team assessments.
At SageRiver, we use diagnostic tools to open conversations, facilitate growth and unblock teams. In essence, an assessment gives us the keys to a box that contains insights about ourselves and our colleagues—about how we think, behave and interact. We don’t put people in boxes, rather, we take those insights out and use them to help people connect and function more effectively in the workplace.
Our healthcare client, for example, had leaders with conflicting thinking and behavioral styles. Meetings were geared toward the dominant approach, which left others without the information and interactions they needed. The result? Frustration and impasse.
After administering individual and team assessments, we diagnosed the problem and opened a conversation about retooling their meetings and communication approaches to address all participants’ needs. Armed with a common language, they were able to depersonalize the issue and agree on a solution.
That simple change unblocked their decision-making process and allowed them to move forward on other enterprise shifts.
Matching the Tools to the Task
Getting the right results starts with using the right tools. There are dozens of individual, team and organizational diagnostics available today. They fall into different categories to help identify personality traits, behavioral and thinking preferences, emotional intelligence, team dynamics, developmental progress and more.
SageRiver administers a range of the most rigorously validated instruments. Some of the newer assessments—most notably Emergenetics—include integrated tools that provide insights at the individual, team and organizational levels. These assessments look at both behavioral and thinking attributes, which make them a powerful tool for finding the unique “genius” in each person.
Assessments work best when they fit a client’s context. In selecting which diagnostics to use, we consider three questions: What goals do clients have? What obstacles are they encountering? And what level of self-awareness do they possess?
Unblocking Teams, Unlocking Value
Our healthcare client realized value from the assessments because we linked the findings directly to their daily work and long-term goals. They regularly discussed and applied what they had learned, which allowed them to adopt new approaches and measure their progress toward larger objectives.
Ultimately, the leadership team elected to deploy the assessments throughout the enterprise. It was an important first step in enabling essential cultural and behavioral shifts that have taken hold at all levels of the organization.
If you’d like to learn more about how individual, team or organizational assessments could benefit you, contact SageRiver Consulting at (720) 443-2551.
Traveling enriches our world view, sometimes in small but profound ways. My journal fell open where a crisply folded article pressed tightly between pages of “Peru July 2014.” Handwritten across the article’s headline, my mother notes ‘Ames Tribune 6/6/13’. The send-off package included the succinct columns of an article titled “We become what we do”. Yellowed and delicate the clipping traveled 10,000 miles between Colorado and Peru, to the top of a 14,850 foot Andean peak, 28+ miles of Inca Trail, and through mind-blowing architecture at Machu Picchu. Essentially the writer makes a case for doing productive work – AND – doing work for meaning. Etching the central message, David Brooks quotes Frederick Buechner “doing work where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Brooks goes on to say “I’d think you’d be more likely to cultivate a deep soul if you put yourself in the middle of the things that engaged you most … If your profoundest interest is saving children in Africa, it’s probably best to go there instead of Wall Street.”