Laying a solid organizational foundation entails crafting an organization's design, developing organizational processes, empowering people in the organization to make necessary changes, and ensuring that these elements, in concert with one another, support the overall business strategy.

Rheault-Williams believes that the key to sustainable success in organizational development efforts such as these is ownership, and nothing drives ownership like participation. Change must be driven by the people who need to implement it and by the people who need to understand its impact. We work collaboratively across the whole organization - getting curious with them to discover the root causes and dynamics that impair their business success.

We use an action research approach, talking to people in focus groups and interviews, opening the channels of communication. We get them talking to us, talking to each other, and, most importantly, asking the important questions of themselves and their organization:

• Where do you want to take your organization?
• Where's the breakdown?
• What's your strategy and how are you going to achieve it?
• What are your goals?
• Are peoples' roles and responsibilities clear?
• What work processes are in place; are they clear; are they appropriate?

We always share our findings with the entire organization in a way that is open and honest - we don't give one set of data to the top of the house and another set to the bottom. And, we don't just come back with reams of reports that won't be read. We use this data to craft an action plan with the client - identifying areas of change and determining the best course of action to affect that change.

Rheault-Williams works across boundaries to bring groups together, helping them partner with one another. Our team-building approach is extremely pragmatic, not touchy-feely - although, we do often work with leaders to help them understand the ways in which their behaviors either undermine or foster change.

We partner with senior managers to set the context for change and appropriately involve the rest of the organization to ensure ownership, understanding and buy-in. We help them learn to listen and work together. We give clients a framework to understand the system in which they operate and a set of mental models to help think differently about their issues.

We achieve these goals in many ways, some of which include:

• Organization Assessment & Design
• Strategic Planning & Visioning
• Rapid Action Change Processes
• Team Building
• New Business/Team Start-up
• Pre/Post Merger Integration

Whether it's a thirty person cross-functional team or a small group of eight direct reports, our strength is in helping them work together and communicate…to learn how to tolerate conflict with candor and respect. If you can't talk together, you can't solve problems.