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Facilitator Training Client Success Story

Hipple & Co. Reputation Management

Communication is Key to Success

"I try to invest in two or three professional development sessions a year to sharpen my skills as a consultant. Leadership Strategies courses and instructors make that investment worthwhile."

J.R. Hipple owns Hipple&Co. Reputation Management, a public relations company offering hands-on counsel for CEO's and executives in communications, marketing and human resources. The firm's strengths are solving communications problems, crisis and issues management and strategic communications planning. They also help leaders and organizations manage and communicate cultural and organizational change.

"One of the most valuable skills for any manager is understanding the importance of facilitating meetings with employees rather than simply leading discussions," Hipple commented. "You can't expect employees to simply accept the decisions made up high in an organization. Managers need to help communicate the long-range goals of a company by involving employees in a process of discussion and discernment, and then communicate the part they each needs to play for the company to succeed.

"The reason Leadership Strategies is so effective at what they do is because every course they offer centers around facilitation and collaboration between groups of people. They have uniquely designed ways to apply these principles to different business scenarios. Every Leadership Strategies process and design is laid out in a practical and logical way; the defining edge is that you walk away equipped to apply the process to your every day business dealings.

It strikes me how much Michael Wilkinson [Managing Director of Leadership Strategies] is really a manager's manager. Through his experiences and the processes he's developed, he is always looking for ways to help managers become more effective at what they do. And isn't that what management is all about?

What critical issues were facing you that needed solving?

As a consultant, I work with clients who face a myriad of issues on any given day. I took this course in order to help my clients better communicate their strategic plans to all employees and to select external audiences. One of the primary reasons strategic plans fail is because they're not effectively communicated, yet it is estimated that less than 25% of all strategic plans have a communications component.

Language is important in business, and there's a lot of mystery around the word strategy. When someone is deemed strategic it sets them up as a special person. The truth of the matter is the less mystery around strategy the better because at the end of the day it's the people working around you who have to understand the strategic plan in order to implement it.

What was your takeaway from the session?

The most important component in the consulting process is the whole idea of developing people and organizations through the facilitative process. This applies whether you are writing your strategic plan or marshalling the troops to implement a project. It all comes back to a basic philosophy that you are more effective by gaining the involvement of others than by mandating what their behavior should be. Leadership Strategies is a master at this. Richard Smith [the class instructor] successfully blended theory and modeling with pragmatic examples that I could put to use right away.

I also gleaned the importance of having a very thorough understanding of the strategic planning process. I knew how to prepare a communications strategy walking in, but I wanted to know more about preparing a strategic business plan.

Using the Leadership Strategies tools, I've been able to help clients think through the way that they should involve others in their strategic planning process. There's an old notion that a strategic plan is just an appendage of an organization. Leadership Strategies demonstrated that the strategic planning function needs to be a fully integrated process.

How did Leadership Strategies help to resolve or improve your work performance?

Shortly following the course I began using many of the techniques and processes that I learned. Most recently, I used Leadership Strategies Drivers Model to navigate the board of directors of a large community foundation through their strategic planning retreat. In my opinion it's the best conceptual illustration of the strategic planning process that I've ever seen. It gave my client a clear, understandable roadmap for involving the leaders of their organization in the strategic planning process. As a consultant, it is a priceless commodity having tools like this available; our knowledge and expertise in specific fields is the reason people hire consultants to begin with.

Using the Drivers Model clearly shows companies what needs to change in order to be successful and what part their people need to play in that change. When you follow the model all the way through using this mindset it's really a great tool.

Any bonuses you gained that you weren't expecting?

I'm a management consultant in communications who specializes in problem solving, analysis and strategy. Leadership Strategies equipped me with concrete tools to use in what is oftentimes considered an overwhelming process.

Although the plans have gotten much shorter over the years, executives and managers struggle over how to align the work of a division or department with the strategic vision of the organization. How do you translate the corporate document/plan throughout the company? I don't think most people know how to do that, although it's talked about all the time. This is where the application of Leadership Strategies training courses helped me to assist my clients.

Last fall I worked with a client whose executives had a shared understanding of their corporate goals. Like many companies, they could crunch numbers better than anyone and create strategic plans from 30,000 feet above. Yet the leadership was ineffective at communicating their strategies outside of the executive level. When it came down to how each department should devote its resources of time and money, I used the Driver's Model system to help them determine and communicate their priorities.

One of the most important things a CEO and other leaders can do is communicate the strategic vision for their company to all employees. This requires some intentional and thorough planning to ensure that the vision of leadership becomes the point-of-view shared from top to bottom. It's remarkable the transformational power that comes from this approach, which can really open up the floodgates for collaboration and communication throughout the company.