Services – Global-OD

Inclusion

A diverse economy is a strong economy. Businesses that embrace our nation’s changing demographics reap the economic benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Businesses that recruit from a diverse workforce are better able to find the best and the brightest talent needed to compete in an increasingly competitive economy. By bringing together our different backgrounds, skills, and experiences, businesses are better able to breed the type of innovative and creative solutions needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive economy. Businesses that embrace diversity also realize significant increases in workforce productivity and job performance. More broadly, a diverse workforce drives economic growth, as more women, racial and ethnic minorities, and gay and transgender individuals enter the workforce.

In short, diversity is key to fostering a strong and inclusive economy that is built to last. This issue brief examines the state and strength of diversity in the U.S. workforce. Specifically, we look at the number and proportion of people of color, women, gay and transgender individuals, and people with disabilities in the workforce today.

Diversity

We partner with clients at all stages of a diversity initiative, including planning, needs assessment, strategy, executive coaching, training design, workshop facilitation, systems alignment, and measurement. We view valuing, managing, and leveraging diversity as a culture change for the organization, and ensure that our methods are targeted at the process of change, instead of simply a program or something to “fix.” We capitalize on the positives of our clients’ cultures while minimizing those factors that restrain it from realizing its full potential.

Our diversity and inclusion education offerings include customized experiential learning, executive dialogues, business case presentations, facilitation of diversity councils, design and delivery of diversity learning rooms, interactive theatre and other approaches.

Leadership Development

Our leadership development efforts are focused primarily on providing custom solutions for our clients’ high potentials, for all leaders within a specific level, or for those embarking on an international assignment. We focus on developing individuals’ leadership abilities beyond their current levels, in the context of job role and organizational culture, needs, and realities.

Our successful frameworks include experiential classroom learning, 360-degree feedback and other forms of assessment as applicable (i.e. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, FIRO-B, The Emotional and Social Competence Inventory), coaching, mentoring, visioning, introspection/reflection and journaling, goal setting, business school-style coursework, on-the-job stretch assignments, and other tools. For global leaders, we couple our core leadership development components with cross-cultural skill-building, including assessment with the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).

Team Building

We work with teams in many capacities, including “traditional” team building and improving dysfunctional team performance, as well as helping our clients to more effectively manage the cross-cultural and distance implications of today’s virtual global teams.

Our team interventions are customized to address the needs of the specific group that we are working with. With some teams, we start at the onset with setting a clear direction, creating a vision, obtaining commitment and coordinating the team effort. With those groups who are just forming, we often continue to aid them in creating an effective team climate and managing the stages of team development. In this phase, we may also use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or a similar assessment tool, to provide the team with greater personal insight, as well as skills to accommodate the different styles of others.

With a team in transition or crisis, we help them to improve their performance by overcoming communication barriers, minimizing destructive behaviors, and learning how to conduct more efficient and effective team meetings. With this type of team, we may also administer the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Inventory, teach influence techniques, coach the team in negotiation tactics, or provide other appropriate resources and coaching.

Cross Cultural Work

Current research suggests that between 60-84% of cross-border mergers and acquisitions fail (i.e. do not increase shareholder value) because of the negative impact of cultural differences. Arguably, many domestic mergers haven’t been as successful, either, due to issues between the two or more organizational “cultures” that came together. Research on off-shoring initiatives is not as extensive, but numerous organizations have also not been as effective as these endeavors, due to a lack of attention “up front” to issues of culture and culturally-driven norms and expectations.

Through our customized sessions, people better understand the importance of developing greater cultural fluency in today’s global marketplace and begin to build those skills. We identify a working definition of culture, and create a better understanding of cultural differences and their impact on behavior. Customized to industry and business needs, we help participants to better understand the communication, learning, and teamwork implications for culturally-driven behavioral or expectation differences – between two or more specific cultural groups, or with a variety of global examples.

Cross-cultural fluency is critical when working with a global team, managing any diverse group of people, developing advertising and product positioning efforts for new markets, and interacting with customers from different backgrounds. By the end of our training process, people have expanded their overall level of cross-cultural awareness and repertoire of skills so that they can be more effective both inside and outside of their organization.

Mentoring

Today’s leaders need to be excellent facilitators, coaches, mentors and managers, balancing working with others with effectively managing self. Our coaching and mentoring programs are intensive approaches to building more effective relationships with both individuals and teams.

We help our clients improve their current level of Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient (often referred to as EI or EQ) to more effectively lead, empower, motivate, and even inspire themselves and others. Our consultants are certified in the Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (ESCI), which is one of the tools that we use to assess and develop leaders. One-on-one coaching is also very effective with new global leaders, or those managing a very diverse workforce. When working with global leaders, we also utilize the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and other applicable assessment instruments.

We design and implement formal mentoring programs, helping clients to identify and further develop their key talent and underutilized people resources. Over the past several years, many blue-chip firms have engaged us to implement our formal mentoring programs on an annual basis for them.
Both our coaching and mentoring programs are known to improve professional and personal effectiveness alike. These efforts provide a way of reflecting on and developing greater skills, both at work and in life.

Client List

Global OD Solutions has partnered with the following corporations, representing a variety of industries, to facilitate organization effectiveness. A partial list of our clients include: