400 South Fourth Street, Suite 401, Minneapolis, MN 55415
STRATEGIC PLAN MAKES
DISABILITIES DISAPPEAR
INDUSTRY
Healthcare
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Two recently merged physical rehabilitation facilities needed a strategy to capitalize on the
merger’s tremendous future potential for both the parent healthcare system as well as the
communities they serve.
SITUATION
The head of the newly merged division was presented with the opportunity to help the parent
company--as well as the industry in general--redefine the way healthcare is delivered in the
modern world. Accompanying that opportunity was the dual challenge of crafting a 3-5 year
strategic vision that was sufficiently forward-looking, while simultaneously scoring quick wins in the
coming year that would help to leverage and extend the enthusiasm in the larger health system
that had been generated by the merger.
SOLUTION
Decision Pulse partnered with the division’s leadership team to design and facilitate a series of four
strategic thinking workshops over a period of three months, to elicit the best ideas and most
prescient concerns of the key stakeholders, ranging from physicians and physical therapists to
branch managers to the parent organization’s Directors and Chief Medical Officer.
IMPACT
Through the process of spirited debate, focused decision making, and the elegantly simple KnowThink-Do framework the division’s leadership team was able to produce a clear strategic plan that
synthesized the disparate groups’ best thinking. At the heart of the plan was a single clear strategic
direction that uncovered and leveraged a unique strength of the institution that was also highly
sought after by the defined patient population. Additionally, the simple, focused plan led to a series
of clear and immediate execution steps that would also yield the near term wins needed to sustain
and build on the new venture’s momentum.
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400 South Fourth Street, Suite 401, Minneapolis, MN 55415
BANKING ON A FUTURE OF
DECISIVE ACTION
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Stay ahead of massive industry changes by enabling front line leaders to make smart, yet
courageous decisions every day.
SITUATION
Dramatic changes in the home mortgage industry demanded that leaders ranging from executive
vice presidents to location managers of a major U.S. bank take a more strategic and decisive
approach to making decisions. To capitalize on some of the company’s recent successes, top
leaders felt they had to get everyone in their 10,000+ person division strategically aligned by
discarding the “run-it-like-you-own-it” culture that had permeated the company for decades and
driven inefficiencies in everything from IT systems to customer experiences.
SOLUTION
The division’s EVPs decided that the Thinking Strategically & Acting Decisively system would
provide their group of 270 high level managers with the necessary tools, insights, and confidence
to make daily decisions that were both strategic and decisive. In the initial half-day program we
introduced the team to the elegantly simple Know-Think-Do framework, and then spent the latter
half of the session working on real-time decisions the group faced.
IMPACT
After a spirited debate—one “filled healthy cognitive tension I don’t often experience” according to
one EVP--we clarified the Team Decision Pulse and surfaced a $100M decision regarding whether
or not to charge customers a convenience fee for making payments by phone to avoid other late
fees. This decision had been plaguing the department for months. But just one day after the
session they conclusively decided on an option that best aligned with their Pulse of being “the
undisputed leader in preventing defaults.” By explicit request from team leaders after the session,
the Thinking Strategically & Acting Decisively system is continuing to be rolled out in the
organization.
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400 South Fourth Street, Suite 401, Minneapolis, MN 55415
BEVERAGE COMPANY FINDS
NEW FOCUS REFRESHING
INDUSTRY
Food & Beverage
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Leading supplier of beverage ingredients within a global agribusiness conglomerate had crafted an
overwhelming strategic plan in order to meet a highly aggressive earnings target.
SITUATION
Faced with an aggressive target from the corporate planning committee that called for nearly 20%
earnings growth in spite of a soft market, the division president and his leadership team crafted an
aggressive plan with 18 key initiatives for the year. Some sober reflection on this plan revealed to
the Leadership Team that the sheer volume of initiatives was too great to realistically and
effectively execute, and would ultimately undermine their efforts that year.
SOLUTION
The President called on Decision Pulse to spend a day working with his global leadership team to
rethink their priorities and winnow the list down to a significantly more focused and impactful
number of strategic initiatives. Two weeks prior to the session Decision Pulse administered the
online Strategic Focus survey, which revealed a 31% alignment score among the team as well as
key behavioral hurdles to their strategic focus. At the in-person working session, a Decision Pulse
facilitator guided the 18-person leadership team through the Think Strategically & Act Decisively
process.
IMPACT
Fueled by a steady diet of debate and decision-making, the leadership team arrived at a single
unifying theme for the year. They also identified the top three execution priorities for the division in
the immediate 90 days following the session, and a “Non-Action” list of purposely delayed
initiatives that would likely get in the way of achieving the more critical priorities they had selected.
The Leadership Team left the session with a clear and simple execution plan for each of their units
as well as 100% alignment for the division as a whole.
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DECIDING TO FOCUS SPURS
HEALTHY INNOVATION
INDUSTRY
Healthcare/Insurance
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
A high potential team of emerging leaders needs to get back on track to start delivering innovative,
profitable new products.
SITUATION
A cross-functional team of young leaders within a Fortune 100 health insurer was given a
provisional charter to provide a new source of innovation within the company, and to allow the
company to experiment with new ways of developing and engaging their next generation leaders.
Although exceptionally strong during the idea generation and research phase, the team’s struggle
to make decisions threatened to derail the whole program.
SOLUTION
Knowing that the team needed a novel solution for making decisions that were both smarter and
faster, the team leaders and executive sponsors asked for the Think Strategically & Act Decisively
integrated learning system. Each team member took the digital Decision Styles Index™ to learn
how their styles would complement and contrast their team members throughout the process. In
the live half-day session, expert facilitators took the team through the Team Pulse discovery
process to define their primary strategic direction based on the company’s overarching strategic
objectives. Lastly, the group was guided through the process of deciding which idea to pursue.
IMPACT
With a simple, yet powerful process for making decisions and new sense of clarity about their
strategic direction, the team delivered an innovative new customer billing solution that was
immediately adopted and implemented. Six months after the workshop the team continued using
the simple 3-part framework to make tough decisions about their future strategy. Within one year,
half of the team was promoted to higher level management positions, and they continued
developing an average of one new actionable innovation every six months.
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THE ROI ON STRATEGIC EDUCATION
INDUSTRY
Higher Education
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Enable field teams to stay ahead of the company’s rapid growth by training location leaders to
provide clearer strategic direction and make better decisions.
SITUATION
After three straight years of double-digit growth, the top-performing region in a for-profit educational
institution wanted to keep up the momentum and capitalize on its success. Campus directors had
proven adept at increasing the locations’ numbers, but in order to continue growing their campuses
as well as their own careers, they had to empower their staffs to make decisions faster and more
strategically.
Past attempts at other training left a bad taste in the mouths of campus directors. They deemed the
lessons impractical and/or too vague to apply to the issues they faced. As a result, the team was
skeptical about development programs in general.
SOLUTION
Decision Pulse delivered the half day Thinking Strategically & Acting Decisively program followed
by a group coaching call one month later. Prior to the session each director completed the online
Decision Styles Index™ which allowed each member to see where they were on the three core
dimensions of strategic decision making (conceptual/operational, risky/cautious,
impulsive/deliberative).
Because the program teaches its decision framework not by simulation, but by examining
participant’s current issues and strategy, the team’s resistance faded almost immediately when the
workshop began.
IMPACT
For the first time ever, the team was able to crisply define their strategic direction leading the
Regional VP to exclaim “I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted.” In addition to training
them on an easily applicable framework they continue to use, the team estimated that the
decisions made in that single morning session would increase profits by 60% and increase sales
by nearly $4.2M over the next quarter alone.
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WHEN BUSINESS STRATEGY MEETS HUMAN
CAPITAL COMPANY CULTURE WINS
INDUSTRY
Textiles/Uniform delivery
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Transform the company’s culture by enabling staff leaders to better understand and respond to the
business needs of the business units they support.
SITUATION
As part of a company-wide culture change initiative, human capital leaders needed to realign their
department to better drive the new culture. Riddled by rampant turnover and a lack of credibility, it
was believed throughout the organization that these team leaders needed to quickly develop more
business acumen and a better understanding of their business in particular before they could drive
any meaningful cultural change.
SOLUTION
Having worked with Decision Pulse in the past, the Chief Human Resources Officer felt that the
perceived lack of business acumen could be remedied by a much simpler reframing of the
company’s strategy and its relationship to each of his team leader’s work.
We designed three half-day workshops for the 14 core leaders in the department. During the
sessions, we helped the team clarify the company’s strategic direction and work backward toward
their specific teams and the issues faced by the business units. In addition to helping them apply
the 3-part framework for strategic decisions, the team quickly learned to speak the language of the
businesses they support.
IMPACT
The sessions were a huge hit for the team. Decision Pulse had “lifted the fog” surrounding the
direction for each leader’s team. The team leads requested that Decision Pulse stay on to facilitate
nine more sessions over the course of the first critical six months of their realignment, including a
separate day-long workshop focused on making strategic career development decisions.
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ENGAGING SALES LEADERS
WITH FOCUS & CLARITY
INDUSTRY
Professional Services
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Accelerate the growth of the company’s top-performing region by refocusing its long-tenured sales
managers on hunting for new accounts.
SITUATION
Regional vice president of sales at a worldwide brand engagement company felt that the vast
accumulated experience of his region’s sales managers—long considered an asset—had now
become an obstacle to growth. Fear of uncertainty coupled with an unwillingness to experiment
with new approaches for expanding accounts and attracting top talent had trapped his team in a
toxic pattern of indecision and complacency. Even as the company pulled out of “survival mode”
following the initial shockwaves of the Great Recession, the fearful mindset and timid behaviors
remained.
SOLUTION
The RVP called in Decision Pulse to orchestrate a Decision Day (“D-Day”) at a quarterly meeting of
the sales managers. The express purpose of the session was to decide on the ordering of strategic
and tactical priorities for the coming year. Through a series of hands-on activities, we helped the
team clarify the role of decisions in their daily work and long term success or failure. Next, the
team discovered the simple 3-part framework for Thinking Strategically & Acting Decisively. With
the foundation laid, the team was ready to tackle the decisions that could take them to new heights
over the next 12 months.
IMPACT
During the Team Decision Pulse process, the team reached a comforting conclusion that they were
more strategically aligned than they previously thought. Armed with that clarity confidence of the
Team Pulse, the RVP realized they would be better served by tackling fewer priorities. Also, in a
matter of minutes, they employed that “invaluable strategic clarity” to reach a decision they had
been discussing and delaying for more than three years. They estimated that finally making this
one decision would expand the size of their existing accounts by as much as 30-50% in the coming
year.
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