Team Strategy
Generate Value
Drive Focus
We collaborate with you to identify your team value proposition and the essential activities that will make it happen.
Increase Efficiency & Collaboration
We can optimize the way your team communicates, gathers data, organizes information, and manages projects.
Strengthen Accountability
We work with you to drive team ownership and to empower decision-making and problem-solving capability.
Lead with Purpose
We partner with you to assess and design a strategy that will improve team culture and process; including how it leads, communicates, collaborates, manages team knowledge, and measures progress – everything your team needs to effectively create value.
By the end of our work together, you should have a team plan that enables people to:
- Work fluidly within and outside of team boundaries.
- Lead in their areas of expertise to secure their ‘seat at the table.’
- Efficiently deliver on promises.
- Confidently manage the constant shift of organization dynamics.
See below for special fixed-fee offers to improve team performance.
Fixed Fee Offers
Make the most of your money with our targeted performance packages.
Process Improvement
Tune-up performance – grassroots process improvement completed by your team, facilitated by us. Re-envision, refine, and recharge how your team delivers value.
Collaborative Team Operations Assessment
Take flight together – team operations assessment and re-alignment completed by your team, facilitated by us.
Expert Team
Operations Assessment
Lead the business, don’t let the business lead you – gain insight into team strengths, limitations, and key opportunities to optimize the team’s ability to generate value for itself, its customers, and the organization.
Our Work
How people work together is critical to sustained high performance.
Here are a few examples of our work to improve team design and performance.
CLIENT: Global finance and commercial insurance company
REVENUE: $10.7 billion USD
COMPANY EMPLOYEES: 6,000+
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATES: 500+
New Operations Training, OD & Communications Team
THE NEED
Within the corporate Operations business unit, a new training team was created to serve the onboarding and technical learning needs of approximately 500 onshore Operations associates. Prior to this effort, training was decentralized - managed ad hoc by non-training associates.
The company needed support to design the training team operating model, including: organizational structure, key performance indicators, standards, processes, tools/templates, and governance.
WHAT WE DID
Contracted by The CARA Group for this project, Heather Jencks (of Strategic Ascent, Inc., now Clever Tern):
- Conducted a rapid current state assessment to determine team business objectives and vision, available internal support and handoffs between enterprise L&D and Operations training, and the current condition of Operations training material.
- Researched best practices and compared current Operations training capabilities against industry best practices and L&D maturity models.
- Designed a recommended team operating model, including team size, roles, responsibilities, and core competencies, which the client then used to inform job descriptions to fill team positions.
- Designed and developed team processes, including swim lanes, methodologies, and templates for the intake, assessment, and design of learning.
- Defined recommended service standards, key performance indicators, and a team dashboard to monitor team performance.
- Recommended a governance model to ensure the effective leadership, administration, and maintenance of education.
THE RESULT
Work completed in March 2020; results too early to track quantitatively. The client was pleased with the results and is confidently on its way to building the team and working to modernize its training practices.
CLIENT: State Bureau of Motor Vehicles
GOVT EMPLOYEES: ~1400
OD TEAM: 17
Government OD Team
THE NEED
A state Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) wanted a three-part assessment conducted to: a.) identify enterprise-wide learning needs; b.) assess the current effectiveness and future potential of its 17-member OD/T&D department; and c.) assess the effectiveness and useful life of existing knowledge, content, and learning management systems.
Heather Jencks (of Strategic Ascent, Inc., now Clever Tern) was contracted by BCforward to conduct the first two parts of this enterprise-wide needs assessment and strategic plan (i.e., enterprise-wide learning needs & OD/T&D effectiveness). This project summary focuses on the OD/T&D team assessment and strategic plan.
WHAT WE DID
Contracted via BCforward and in partnership with one project manager and one consultant for the KMS/CMS/LMS analysis, Heather Jencks:
- Conducted a current and desired future state needs analysis of the OD/T&D team operations, including a thorough review of roles, responsibilities, work time analysis, capacity management, processes, handoffs, and business objectives.
- Compared team operations to OD and T&D best practices and industry peer analysis.
- Recommended an OD/T&D team operations and enterprise-wide learning strategy to address gaps and sharpen team and organizational learning effectiveness.
- Outlined a detailed step-by-step roadmap on how to implement the strategy and achieve strategic goals.
THE RESULT
A 128-page findings and recommendations report plus executive presentation and facilitated discussions with the Executive Leadership Team were delivered. This report provided a comprehensive view of OD/T&D team operations, enterprise-wide learning needs, and KMS/CMS/LMS systems.
Recommendations informed the BMV's strategic and financial planning efforts; helping them to identify high-impact opportunities, prioritize improvement activities, set goals, and allocate funds.
CLIENT: Fortune 100 American insurance company; enterprise new agency owner education department.
REVENUE: $33.3 billion USD
COMPANY EMPLOYEES: 38,000+
EDUCATION TEAM: 8
AGENCY OWNERS: 9,300+
Enterprise Sales Education Team
THE NEED
Heather Jencks (of Strategic Ascent, Inc., now Clever Tern) was hired to transform a ten-week, lecture-based 'new agency owner sales education' program into a six-week interactive learning program. Over the course of 1.5 years, Heather partnered with the client to transform and pilot the program. To promote long-term sustainability of the new program, Heather recommended that the team adapt team responsibilities and processes to facilitate ease of administration, curriculum maintenance/continuous improvement, and governance.
WHAT WE DID
Heather:
- Partnered with the Team Lead to review existing roles, responsibilities, processes, and handoffs.
- Detailed recommended changes to team roles, responsibilities, and processes.
- Recommended a governance model and communication process to monitor program effectiveness.
- Designed, developed, and implemented a custom SharePoint site to a.) easily manage curriculum content, b.) facilitate two-way communication and feedback between national and regional agency education teams, and c.) improve the education management experience for administrators and facilitators.
THE RESULT
Recommendations were designed to promote:
- Greater ownership of course content and accountability among team members.
- Organizational and cross-functional learning to maintain and further develop team knowledge and skills.
- Stronger collaborative partnerships between the national and regional sales education teams and between the national sales education team and critical subject matter experts/content owners.
- Responsive curriculum management to maintain content accuracy in a rapidly changing organization.