The Organizational Health Advantage

This week, Keith is joined by colleague David Hoyt and two Hall of Fame clients, Gary Gray and Alec Kinard – former and current CEO of Graydaze Contracting. Gary and Alec discuss how intentional they were with both the process and timing of transitioning leadership. They emphasize how careful consideration and planning led to a rare story of successful succession for the team at Graydaze.

In this episode, James is joined by colleague and friend Nate Nielsen and their client, Guy Ironi. Guy, CEO of ColdTrack - the country’s largest cold and frozen e-commerce fulfillment platform, has experienced firsthand the importance of focus, alignment and trust on a team. His executive team was already filled with smart, competent individuals, but now they are running the company instead of just talking about it. 

Leaders often confront the need to make significant changes to the team's structure. This may be triggered by a change to the business definition or strategy, a change in focus, the departure of a key person or even the impact of rapid growth. In this episode, Keith and James explore a simple approach for making difficult decisions about the makeup of teams - org design, role definition and, of course, the personality and character of the person needed to fill that role.

Fellow Table Group consultant David Hoyt and his client, Janet Simpson, join James to discuss the Org Health Journey Janet has undertaken as President of TVS Design. TVS is an award-winning architectural and interior design firm working on well-known building projects around the country. In this episode, Janet discusses creating an executive team; building trust and accountability on the team; developing team norms; and establishing the habit in their meetings of discussing and making decisions on the most important topics.

James is joined by colleague Casey Thompson and his client Brian Shonbeck, who has successfully built several thriving businesses. In this episode Brian shares: (1) His initial negative beliefs about business consultants; (2) The need to quickly scale knowledge and clarity when experiencing rapid growth; (3) Identifying and communicating Strategic Anchors so employees at every level can make consistently good decisions using the same filters the exec team uses; and (4) His unique “Roast Brian” Monday meeting.

In this episode, Keith is joined by good friend and colleague Bill Weingartner. Together they interview Len Finkle, CEO of Profisee - the fastest growing master data management company in the world. Len shares about the focus, resilience and consistency that it has taken in order to achieve growth, profitability and heightened employee engagement.

James and Keith are kicking off a new series all about Organizational Health Transformation. You'll hear stories of transformation from leaders and executives who have put in the work. It's more than just training, offsites, coaching or consulting - we’re going for Transformation!

An exec team that is clear and aligned regarding company values and priorities needs a plan for going deeper with clarity. Exactly how to go about this is a nuanced question, and depends on whether the focus is at the Team Level vs. the Org Level. Listen in for specific advice regarding what to do if your leader hasn’t done the work, as well as a word of warning about the danger of a Matrixed Organization.

Hands down, small executive teams have a significant competitive advantage over big ones! Yet - so many leaders opt for larger teams for reasons that make sense, but don’t hold up under scrutiny. Small teams make faster, better decisions and can execute faster than big ones.

In this episode we unpack the base of our Five Dysfunctions pyramid - Trust. How to build it, how to lose it, the benefits of having it and the dangers of lacking it. We explore courage and risk; even when to know whether you can and should trust someone. We end with the charge that slowing down to build trust is the best way to accelerate performance.