Services
A solid part of my mission is to help make this world a better place by engaging people to understand each others’ points of view, and develop something nicer for us all.
These are my four areas of expertise:
Disruption
Economy
Prepare your organization for the upcoming changes.
Jumping on the latest technology bandwagon isn’t the best way to succeed in the Disruption Economy; radically changing the way we consider strategy, organization and leadership, is!
That's the difference between betting on, or preparing for the Future!​
How do we help?
We help leaders prepare their organizations for the Disruption Economy.
Digitalization and other ground-breaking technologies fail to deliver results when the organization’s culture is not ready to embrace it.​
We work at three levels:​​
From strategy
to strategize
We help leaders create intelligent organizations instead of relying on the superior knowledge of an elite at the top.​​
From
"Leading when I know"
To
"Leading when I don't know"
We support transformational leaders in driving their organizations even under the extraordinary and challenging circumstances of Disruption.
From organization
to organism
We contribute to changing the organization’s culture from a vertical, hierarchical and siloed one, to a connected, generous and trusting one.
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From Strategy to Strategize: In a context where knowledge has exponentially grown, making it impossible for individual leaders to master it, the time has come to develop collective intelligence. That means creating intelligent organisations, rather than looking for heroic leaders. When Strategy is “jealously guarded by the articulate, charismatic, informed and intelligent few to be inflicted on the inarticulate, uncharismatic, misinformed and unintelligent many”, collective intelligence doesn’t emerge. Strategize is an educational, motivational and ownership-creating process, at the basis of intelligent organizations. This is what we help to create!
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From Organisations to Organisms: Wanting to create an intelligent organisation, based on yesterday’s organizational orthodoxies (strict hierarchies, pyramidal model, silos) is mere window dressing. Choosing to create an intelligent organisation implies a complete rethinking of the way people relate, work, align, decide and solve potential conflicts. It is what we call an organism, something close to a Complex Adaptive System: Purpose-driven, permanently connected (which implies the Trust and Simplification that so many companies desperately seek to implement, by… adding new models, rules, roles and procedures) and relational (as opposed to transactional) based.
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From Leading when I know to Leading when I don’t know: Forever in History, it was implied that the license to operate of leaders, was their superior knowledge. These days are gone. Disruptive leaders need to be able to lead, even when they don’t know! That means leading from behind, rather than from the front, listening and asking the right questions rather than ordering and providing solutions, developing and connecting their people’s intelligence and skills rather than shining individually.
Change
EngagementÂ
We help transformational leaders to prepare themselves and their organizations to execute change and make transformation happen.
Many leaders assume the job has been done once their convention, webcast, or conference call has ended. “Mission accomplished”, is the common feeling as they leave the room; when in fact, people expect to be engaged at three levels: Clarity, Credibility and Energy.
How do we help?
We coach leaders who transform their organizations.
We design effective Mass Engagement Processes, using the levers of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos.
We enable them to run their transformation with their people.
Logos
Intellectual
clarity
Ethos
Behavioural
exemplarity
Pathos
Emotional
engagement
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The Clarity test (Logos): To quote Meg Wheatley, “Enormous struggles with implementation are created every time we deliver change to the organization rather than figuring out how to involve people in its creation”. People need you to provide them with time and space so that they may co-create Clarity, Meaning and Ownership about the desired transformation. Broadcasting and ordering don’t help here.
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The Credibility test (Ethos): My most successful blog post to date was about the absolute killer in Change: leaders expecting “others” to change while they remain the same. Change triggers our deepest fears (Survival, Territory, and habits). Hence, people need guarantees that their leaders are ready to change before jumping wholeheartedly into the Transformation pool. Only that will provide "Change Leaders" enough credibility to engage their people.
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The Energy test (Pathos): If Logos can be compared to the GPS of a car (we need to be clear on our destination), if Ethos is our driving license (granting us the trust of our people about our habilitation to take them to destination), Pathos is… the fuel that takes us “from intention to action”. The secret to leadership charisma is to blend all three in order to engage our organization into transformation. Pathos isn’t about techniques, it requires authenticity, belief, courage and determination.
Leadership
Development
We design unusual, impacting and behaviour-changing experiences.
The XXIst century will see more changes than Mankind has witnessed since its beginnings. Leadership assumptions and paradigms, which went unchallenged since are now under tremendous pressure. As leaders, we need to question the orthodoxies that we unconsciously followed for centuries.
How do we help?
We seek to stick to four design criteria when preparing our Leadership Development Projects.
The most moving feedback a client ever offered me, was that she could feel my partners and I had had emotionally charged lives in order to deliver in the way we ran her program. This is probably why we can pride ourselves in designing unusual, impacting and behaviour-changing experiences, instead of classes, courses, seminars, trainings or workshops.
Solid
Cognitive
base
Provide credible research, models or experiences that can be included in the learning experiences .
Action
Observation
Feedback
In this step, we encourage participants to try new behaviours. Expand their knowledge by jumping into something new to them.
Full
Immersion
We encourage a fully intellectual, behavioural and emotional immersion
in theire develpment experience.
Reality
as a case
study
We seek to use, as much as possible, the participants’ reality when designing our Development Experience.
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A solid cognitive base: Many people need reassurance; credible research, models or experiences that can be included in their learning experience for it to be worth their time investment. We seek to update ourselves with the latest original, outside mainstream knowledge. Meaningful lessons worth sharing with our participants.
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Action, observation, and feedback to test new behaviours: Some of us excel in the art of presenting new concepts, while others are masters in behavioural observation, feedback and coaching. -This step encourages participants to try new behaviours.
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Full immersion: We try as much as possible to fully immerse participants in their development experience. Conceptual learning doesn’t trigger emotions. Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize of Economics 2002, demonstrated that emotional memories are more vivid than factual memories. A full intellectual, behavioural and emotional immersion is, therefore, an important part of our design.
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Use reality; don’t indulge in “edutainment”: We all have followed classes or seminars with charismatic, spirited, fun-making speakers or faculty. Time seems to fly during their course, and we leave excited and motivated. When back at work, reality catches up and the fireworks we witnessed during classroom sessions don’t seem to ignite with our team. We stay away from what is called edutainment, a blend of education and… entertainment. We seek to use, as much as possible, the participants’ reality when designing our Development Experience.
Conflict
Resolution
We support and challenge executives in their teams' dynamics.
Following two researches (Hay Management consultants, now Korn-Ferry and Gallup), up to 70% of an organisation’s culture comes directly from the behaviour of its leader(s)! Furthermore, Chilean professor Marcial Losada (his models being apparently rightly challenged on some of his mathematical conclusions) shared a powerful explanation of what caused Executive teams to take the right or wrong business decision: Behaviours create the Executive Team’s culture. That culture will in turn affect strongly the quality of the intellectual debate and ensuing decision-making process. To ensure a proper team dynamics at the top (and cascading down) is therefore critical to business success!
How do we help?
We accompany and "Team-coach" those who need to lead by example.
When coaching individuals or teams, I follow three principles:
Being a
Sparring
Partner
Disagree, challenge
and share opinions.
Coaching
not
massaging
Ethical approach.
This isn't a long-term relationship, if no significant progress is made, I'll
recommend someone else.
Being
Courageous
Open up with courage and authenticity.
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No “Teflon coaching”: I was coming for advice, pushback, a friendly ear and, above all, a sparring partner. But each time I met a marital counsellor (five during my divorce!), I had that feeling of wasting my time. Until I sat and spoke with an old friend: for me, he put himself in danger and broke the code of conduct of the brilliant psychoanalyst he is. He spoke and did not only listen. He disagreed and challenged and did not just silently sit. He labelled and shared his opinions and did not just restate his understanding. He was alive and passionate not distant and professional. He was caring and present, not neutral and detached! In one hour, I progressed more with him than in twenty with his colleagues… I am not a Teflon coach, I am a sparring partner!
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Coaching, not massaging: •I am always impressed by these “coaches” (and more impressed even by their clients) who maintain their coaching mission for months if not years with the same “victim” (I should have said client, I am not sorry). I try to keep my coaching sessions to a maximum of five to six. If no significant progress has been made, I recommend someone else to my client.
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Be courageous: When Team-Coaching, I know that we will have to go through a “trousers down session”. Tuckman would call it “Storming”. It scares me, it makes me anxious, I fear it may go horribly wrong, but, out of respect for the personal risk each team member takes by opening up, I accompany them, with courage and authenticity through those Moments of Truth!