Organisational consulting that leads to
implementation
Tusk creates pragmatic strategies and development tools that lead directly to customer-led
operational performance.
The world of organisational consulting is widely regarded as a science and, certainly, Tusk embraces key elements from the library of valuable academic study that exists.
However, there’s a big gap between theory and practice, and many organisations are left hanging at the implementation stage. They’ve been dazzled by the ideas and promises of transformation but the act of putting it all into practice is the huge yawning hole that faces them.
We know this because we’ve often been brought in by a CEO to get an organisation to ‘the other side’ of this chasm and actually carry out the change they really need (which usually means getting their people to ‘own’ it first).
Tusk simply doesn’t let its clients get into this damaging position in the first place.
Get it off the whiteboard
Tusk’s strategic organisational consulting services are rooted in established management theories but they’re designed for today’s public sector, corporates and SMEs. Critical to ‘getting it off the whiteboard’ is designing a methodology and approach that’s right for the organisation and its individual needs.
It’s achieving that light bulb moment when the leadership team understand its role is to take ownership then inspire the organisation to follow.
When we say we create a collaborative rather than ‘consultant and client’ relationship we mean it. Tusk is also an HR consultancy so our combined experience of working with leadership and employees means we put people at the heart of our work alongside the processes they are expected to manage and operate.
Senior programme director, public sector
We approach every piece of work in the same way:
Understand the stage your organisation has reached
Understanding the stage an organisation has reached in its life cycle is vital to ensure it grows, develops and meets its objectives whether commercial or not-for-profit based.
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Tusk identifies the ‘as is’ situation of an organisation – in terms of its people, processes and purpose. It helps the organisation to be more objective and accept where it is in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. Recognising that they are going through a crisis is the first task, achievable by reviewing and understanding what the data is revealing.
This analysis stage is also key to implementing the methodologies and solutions needed to support the organisation and empower it to maintain or develop its productivity. The aim of ‘understanding’ is to assess factors impacting on an organisation’s strengths and weaknesses – revealing the ‘today context’ of the business.
Highlights are:
- Reviewing and refining – checking that the measures first identified remain appropriate
- Speed and simplicity – accurate analysis leads to mature decision making so it’s important we keep the whole organisation engaged and on schedule.
- Collecting and analysing all relevant data – we gather input from ‘the people’ (employees and leadership) as well as performance data (eg sales). We operate on ‘full disclosure’ of data and feedback, including anecdotal.
- Identifying cause and effect – we seek out important relationships, links and boundaries including the influence of the external environment.
Design a high performance organisation
As consultants, we work with organisations to design the ‘to be’ state that they want to see their organisations inhabit. Fit-for-purpose services and products are the desired outcome: a customer-targeted, agile and ‘achieving more with less baggage’ attitude.
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Collaboration and joint ownership are important aspects of Tusk’s working style. We collaborate with our customers in the sense that we guide them into owning the process and the outcome.
Key achievements of designing the wished-for state are:
- Focusing on being pragmatic and goal-oriented – solving problems so they stay solved.
- Including the ‘leadership’ in the need to change / take action. Having ‘adult conversations’ about their input to ensure they recognise their role: to be effective, fearless and – to a degree – selfless in their leadership and management.
- Designing effective operating models that support the overall business model – balanced in their attention to people, processes and technology. These models have to be fair and principled (socially and environmentally aware).
- Planning a workforce of appropriately skilled people – including the leadership – that embraces gender, ethnicity and disability.
- Common purpose means enabling free and open decision-making.
- Positioning HR as an influential part of the planning – maybe even the leadership – team.
Implement the strategies and methodologies
We envision a dynamic but pragmatic structure with implementation in our sights. We don’t design and run; we fully expect to implement the strategies and methodologies we’ve created with you – either as part of your in-house team or through coaching and consultancy. There’s no fixed ratio of consultancy : client input; the team make-up is exactly what it has to be to achieve the desired outcomes.
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The key features of successful implementation are:
- Efficient project management – from start to finish with clear prioritisation of tasks and initiatives with realistic timescales. No pet projects just a ‘how do we make this easier’ approach.
- Organisation-wide ownership – top to bottom buy-in and commitment to complete the task.
- Sufficient resources – the ability and capability to undertake implementation.
- Continuous improvement – effective feedback is vital together with accountability to take it on board and not overlook challenges.
- Contingency plans – agile mitigation strategies to avoid delay and keep a successful end to the process firmly in sight.
- Reliable communication programme – continuous, trustworthy and aimed at every level of the organisation.
Maintenance programmes
Finally, we support organisations in developing the systems, processes and competences they need to deliver goal setting, performance monitoring and continuous improvement. In short, we’re in this for the long term. We want to help make the changes stick.
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Our maintenance programme responds to the ongoing measurement of outcomes:
- Monitoring and shaping – help make sure the business is growing and developing according to the change model. (There is no place for complacency.)
- Vigilance and action – being prepared for large seismic transformations (eg intelligent response to external forces such as Covid-19) as well as modest shifts in line with the growth of the business.
- People development – measuring employee engagement to maintain a ‘can do’ attitude from everyone. This keeps leaders on their toes so management of people is effective and positive.
That’s the overview of Tusk organisational consulting.