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Center for Management Consulting
The Breckenridge Institute® is a management consulting firm that focuses on helping clients get better results through diagnosis. Like a medical doctor who uses precision instruments and expertise to improve a patient’s health, our staff of technical and business professionals combines our expertise in actually improving organizational and individual performance, with our portfolio of research-based methodologies and validated assessment tools to help managers get the results they want. The Breckenridge Institute® uses its extensive expertise in OD to help clients get better results in the areas of financial management, operations, people, and enterprise-wide systems. The Institute will help you get:
The Breckenridge Institute® provides an objective third-party perspective that helps leaders and managers become catalysts for positive change and organizational transformation. The Institute has
A more detailed description of the Institute’s areas of expertise is provided below. Our Areas of Expertise Our areas of expertise are built around the open-systems diagram shown below. Aligning and integrating an organization’s strategy, execution, and climate is key to building a high-performing organization and ensuring sustainable performance. The structures, systems, and climate shown in the diagram have an interdependent cause-and-effect relationship with each other, so a change in one element creates change in the others, sometimes unintentionally.
Aligning these business systems with IT infrastructure is the key to building a high-performing organization. The Breckenridge Institute® staff helps clients develop an IT infrastructure that: a) moves information from the external environment to the correct place in the organization so it can be analyzed, digested, and acted on, b) moves information from enterprise-wide business processes to the correct place in the organization so it can be analyzed, digested and acted on, c) moves information on the status of key performance indicators (KPIs), goals, milestones, deliverables, and budgets in operating plans to the correct place in the organization so it can be analyzed, digested and acted on, and d) structures and manages data storage so it is a resource that’s available to everyone who needs it, e.g. data isn't isolated in data silos or shadow systems. Our goal is to design systems that help clients find key business-related information within 30 seconds using a minimum number of clicks. Developing Strategy The Breckenridge Institute® helps organizations take a strategic (100,000 foot elevation) view of the external environment and internal operations using methodologies based on principles taught by business experts such as Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Jay Galbraith, Harry Beckwith, Al Ries and Jack Trout, Larry Bossidy, Michael Porter, Edwards Deming, research results from the Harvard Business Review, and the Global Organization Design model developed by Elliot Jaques. We help clients:
Improving Execution and Operations The Breckenridge Institute® helps clients more effectively carry-out and implement the organization’s plans, goals, and objectives so that strategic goals and objectives flow down to (and are implemented by) work groups. Our staff uses methodologies and principles taught by business experts such as Dave Hanna, Alec Sharp, Edwards Deming, Thomas Davenport, Paul Harmon, J.M. Juran, Alfie Kohn, Edwards Deming, the Human Performance Technology model, research results from the Harvard Business Review, and the Global Organization Design model developed by Elliot Jaques. We help clients:
Characterizing and Changing Organizational Culture The Breckenridge Institute® helps clients create a more productive, positive, effective and creative work environment, e.g. Organizational Climate. More specifically, “climate” is the experience of what it’s like to work in an organization day-to-day and is a reflection of the underlying tacit assumptions and cultural norms that compose an organization’s culture. The Institute’s staff uses methodologies and principles taught by business experts such as Edgar Schein, John Kotter, David Cooperrider, Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy, Chris Argyris, Clotaire Rapaille, Alan Wilkins, Howell Baum, William Bridges, Lawrence Millar, Rollo May, Anthony Storr, Arthur Koester, research results from the Harvard Business Review, and the Global Organization Design model developed by Elliot Jaques. We help clients:
Organizational Assessments In a world of increasing stakeholder expectations and decreasing resources, aggressive cost cutting programs have run their course. Where do you turn next? Field experience by the Breckenridge Institute’s staff has shown that managers have an even greater need for fact-based decision-making using scientific analytics and diagnosis, not just business experience and intuition. The Institute’s portfolio of on-line organizational assessments gives leaders and managers the tools, methodologies, and quantitative information they need to make informed decisions and improve their organization’s performance (see list below):
The Breckenridge Institute’s portfolio of organizational assessment tools can be used to help for-profit, non-profit, or government organizations develop greater discipline, rigor, and perseverance in the areas of organizational alignment, organizational focus, and organizational trust. Greater discipline, rigor, and perseverance in an organization’s governance, planning, allocation of resources, execution, decision-making, and human performance is not a “business” concept, rather it’s a principle of high-performance and creating an Intended Culture of excellence. Organizational Alignment Indicator™ (OAI™) There are a number of signs that an organization is not aligned to get the results it wants. They are unable to change in the face of forces and threats from the business environment. They make key decisions that go unimplemented or get reversed. They struggle against overly complex systems that frustrate and undermine their attempts to create positive change. Their organization’s culture acts like an Invisible Bureaucracy™ that squanders enormous amounts of time and energy – valuable resources that are not available to achieve their goals and objectives. Recognizing and acting on these signs are the first steps toward making invisible bureaucracy visible and getting the results you want. Business Applications – The OAI™ can be used with an entire organization or in work-groups and functional units in the following situations.
Organizational Focus Indicator™ (OFI™) Organizations are goal-seeking organisms that can follow the strategic direction they choose as long as they meet the needs and expectations of the larger context of the external environment. An organization must link its strategic direction to meeting the tangible needs of customers, and meeting those needs becomes an organization’s purpose – its reason for existing. The link between the strategic direction and meeting customer needs functions like an implicit contract between the organization and the external environment, and keeping the commitments outlined in this contract ensures an organization’s survival. More specifically, an organization’s goals and objectives should function like internal targets that guide the organization toward fulfilling its purpose and implicit contract with the external environment. The Organizational Focus Indicator™ (OFI™) measures key indicators of the degree to which your organization’s structures, systems, and culture are designed to carry out its implicit contract with the external environment. The OFI™ helps managers identify the extent to which their organization is either externally focused on producing results, outputs, and meeting customer needs, or internally focused on the structures, systems, people, and internal operations needed to meet those needs. The OFI™ also quantifies what your organization’s level of external or internal focus may be costing you in squandered time and energy – hidden costs that don’t appear in traditional financial accounting systems. The OFI™ is an on-line assessment that can be completed by managers and staff members in 3-4 minutes and administered in organizations of up to 5,000 people. Business Applications – The OFI™ can be used with an entire organization or in work-groups and functional units in the following situations.
Organizational Trust Index™ (OTI™) Trust is the foundation of all human interactions, and the cornerstone upon which high-performing organizational cultures are built. Trust is often thought of in terms of individual people and one-on-one relationships, for example we trust our coworkers, direct reports, or our boss. But unlike trusting individuals, the interdependent actions and interactions of structures, systems, and culture can reach a level of combinatorial complexity where the “system” takes on a life of its own independent of the day-to-day actions and interactions of individual managers and staff members. The degree to which people either trust the structures, systems, and culture of the organization they work in, or fear them is a “window” into the underlying patterns of behavior, belief structure, and tacit assumptions that constitute an organization’s culture. Researchers from Abraham Maslow to W. Edwards Deming have warned against the subtle, but profound, effects that fear can have on establishing or maintaining a high-performing organizational culture. Deming argues that fear makes people afraid to share their best ideas; expand their capabilities and skills; admit mistakes; suggest process improvements; question the underlying purpose and reasoning of decisions or procedures; or even to act in the best interest of the company. Managers and staff members fear: a) being the object of real or perceived retribution, b) being passed over for promotion, c) receiving lower performance ratings, d) looking uninformed or like a trouble-maker, e) being assigned to “grunt” work, rather than the more visible projects, and f) being seen as not having sufficient intellectual horsepower to advance beyond one’s current position. Fear ultimately leads to padded figures, distorted measures of performance, and the tendency to sanitize, spin, and reinterpret what’s really going on in an organization as information moves up through organizational levels to top management. The Organizational Trust Index™ (OTI™) helps managers identify the extent to which their organization is either motivated by trust, or driven by fear. The OTI™ identifies tangible issues within an organization’s structures, systems, and culture that have the cumulative effect of either building organizational trust, or creating organizational fear. The OTI™ also quantifies what a lack of organizational trust may be costing you in squandered time and energy – hidden costs that don’t appear in traditional financial accounting systems. The OTI™ is an on-line assessment that can be completed by managers and staff members in 3-4 minutes and administered in organizations of up to 5,000 people. Business Applications – The OTI™ can be used with an entire organization or in work-groups and functional units in the following situations.
The Breckenridge Institute® combines the quantitative data gathered by its portfolio of assessments, with qualitative data that comes from one-on-one and group interviews, and the observation of day-to-day operations in the organization to help clients get better results through diagnosis. Organizational Analysis™ Traditional organization development and business consulting use organizational models and techniques that focus primarily on the conscious material of day-to-day organizational life and working-level assumptions and beliefs. Organizational Analysis™ uses the models and techniques found in Mark Bodnarczuk’s book, Making Invisible Bureaucracy Visible: a) to help integrate the tacit, unquestioned, taken-for-granted, and undiscussible material in work-groups, functional units, and entire organizations back into organizational awareness, and b) to facilitate the interdependent dynamics between the conscious material of day-to-day organizational life, and the tacit, unquestioned, taken-for-granted, and undiscussible material that is a key element of organizational culture. More specifically, an Organizational Analyst™ helps clients evaluate the business results that their organization is getting and identify the cause-and-effect relationships between those results and: a) the configuration of an organization’s structures and systems, b) the day-to-day patterns-of-interaction between work-groups and key personnel, c) the tacit, unquestioned, taken-for-granted, undiscussible assumptions and beliefs that underlay day-to-day operations and decision-making, and d) the business context within which an organization is embedded. The deliverable for the Organizational Analysis™ Role is the creation of a relationship in which the client organization is taught how to self-identify and self-correct Invisible Bureaucracy™ that frustrates, undermines, and derails organizational performance and getting the client’s desired results. The Organizational Analysis™ process helps clients build an Intended Culture™ that restores an organization’s freedom to choose its response to the forces and pressures of the internal and external environments. The essence of the relationship between an Organizational Analyst™ and a client organization is captured by the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Some of the key indicators that an organization will benefit from conducting an Organizational Analysis™ are listed below.
Workshops and seminars can be presented at an introductory, college, or graduate level depending on the needs and capabilities of participants and the client organization. These training and educational experiences can also be used as modules in existing training and develop programs offered by client organizations, e.g. leadership development, succession planning, etc. Meeting and Process Facilitation
Training, Mentoring, and Coaching The Breckenridge Institute® offers a wide variety of training and educational experience in the areas listed below. Our workshops and seminars are tailored to the learning styles, capabilities, and interests of participants and the needs of client organizations. Some areas in which the Institute offers training and mentoring services include:
For more information on how the Breckenridge Institute® can help your organization e-mail us at info@breckenridgeinstitute.com. The Breckenridge Institute® is a member of the Association of Test Publishers (APT) and the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG). The Breckenridge Institute® is a GSA approved contractor, with a MOBIS Schedule 874 and GSA Advantage Number GS10F0232L. The Breckenridge Institute’s areas of expertise are classified under NAICS Code 541611 (Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services). Personality in Context®
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