Stories about Our Work with Clients
Over the years we’ve consulted with a variety of organizations, local and global, each with their own goals and objectives, issues and concerns. We share here the stories of our experience working with them. As with most things in life, we have had successes, small wins, but also lapses, even utter failures. Every case, every story represents valuable learning moments for us.
One client case stands out for the scope, depth and the audacity of the entire undertaking. Which resulted in rewarding outcomes. Hats off to the client who had the boldness to greenlight the often unorthodox initiatives HCD proposed. [Global Ambitions]
Another story is memorable for the client’s openness to try new ways of doing things, for the creativity that our experiment unleashed and the delight participants had while they were at it. [From Powerpoint to Storytelling]
We’ve had opportunities to work with government entities. For this particular client, the employees were resistant to learning, the work environment was “toxic” and “political”, and they were on a shoestring budget. We agreed to do it anyway, pro-bono. [Good Works project]
We were contracted to work with a client’s design center to improve their stores. This we felt demanded high expertise in branding and product design. We knew exactly who to call. Fortunately the client was willing to pay for us to bring in an internationally recognized designer with a PhD in Ergonomics and Biomechanics. [Creating a Human-Centered Retail Space]
You may have heard of the story of two young fish swimming along who meet an older fish who greets them and says, “How’s the water?” and swims on his way. One of the two young fish turns to the other and asks, “What the hell is water?”
Like the fish who don’t know they’re in water, there are people who appear to have little or no awareness of the system in which they operate. We might describe them as being blind to the realities around them. In a number of client cases, we’ve used a powerful methodology that heightens people’s awareness of the system. And it’s worked well with leadership teams, scientists and kids in warring countries. [Systems Awareness You Can Touch]
Covid-19 forced most of the world to stay home, leading to the (now normal) practice of remote working. For this one client, the daily Zoom meetings during the pandemic added to the employees’ stress, causing burnout, overwhelm, feelings of isolation, anxiety. We were called on to help. This was our first time to design and deliver a program virtually, and one focused on resilience and wellbeing. [Coping with Covid and Remote Working]
How aware are people of their behavior in workspaces? Oftentimes, they’re oblivious of their actions, or their impact on others. How leaders carry themselves, how they interact with others, how others behave around them, give valuable clues to the individual and how they show up, as well as to the group culture. We’ve seen this with some clients for whom we’ve created and delivered executive development programs. [Cameras Don’t Lie]
In another case, the senior leader had high ambitions for the organization and a limited budget for a development program, but was willing to try our proposed experiments. It was challenging and that was the appeal, as it gave us some leeway to explore new approaches and uncover what other yet-unseen aspects may need attending to. This was a case we felt needed a continued program of support to sustain it and keep up the momentum of their much-needed change. [A Bar Too High]
This client was a BPO serving an account which had specific performance measurements for their call center agents, while trying to reflect their client’s positioning for their product in the way agents communicated with their customers. In this case, we had become too invested on this particular detail as to ‘not see the forest for the trees’. [Polarities and Conflicts Awareness]
In focussed group discussions, market researchers do not put young respondents together with mature respondents in one group. Or in some cases, putting men and women together. Because they know that age or gender differences get in the way of spontaneous and authentic communication. We’re not a market research company but we had to apply our knowledge of research to help a retail client who’d needed to gain some insights and possible solutions to their franchisee concern. [Shifting Hierarchical Relationships Among Franchise Holders]