ALL THE DETAILS

This page contains many of the details of The Congruent Organization Program. Not a detail-y type person? I get it. For an overview, go here.

The SYMPTOMS 

The Congruent Organization Program addresses the frustrating symptoms of incongruence no matter where they show up in your organization. Symptoms of Incongruence typically begin at the leadership level and filter down to every part of your company. See if you recognize any of the symptoms below.

​Leadership Incongruence

An aligned leadership team is the cornerstone of organizational success. When leaders share a common vision, values, and goals, they become a powerful force driving the entire company forward. This congruence begins with trust and transparency and leads to clear communication, streamlined decision-making, a cohesive approach to challenges and opportunities, and ultimately to a congruent organization. When aligned, a congruent team can effectively harness individual strengths, work collaboratively to inspire and motivate employees, and create a congruent organizational culture from the top down. A misaligned leadership team will experience some or all of these symptoms of incongruence:

  • Inability to have hard conversations
  • Fiefdom building
  • Distrust among team members
  • Lack of transparency
  • Inability to be vulnerable
  • Agreement in the room only (say one thing in the room and behave differently outside the room)
  • Avoidance of conflict
  • Backstabbing
  • Making the same decisions over and over again

Management Incongruence

Frontline managers who are aligned and engaged with the corporate vision as well as deeply connected to the people they manage is key to success and sustained growth. Managers are the bridge between the company's overarching goals and the day-to-day operations on the ground. If they aren’t aligned, success is rare. That alignment not only goes up to the vision and goals but also extends to the people they manage. Strong connection to the employees fosters an environment of trust, open communication, and employee engagement. Aligned and connected leaders and managers serve as role models, enablers of collaboration, and drivers of performance, propelling the entire organization toward its goals. Symptoms of an incongruent leadership group include:

  • Leaders working against company goals
  • Leaders who undermine company values
  • People being treated like robots, not humans
  • Managers not holding reports accountable
  • Inadequate or ineffective feedback
  • Inconsistent experiences throughout the organization

Organizational Incongruence 
When employees know your organization will do what it says it will do, loyalty increases, turnover reduces and overall engagement and performance is enhanced. Unfortunately, the actual experience of employees and the picture the organization has of itself is often different. ​This incongruence is not just the obvious things like stealing petty cash while saying honesty is a top value or allowing people to climb file cabinets next to the SAFETY FIRST sign. It's also (and most often) more subtle. Behaviors like consistently billing 80-hour work weeks when you say you care about the well-being of your employees, pushing rapid growth without supplying an effective structure to support it, or not holding some managers accountable because "we really can't afford to lose them right now." Symptoms of organizational incongruence include:
  • Systems and processes that don’t support expectations or growth
  • Lack of role clarity
  • Growth at the expense of well-being or visa versa
  • Tools that don’t support company goals
  • What’s sold is not what’s delivered
  • Employees that don’t fit the culture
  • Lower or inconsistent quality of work product
  • Inconsistent application of expectations
  • Reputational damage
These inconsistencies are dangerous and often ignored until it's almost too late. 

How we work together to solve incongruencies affecting your business

Our work will almost always begin at the leadership level with an assessment that identifies areas of incongruence. At this phase, I’ll be looking for the symptoms outlined above and building crucial trust with your executive team. Often leaders aren’t completely sure what the issues are, they just know they want something different. This phase focuses on building a high-trust, highly-functional leadership team that supports each other, makes decisions in the room and puts the company goals above departmental strategies. You can find an overview of this process here. We will tackle this phase in 5 steps:

Phase One: Executive Team Alignment

 Step One: Audit and Assessment (smooth and swift audit of areas that have the greatest impact on team congruence)
  • Used to assess the level of alignment, trust, and transparency within the leadership team and the challenges and opportunities facing the team.
    • Interview with CEO
      • Biggest concerns/challenges
      • Biggest opportunities
      • Goal and intent
      • History
      • Aspirations
    • Interviews with team
      • What’s going right/wrong
      • Level of trust, empathy
      • Communication challenges
      • Conflict patterns
    • Interviews with other stakeholders
    • Additional interviews as needed
Step Two: Comprehensive Report (clear, concise and precise diagnosis of your team's incongruence)
  • Summary of interviews
  • Summary of findings
  • Outline of solutions
Step Three: Prioritized Tactical Roadmap and Action Plan (a prioritized, planned course of action)
  • Work with CEO to develop a step-by-step plan to increase team congruence.
  • Plan includes action, implications, immediate actions, long-term strategy, and resources needed.
  • Prioritize to address the biggest/most impactful issues first.
Step Four: Workshop (high-energy and highly insightful workshop to build transparency and trust)
  • On-location session or sessions (determined in the roadmap phase) to address foundational issues of trust and transparency and to gain alignment around how the team will function. Topics include: building trust, increasing alignment through vulnerability, establishing conflict norms, and determining the team’s ultimate purpose by defining what the team does, for who, and why.
​Step Five: Ongoing Support (real-time course correction, accountability and expertise)
  • Regular check-ins to provide goal refinement, accountability and encouragement.
  • During each check-in, we prioritize addressing any real-time issues or challenges you're facing, ensuring that you're equipped with actionable strategies to overcome them.
  • This is not a “set it and forget it” plan. We adjust and align as we go!

Phase Two - leadership and management

After we have put in place the strategies to align your leadership team we will then focus on other levels of leadership – including your front-line managers. Managers are the bridge between the company's overarching goals and the day-to-day operations on the ground. If they aren’t aligned and congruent, success is rare. During this phase we will focus on the strategies needed to have a highly connected management team that brings out the best (not just the most) in the people they manage. While a similar process is followed, this phase typically contains 4 main steps.

Phase Three

With an aligned, high-trust executive team able to tell each other the truth and make hard decisions along with an aligned and connected management team, we can now focus on any incongruencies in the organization’s systems and processes that are hindering long-term growth. The process (which will be familiar by now) includes an assessment (if needed), a comprehensive report, a robust action plan and, as always, ongoing support.

Time and timing

When we begin our engagement, you are committing to one year in which we will tackle Leadership Congruency. The program is designed to renew annually. While not obligated to renew your commitment, I know once you experience the benefits of congruence, you will be eager to have them at every level!

Is this program right for you?

  • You see the vast benefits of a congruent organization
  • You are a creative organization or at minimum an organization that values creativity (let's be honest, just because you are in a creative business doesn't mean you're creative!)
  • You've fired clients because of the negative impact they had to your culture or your employees
  • It's not just revenue that excites you, it's the work product and the experience of creating the work
  • You care about the well-being of your employees and want a culture that is free from roadblocks to high performance and enhances people's lives
  • You want to deliver your very best, most impactful work to your clients
  • You know the value of proactivity ​and you're tired of reacting to problems that should have been handled the first time or you should have seen coming
  • You have the authority to make decisions
  • You are willing and able to prioritize the time, money, energy, and individual capacity to accomplish the program in the agreed timeline

still have questions?

Great! Call or text me at 816-529-9561 to start a conversation.
You can also email me at [email protected] if that's more your thing.