What themes define the services I bring as a consultant?
- Bringing People and Organizations and
Capabilities together. Tell me what your
biggest business problem is. Let's talk about it. I'll
match you with the right people
and build the right team to address the issue.
Bridging the technical and business cultures
within organizations. I am bilingual in
the way technologists and nontechnologists speak. To
begin, I actively harvest buzzwords. Next,
I find that with a little patience and perhaps a bit of
humor, I can create metaphors in the appropriate
language that act as lenses from which to glimpse the
'other' world.
Keynote speaking.
Bringing a high level of strategy to teams and
organizations through participatory scenarios.
Scenarios promote straightforward, engaging and
productive dialog suited to the relevant
trends that impact the organization. By including diverse
and appropriate members of the functional
units of the organization, a representative whole is
present in one room and able to construct its next
level of effectiveness. Please see http://www.dougcarmichael.com/scenarios.html
and
http://www.futuresearch.net/
Virtual Learning Communities. How many
great initiatives have begun to founder the day
after they are launched as the turbulence of
business-as-usual rushes in to fill the new opening
that has been created? How many of us have experienced
the "Great workshop. Now I have so
much work to catch up on!" phenomenon? Technology
that allows for effective sharing and
communication between team members and associates and
dissolves barriers of time and distance
has been commonplace for decades. Yet their promise
remains largely unfulfilled. No technology
can replace the will to employ it for some higher
purpose. Further, humans tend to focus on
tangibles, in this case, tools and technology. This
distracts from community building, which is
what allows for new ventures to be fulfilled and for
organizations to function effectively. Yes,
finding appropriate tools that serve rather than impede
the process is important, but not nearly enough:
'If you build it; they won't come.'
Leadership and other social factors are actually more
important. Creating Virtual Learning Communities
with the participants as an integral conclusion to the
scenario process gives the initiative a
home. The participants must construct it themselves: 'If they
build it; they will use it.'
Generating new levels of effectiveness and
satisfaction in technical teams and organizations.
Executive Coaching. Clients contract
with coaches to deliver results. From that moment, the
coach
interacts with the client from the perspective of the
fulfillment of those specific outcomes and holds
the client to account wherever and whenever each is not
met. The relationship is based on trust
and a mutual surrender. The coach cedes all control and
ownership of results to the client. The client
owns the results. The client, in turn, agrees to execute
the coaching without resistance. Regular, results
based, communication is essential. Every week, if not
more often, the client reports progress on goals
and promises as either fulfilled or unfulfilled. It has
been my experience, both as a client and as a coach,
that by regularly confronting the truth about these
results, clients organize themselves to deliver what they
promise. This forms the foundation for producing
breakthrough results.
Enhancing the work-life balance. What if
organizational effectiveness and individual effectiveness
were highly correlated with quality of life? Many
organizations are discovering that this is so
at unimagined levels. How can this be fostered? For
example, how is telework able to return more
quality time to employees and their families?
Client List