Consulting Services Organization & Team Assessments The best solutions begin with well-defined problems. Whether addressing a flaw in organizational structure, mediating a conflict between team members, or correcting misfires during strategy implementation, the problem-solving process must begin with gathering useful and accurate information that clearly defines the issues at hand.  A thorough assessment involving interviews with key players and stakeholders is the starting place for nearly all my consultations. Strategy & Planning Sessions Strategy development can be riddled with inefficient explorations and dead-end ideas. In some instances, teams can become too ambitious, attempting to do too much with too few resources. Other times debate is prematurely smothered by political winds blowing in one direction versus another. My work with teams around strategy development is aimed at creating the conditions for open debate and structured planning that will result in a clear course of action. Team Development Conflict among team members is inevitable. Clarifying a team’s purpose, specifying individual roles, and negotiating interdependencies among key players are foundational requirements for coalescing team efforts and reducing conflict.  I work with teams to examine how real work gets done, or as the case may be, how effective collaboration breaks down. My off-site meetings are typically focused on the team’s actual business challenges, so that team building is not just an opportunity to “retreat”, but also to advance business results. Conflict Mediation Occasionally conflicts reach a point where neither party can find its way out.  Introducing an unencumbered mediator can often provide a different perspective and create additional alternatives. My goal in mediation is to help those in conflict create viable options to recalcitrant positions.  Distribution & Sales Force Development Growing and sustaining a successful sales force is critical to most businesses. I have designed a wide range of sales training programs, helped implement performance and accountability systems, and presented papers to leading financial service organizations on the topic of distribution development, especially within the independent contractor model.