Excerpt from www.NDMA.COM, © 2024 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.
NDMA Approach
our philosophy and approach to consulting
NDMA (N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc.) is a research, publishing, and consulting firm focused exclusively on designing organizational ecosystems (organizational operating models). Our scope includes:
NDMA's approach to consulting is unique in two ways: the philosophy on which our work is based, and our style of consulting.
Philosophy of Organizational EngineeringGreat leaders don't just drive strategies and deliver results. They leave the legacy of fundamentally well-designed organizations that perform brilliantly long after they're gone. Those high-performing organizations are efficient, reliable, safe, strategically aligned, customer focused, innovative, and infinitely scalable. They earn the position of supplier of choice to their customers (internal and external), and employer of choice because they attract, inspire, leverage, and retain great talent. There are three aspects of our philosophy that are foundational:
These tenets guide every aspect of organizational design.
Consulting StyleWe're also committed to a unique style of consulting: We believe it makes no sense to pay a consultant to study what you already know, and then make your decisions for you. And yet, that's the traditional consulting model. A team of junior consultants analyzes your situation, and then writes a report with recommendations (most of which involve additional consulting services to implement them). We believe a better role for consultants is to share what they know, and guide you through a process of making your own decisions -- that is, to teach and facilitate rather than study and prescribe. With this approach, the consultant must be an expert in organizational engineering. His/her first job is to teach you and your leadership team the relevant principles and frameworks. The consultant should also be experienced in implementation processes, and able to guide you and your leadership team through proven, step-by-step processes that lead you to make your own decisions, in the right order, and to implement those decisions yourself. Junior consultants just out of business school can't do this. Participative change processes requires that you work directly with the "guru." This teach-and-facilitate approach has many advantages:
What's the down-side? Real change comes from within; but you and your leadership team have to invest the time to drive it.
You'll have to divert time from "managing" to "leading" -- from guiding projects, making tactical decisions, and overseeing staff, to building your organizational ecosystem -- from fighting alligators to draining the swamp. We've found that most leadership teams rise to the occasion. In fact, numerous executives have cited a collateral benefit of forcing senior managers to delegate more, reducing micro-management, enhancing strategic thinking, and developing the next generation of leaders.
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