SuMo Services
We find ourselves getting involved anywhere there is need for a strategic conversation - where the the objective is rich dialogue, shared understanding, and momentum for change.
Applying strength-based approaches, we help our clients identify what’s working, and then we guide an exploration of opportunities for creating a ripple effect of positive change in the organization.
We believe strongly in the principle of co-creating with our clients to meet their objectives. We begin with the end in mind and plan, design and facilitate accordingly - so that every intervention is a ‘customized’ solution.
Employee Engagement
Much has been written in recent years about the “lack of employee engagement”. Organizations study and publish reports that tell us that “employees are disengaged” and that the resulting loss of productivity is costing organizations millions of dollars annually. We call this The Energy Drain Syndrome™. When clients approach us with this challenge, we encourage them to look at employee engagement as a mystery to be embraced versus a problem to be solved. “What if we were to study this issue from the other side - what might it look like when all employees say they are engaged and inspired by the work they do?” This different lens view begins a whole new conversation for possibility and begins to get you Return on Energy™.
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We both truly value the experience we had ‘growing up’ on the Xerox Leadership Through Quality principles and processes. Equipped with those resources, and our practice of the strength-based Appreciative Inquiry framework, we bring refreshing philosophy and practical planning tools to our clients.
We have guided both corporations and not-for-profit organizations through the planning process, the development and implementation of environmental scans that become the foundation for deep and meaningful exploration, visioning, planning and next steps. We also coach our clients on developing a communication plan to sustain the momentum.
Where appropriate we apply the SOAR™ model of strategic planning - Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results - which is grounded in Appreciative Inquiry. We also have a strategic partner who can assist in the cost effective electronic data capture of interviews and surveys related to conducting environmental scans and gathering the voices of key stakeholders. Their unique offering is being used in various ways by corporate, education, government and not-for-profit sectors.
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Organizational Communication
The theories behind Appreciative Inquiry, with their emphasis on carefully constructed, evocative questions, recurring themes, and rich storytelling—are a natural fit for the communication profession. The process taps many of the strengths communicators hold in abundance: creative use of language, interviewing skills, and the ability to uncover common themes and synthesize ideas into compelling statements that support business change and growth.
By helping communicators apply Appreciative Inquiry in the work they do, we can also help them expand their roles from leaders of an organization’s formal communications to a change leader who helps transform a company’s informal communications (organizational conversations) as well.
- Focus Groups
Generally used as part of a broader communication audit or discovery process, focus groups have traditionally followed a very predictable format. In recent years we have applied a whole new concept to focus groups that has generated meaningful and actionable input from key stakeholders with a side benefit of leaving participants feeling more valued, and hopeful that change will occur.
We have helped organizations in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors, and the education market gather input from their customers, employees and other key stakeholders on everything from brand identity, marketing strategies, products and services, delivery methods and communication processes.
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Teambuilding
What does it mean to be a team? Our experience tells us the answer to that question is different for every team out there: leadership teams, sales teams, virtual decentralized teams. Rather than study a formula for the top 7-10 things that someone else defines as ‘team’, why not explore what it means for you in your organization, in your department, in your community. We have found that bringing the ‘team’ members together to talk about a specific topic that is important to them in the work they do is the best way to create a sense of team with the added benefit of having some concrete outputs.
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Culture Change
“if you want to change the culture, change the conversation. If you want to change the conversation, change the questions you ask . . .” Joyce Majors
In every organization a particular kind of conversation is at work that over time defines it. Sometimes those organizational conversations need to make a dramatic shift in order for the organization to flourish. Human systems move in the direction of what we deeply and persistently ask questions about. As Dr. David Cooperrider has discovered over years of research, we have choices every day bout what we inquire into - inquiry into stress creates more stress. Inquiry into joy creates more joy.
Changing the culture can begin with engaging employees in conversation that helps to connect them to the ’positive core’ of the organization. We can help you determine how to best make this happen in your organization.
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Operational Issues
Applying a strength-based approach to dealing with operational issues can create energy and a sense of commitment that traditional problem-solving approaches may not. As one of our colleagues puts it “by focusing on what’s working, people get the energy to fix what’s not”. The key is having the right people in the room and asking the right questions. We are often called upon to help clients explore team or organizational issues such as sales performance, communication process, customer service issues.
A workshop with the right group of people engaged in a conversation for possibility can go a long way to identifying solutions as well as creating new energy and commitment needed to get things on track and beyond.
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Executive Retreats and Large-scale Conferences
We have designed and facilitated workshops, staff retreats and conference plenary sessions for 10 to 1000 people. We have also found that clients often want the comfort of having one resource to handle all aspects of their conference planning.
Our deep experience in large-scale events is complemented by strategic partnerships with some of the best-of-breed creative directors and producers, graphic designers, audio-visual producers, event planners and keynote speakers in the industry. This allows us to orchestrate the right theme, content and format for the experience, while reducing the complexity of dealing with many suppliers.
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Appreciative Inquiry
We are seasoned practitioners and coaches in Appreciative Inquiry (AI). AI is a strength-based change management philosophy and transformational change process that leverages past successes, peak experiences and current strengths. It is based on a deceptively simple premise: that organizations grow most in the areas in which they repeatedly ask questions and focus their attention.
The roots of AI go back to the early 1980’s with co-founder Dr. David Cooperrider, now of Case Western University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Since that time, and with some pioneering by the early adopters in this thinking, organizations all over the world have been discovering the positive power of AI.
Through the process of inquiry, AI strengthens an organization’s capacity to capitalize on people’s energy and passion, and create new kinds of conversation that help the organization realize its full potential.
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