Communication Company Transforms Their Executive Team and Leaps Ahead in Both Profit and Performance
Background
Clear-Com is a mid-sized voice communication company with 150 employees dispersed across three continents. Struggling to achieve their financial objectives and to demonstrate team cohesion, an experienced CEO, Matt Danilowicz, was brought in to transform the organization. Danilowicz formed a new executive management team in 2006-2007, and immediately recognized the lack of cohesion, trust and communication among his new members. He had considered swapping-out members of the executive team to alleviate the problem, but later found there was something inherently dysfunctional within the culture that needed to be surfaced and addressed. After reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he was compelled to contact The Table Group and get help with confronting his team’s challenges.
Approach: Consulting services, books and products
A Table Group Consulting Partner initiated her work by instructing the team to take the Table Group’s Online Team Assessment. This tool measures a team’s susceptibility to the Five Dysfunctions. Their report scores came back unfavorable in all five areas.
After reviewing the Dysfunctions model and their results, the team was able to see their struggles in a new light and inspired to face their shortcomings. Danilowicz stated, “Our initial two-day session helped us recognize our state of crisis and found it wasn’t due to market conditions; rather it was that we were broken as a team and on a trajectory for failure as a business. Coming to that conclusion and recognizing the magnitude of it, was the wake-up call we needed. In our session, we pushed people out of their comfort zones to face our challenges head-on. The session was nothing short of transformational.”
The team worked through exercises and made strides in their ability to trust, have productive conflict and clarify their organization’s purpose, mission and strategic anchors. According to Danilowicz, one of the most powerful exercises they did to focus the team was to establish a singular, unifying “thematic goal.” They hashed-out their thematic goal which was centered around achieving clear, easy-to-communicate and measure financial objectives. Finally, the team established key performance indicators, roles and responsibilities and a shared sense of accountability.
Outcome: Company achieved consistent quarterly objectives
Shortly after the offsite, the team rolled out their new plan across the company. In their monthly addresses to all employees, communication about the thematic goal was much more simple, concise and effective. Each staff member shared the same, clear mission and objectives, irrespective of their roles, responsibilities or geographical location.
The transformation among the Executive Team and to the business quickly manifested. More trust and empathy among team members led to a more cohesive, unified management team. Communication was more frequent and efficient, which helped propel faster decision-making and better end results on several key business initiatives. Despite the geographical separation and cultural diversity, the team learned to embrace differences and recognize them as business strengths and advantages. This new perspective allowed Clear-Com to deliver scores of new products within the following 18 months and set the pace among its competition as the leading innovator of intercom solutions in the market.
A year later, the team retook the Online Team Assessment with excellent results. Not only did Clear-Com achieve its thematic goal in the first year, but it has since enjoyed improved business and financial performance that consistently exceeded corporate expectations. Danilowicz stated, “Bringing the Dysfunctions program in during this rebuilding phase was key. Had we not worked on our team issues, we would not have achieved such an outstanding performance.” Now that the market has taken a turn, he is confident that his team is better prepared than ever to weather the tough conditions that lie ahead.