Blog news
I have been trying to get my blog going for the longest time. It was sitting there in the middle of the Guilty section of my to-do list, and not getting any nearer the top - always important but never urgent. Well, finally it saw the light of day. Have a look at it here, and you will see that, like most other attempted bloggers, I have struggled and largely failed to post to it often enough. So it is going through a revamp. This blog was designed to mirror my website, and that seems to cramp my writing style. So watch out for the new blog, and we'll see how much effect design has on its use.
Missed something?
It may now be old news. If so, it will be on my new Old News page.Our approach
At Goldsmith Consulting, we provide a bespoke service. Our approach is always tailor made for your unique situation. We use the five step process described here to customise our service to address your specific needs.
Focus
We always start by establishing a clear sense of purpose. There are some critical questions to be answered up front.
- What are the results you are trying to achieve?
- What is driving this change for you and your organisation?
- What are the imperatives?
- How does this work relate to the organisation's priorities and natural sense of urgency?
Diagnose
If we are to understand what's really going on, we need to do some information gathering, to build a picture. We need to take account of specific agendas and individual points of view. We could do this by using a diagnostic tool of some kind, or in a less constrained way. I particularly enjoy using structured interviews, with their combination of focus and freedom. Facilitating teams and groups through a diagnostic process can be great fun and very illuminating.
The tools that we use range from those tightly or loosely based on the EFQM or Baldrige models of excellence (both standard products and bespoke materials created for individual clients) to individual and team analyses, such as Belbin team roles and the Situational Leadership model. You will find details of many of these tools in the Design section of this web site, and links to a number of them in Resources.
Comprehend and clarify
This is my favourite bit, and something my clients tell me I am particularly skilled at. It's about seeing the wood for the trees - drawing a clear, comprehensive and comprehensible picture of what's really going on. It's about conveying that picture to people simply and clearly, in ways that help them see and understand for themselves, and make them increasingly clear sighted.
Generate ideas
Having established a clear picture of what's really going on, and working with the focus that was set at the start, we are now ready to consider how things could change. Typically, people constrain their thinking of what's possible based on their current experience. If we are to generate powerful ideas, we have to break people out of those constraints, and tap into their innate creativity. We also need to be realistic, and make sure that the ideas we come up with are appropriate to the need. Not everything an organisation does needs to be on the bleeding edge. There is no value in over-engineering our solution. It's essential, though, that we make full use of people's intimate understanding of your organisation, so that we can tune the ideas for a natural fit.
Follow through
Typically, this is where a lot of changes fail. It always takes more than was anticipated (time, effort, resources, you name it) to implement a change fully. Sticking to it until the results are fully realised is tough but essential. The exciting stage is seemingly over, but nothing real is achieved until actions are completed. Tying the actions into business as usual stops them getting sidelined. Coaching or mentoring key individuals through the change helps them to stay focused, and allows them to reflect on the experiences so far and be flexible in their responses to them. Continuing to review allows for continued tuning to ensure that the actions achieve the results we are aiming for.
