Organizational Culture Consulting

There are several things that can affect the effective functioning of organizations:

·        Business Process: the extent to which an organization has clear policies and procedures to carry on its business

·        Structure: the extent to which an organization is structured in a way that enables effective and efficient functioning

·        Culture: the extent to which interpersonal relations, communication and group dynamics of the organization enable effective and efficient functioning

I specialize in working with the culture aspects of organizations whose interpersonal relationships and group dynamics are impeding their effective and efficient functioning. I also specialize in bringing together business process, structure and culture to help create an efficient and effective company. Any number of factors can erode healthy interpersonal and whole-organizational functioning. Most of them involve issues or organizational dynamics that create anxiety in the organization's people. For example, mergers and acquisitions, changes in leadership or location, changes in income or funding, rapid growth, and many more. People react emotionally to such changes and alter their beliefs about the organization, their interpretations of others’ behaviors, and their own interpersonal behaviors—without even knowing that they are doing so. In a short time, these alterations affect whole departments and the entire organization. People begin to hoard information, become secretive, develop cliques, and tensions and conflicts grow that neither individuals, teams nor the organization know how to deal with effectively.

An organization's success depends on a good working relationship among business process, structure, communication and the other aspects of culture noted above. Here are some examples:

• Vision and Mission: An organization with a clear vision and mission is able to hire and keep people whose personal vision and mission match that of the organization, increasing the chances of an effective and efficient company. Clear vision and mission also increase the chances of constant progress, as all the organization's decisions can be geared toward whether they move the company toward it's vision goals or not, and decreases the chances of getting distracted by short-term diversions.
• Clear Roles and Procedures:When people's job descriptions clearly define the extent and limits of their roles, and procedures are clearly defined, the organization becomes stream-lined and the chance of conflicts is decreased.
• Effective Communication: Companies that develop a number of ways to ensure communication up as well as down the ladder of authority, and that solicit negative as well as positive feedback from employees have way fewer conflicts than those that lack these measures. This also allows for information and ideas that are often trapped in the lower echelons of a company to rise to the surface, and inform management decisions. 
• Effective Management: Managing people is a skill that can be learned, and effective management increases productivity decreases conflict.
• Training for Vicarious Trauma: Frequently, health care professionals, who work with people who have experienced stress or trauma, absorb the stress/trauma from their clients and themselves experience symptoms of stress and trauma--chronic fatigue, dizziness, emotional numbness, easily triggered to be angry at injustice, depressed sadness or depression, increased anxiety, etc. There are ways to alleviate this vicarious trauma.

I offer services to bring the “people” aspect of organizations back to healthy functioning, be it to develop and support effective interpersonal interactions, to help a group work together more effectively and efficiently, or to transform negative organizational group dynamics into healthy dynamics.

How I help:

• Clarifying vision and mission
• Clarifying roles and procedures
• Executive and management coaching
• Team facilitation
• Conflict facilitation and mediation, and conflict resolution trainings
• Training and coaching to develop clear, direct communication
• Effective people management
• Training for health care professionals affected by vicarious trauma

Clients:

Mental Health Clinic--over 300 employees

Synagogue

Small Private School

Local  Grocery Store

Veterinary Clinic

Humanitarian Organization with Staff Around the World

Testimonials:

Board Member of a local grocery store:

"Though numerous consultants have offered their time, energy and advice on how to improve the work environment of (our organization), none have offered as profound an analysis of the problems we face...(Zoe and her colleagues) were able to draw out causes and consequences of a far greater depth than any of the other, often highly qualified consultants I have worked with...Zoe's facilitation skills allow for the uncovering of the full experience of major players in a manner few consultants could match."

 Rabbis of a synagogue: 

... we are now aware of the dynamics that underlie the difficulties in our congregation and the dysfunctional interpersonal patterns that have appeared consistently over the years in the organizations with which we have been associated. We now have the tools to understand what lies underneath difficult issues, conversations and reactivity in the people in the groups that we lead.  Second, ... we have changed as leaders and our long-standing patterns of relating to congregants and peers in organizations has become much more effective. We realized that who we were and how we responded to situations was a factor in the difficulties of the groups we led. ...we now have the tools to react differently. Third, as a result of our new understanding of group dynamics and the changes we have made in ourselves, we are seeing profound shifts in some of our relationships with our congregants. This, in turn, ripples out to others.