There are five overlapping areas where Larry helps eliminate the barriers to team and organizational success. Click on the links below to learn more about each one.
The first focus area is developing leaders and teams. Defining leadership broadly, occurring at every level of an organization, Larry provides people the models, language, and tools to help them be their most fulfilled and productive.
Poor processes frustrate even the best trained and motivated people. Utilizing his Lean and Six Sigma knowledge, Larry helps teams and organizations improve processes and “get rid of the stupid stuff” to free up capacity so people can do higher value-added work.
Very motivated and skilled oarsmen can row their boat very efficiently – to the wrong destination. The third focus area is assessing and revising strategy. Using both conventional strategy tools like SWOT analysis and non-traditional approaches taken from the non-linear sciences (“the next smart step”), Mr. Solow partners with customers to create a meaningful destination that motivates people to provide their best efforts.
Implicit In each of the above focus areas is the recognition that something will be different as a result. The fourth focus area, Managing change — supporting the leaders, teams, and individuals developing and implementing the change as well as those impacted by it — increases the effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement of the improvements being introduced.
Finally, people suffer unnecessarily because they don’t understand that people, processes, and strategy always occur in a complex “ecosystem.” This ecosystem is comprised of history, context, and culture and is always changing. As a result, there is no “one right way,” no “guaranteed formula” for success. Frustrated leaders at all levels think that someone or something must have screwed up – that blame must be placed on others and/or themselves. Understanding the dynamics of complex systems can offer peace of mind and minimize the destructive self-recrimination and blaming that can keep systems “stuck.”
