Supporting Success Today and Tomorrow
One thing that's universally true among good consultants, at least the ones we know and hire, is that they are very success-oriented. They want to do a great job and provide value to their clients on a daily basis as well as over the course of an engagement, and they want to feel they are continually building the skills and competencies to be successful in the future. Giving them ways to achieve these goals helps keep them culturally connected to their consulting organization.
At IntegrityOne Partners, we do this in a number of ways. First, we promote collaboration and make it a requirement for day-to-day success. (Fortunately, this is made easier by the fact that our people genuinely like one another.)
To support this, our business and technology practices are built out horizontally, spreading skills and skill levels across industry verticals, so working teams can more easily keep sight of current and emerging best practices and ensure we do business effectively and dynamically.
Through our horizontal practice groups, we encourage—and sometimes require—that people spend time on research and development, keeping their vision forward, not backward or sideways. Diversity of experience keeps more senior team members fresh and more junior team members learning and growing, a symbiosis that is truly infectious.
The horizontal structure also gives people the ability to safely expand into uncharted waters and take new ideas with them into different vertical markets.
Finally, our people are more easily able to track the innovations that matter most to our clients, keeping engagements dynamic and contributing to the trust-based relationships we work very hard to build.
That's great for today. To address tomorrow's concerns, we form what we call "Emerging Technologies Groups" (ETG) that monitor and explore new technologies to assess whether they are likely to gain traction in the marketplace. When we find a topic we're bullish on, we dig into it, get smart and begin introducing new solutions and ways of thinking to clients and prospects.
Teams are led by senior practice group members, who encourage active participation by more junior consultants, again to keep everyone involved, sharp and on their toes. As consultants' availability (above and beyond client responsibilities) for such teams differs, ETG team members find themselves working with people they haven't worked with before, adding to the sense of dynamism.
Like most firms, we encourage and fund training for our people, help support continuing education, and do other things that address the consultant's desire for ongoing success. We're also establishing clear and thoughtful career paths for our team members to use in planning their professional development. Part of each team member's annual performance is gauged by the achievement of their self-established development goals, along with accomplishments that show an individual's performance against corporate goals and values.
All of these things help connect people to the organization through each consultant's current and future success. But we've purposely built beyond these things a practice group structure and a link to the future through the ETG that further enable success and foster community within the organization. We've also found value in promoting ties to the broader community.
Connecting People and Community
Another common trait among the consultants is a desire to connect with their local community and make contributions that benefit others. We've identified a number of charities that we support with our time, cash and in-kind contributions. Some of these groups are regional, while others have a national focus. Either way, our people are able to connect with something bigger than themselves, our clients and our organization.
We also encourage individuals to make our team aware of other charities that might benefit from our support, and then we empower them to internally rally the resources needed. It may seem a little anarchic, but how many consultants do you know who aren't a "get it done" personality type? It keeps our organization fresh in terms of the groups that we're reaching out to and supporting.
Ultimately, when our team members are out there together giving, working or playing for a cause bigger than themselves, they grow closer as a group and more connected to our organization. And all of that is beyond the real reason for charity involvement: giving back to the communities that have given us so much.
Fostering Friendly Collaboration
In addition to giving people a place to do good work, grow, succeed and contribute to their community, we also believe in fostering friendly collaboration among team members.
Quarterly town hall meetings annually generally allow our team to get together in person, stay in touch with corporate initiatives and success, and collectively address some of the challenges and opportunities we face as an organization.
By design, team members at all levels interact comfortably at these meetings. We also enjoy picnics, parties and other social events together with each other, our families and close friends.
Our team newsletter includes a mix of substantive articles that keep us focused on common topics and issues that affect our clients and organization along with people-focused content that promotes familiarity and casual interaction.
Additionally, every team member receives a handwritten note from at least one of our managing partners on each birthday and service anniversary. Again, we genuinely like each other, but this also makes our open-door management philosophy a little more real for people.
More communication channels are in the works. The fact is that if consulting leaders don't actively manage the culture of their organization, a culture will develop in the management vacuum. And one thing that makes most of the consultants we know very uncomfortable is that kind of unpredictability.
We've chosen to nurture the kind of culture that our team members appreciate and respond to positively. So far, it's been just the answer we've been looking for.
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