How We Work with You

Phone Consultation

During our initial phone conversation, we discuss issues of concern to you. We also explain how we customarily approach these issues. When we agree that there appears to be a good fit between your needs and our capabilities, we make an appointment to meet with you and other key decision makers at your office.

Initial Meeting

Our practice is based on creating a genuine partnership with our clients. Fundamental to that partnership is clear communication that will enable us to understand your issues, needs and goals in detail. During the first meeting our primary objective is to establish a mutual understanding about what issues need to be addressed. Among other things, we will want to learn about your culture, about your employees, and about what you would like to accomplish by working with us. We listen. We ask a lot of questions. We listen some more, ask more questions, make suggestions and, as we approach the end of our meeting, we hope to have reached an in-depth understanding of your needs and how we can meet them.

Before we leave, we review the methodologies which we agree are most appropriate for your organization. These may include:

Consulting
Counseling
Coaching
Custom-Crafted Seminars
Mediation
Investigation
Investigation Workshops
Train-the-Trainer Workshops
Review of your Policies and Procedures

At the end of the meeting we agree on dates for follow-up meetings as needed and a timeline for our work together.

Program Development and Execution

Program development follows decisions about methodologies. Our sexual harassment prevention programs, for example, may consist of several methodologies. You may wish to have a series of seminars, as well as coaching for valued employees who have "transgressed," and perhaps mediation as well in order to improve relationships between/among individuals or teams that have had a serious misunderstanding. In some instances, we conduct investigations after a complaint has been lodged, and we also teach others how to conduct in-house investigations.

For example, if we were to create a custom-crafted seminar on an issue such as sexual harassment prevention, we would:

Learn as much as possible about your culture as well as past or present pertinent issues
Review your Policy & Procedures and offer suggestions if appropriate
Create a 40-50 page Resource Guide, which would include a letter from the CEO that we have drafted
Provide a positioning paper announcing forthcoming seminar dates to your employees
Develop questionnaires, mini-cases, assessment tools, and role-plays based on what we've learned about behaviors that you seek to address

Since many companies are loathe to offer full- or even half-day seminars to employees these days, our seminars are usually presented in half-day modules for managers and in two-hour sessions for non-managers. We advise separate sessions for each group; we also advise that seminars be made mandatory. The preferred class size is 15-20 participants, although we can be flexible about this as we can be about seminar scheduling.

Our goal is to present even the most serious material in a fast-paced, highly interactive and entertaining format. We've found that this approach not only assures participants' attention, but it is also a very effective way of dealing with sensitive employee issues. More than one client has commented: "Who would have expected that a seminar on sexual harassment prevention could be so enjoyable!"