Services

Recommended for:

• Leaders who want to be the best they can be, like an elite athlete wanting a high-level coach to fine tune performance
• Leaders who are ‘lonely at the top’ and want to have someone objective to discuss things with
• Leaders who realize what got them to the present level is not going to continue to move them forward, who are stuck or may soon be stuck
• Emerging leaders who want to develop their careers faster than the normal trajectories
• Leaders who want clarity around personal and professional choices, direction, big picture decision

Client Success Stories

Recommended for:

• Leaders who spend most of their time putting out fires and know there is a better way to run a company. They just can’t seem to get to it.
• Those who want to learn from and share with a peer as well as learn from a coach.
• Leaders who are ‘lonely at the top’ and want to have someone objective to discuss things with weekly.
• Those who want weekly or even daily accountability to take steps forward.
• Leaders who realize what got them to the present level is not going to continue to move them forward, who are stuck or may soon be stuck
• Partners who jointly run a company
• Leaders who want a more structured program than individualized executive coaching

Client Success Stories:

Recommended For:

• Emerging leaders/managers who have never been leaders/managers before, or who are ready to be promoted to the next level of leadership/management, or who have recently been promoted
• Companies that do detailed succession planning to ready the workforce for the future
• Companies that are committed to promoting from within and creating career paths for employees
• Teams where leadership shifts from person to person depending on the project
• Candidates being considered for promotion to management to evaluate which candidate most readily picks up the skills and would make the best manager
• An individual looking to prep for the next promotion
• A manager who has a staff retention issue in his/her department

Client Success Stories

Recommended For:

• Companies who want customer service to be their competitive advantage
• Companies who want the financial benefits of customer loyalty
• Companies who want to be recognized in their industries and achieve visibility in a crowded market
• Leaders who want to engage their employees in a team driven initiative
• Leaders who want to shift their company’s cultures to be more caring about internal customers as well as external customers

Client Success Stories

Case Study: Acme Smoked Fish
Problem:
The company wasn’t taking customer service seriously. There were several customer service staff. However, people got put there because they no longer fit somewhere else. There was no training, no technology for placing orders or maintaining customer relationships, no direct supervision, no interaction with the sales people. There was little awareness of the customer experience or the value of customer loyalty. As a result, the customer service department was considered an after-thought by the company and the people in it were not engaged or proactive. There were also foreign competitors that were starting to encroach on their markets. The CFO and the Marketing VP brought in Driving Improved Results.

Solution:
Driving Improved Results conducted two full day training sessions for 2 cohorts of Acme’s employees (total 28 participants). The groups included the company owners, the CFO, other VP’s, sales staff, customer service staff, quality control staff, and others. The interactive exercises built an awareness of the importance of the customer experience as a driver of customer loyalty and profitability. Content included vocabulary, attitudes, behaviors, the brand promise, making customers feel special, internal and external customers, listening, nonverbal communication, communication by email & phone, points of connection, WOW experiences, service standards, how to deal with an angry customer.

Results:

• Sales made through the Customer Service Department (cross selling and upselling) immediately increased by 10%
• Acme set up a cross functional team headed by the CFO and involving principals and executives to create their customer service mission statement, determine root causes, brainstorm solutions, lay out important recommendations
• Acme set up qualifications to be part of the customer service team, including experience requirements, tests, training
• A Customer Service Manager was hired. A liaison to the outside sales staff was appointed.
• Weekly meetings were instituted to share qualitative and quantitative data on the progress of customer service. KPI’s were developed related to customer service, measuring service defects in invoicing, order errors, customer service deficiencies, etc
• The website was revamped, the brand was refocused on customer experience, market share increased. Product packaging was impacted.
• Morale improved and customer service staff were now listened to and acknowledged
• Technology was introduced automating the order entry process and allowing more time to focus on sales conversations

Case Study: Distribution Company
Problem:
The company wanted to increase the customer loyalty and improve the customer experience throughout their multi branch organization and among the counter sales people and phone sales teams. Their people were spread out over the New York metro area and Long Island in multiple branch locations. They had to be trained/coached in separate groups since their posts had to be covered. Driving Improved Results was hired by the CEO and a 3^rd party funding agency

Solution:
This was a year-long engagement. In Part A Driving Improved Results did 2 half day workshops on a split schedule. 40 Participants were trained on customer service and the customer experience.  In Part B twelve customer service champions were selected for 6 additional sessions of group training/coaching, deepening their knowledge of providing a delightful customer experience, learning how to show more empathy to internal and external customers, and developing service level standards. In Part C the customer service champions received individual coaching on rolling out what they had learned to their teams, setting goals, overcoming situational challenges. In Part D the customer service champions had 2 more reinforcement sessions and planned training events for their teams and locations.

Results:

• Forty customer-facing employees trained on customer service, understanding the concepts and having the vocabulary
• Creation of a team of customer service champions representing all branches of the company. The team is commissioned to train and spread customer service throughout the company
• 46% improvement in the attitudes and understanding of customer service/experience
• 24% improvement in customer service behaviors
• 74% improvement in goal setting/achieving capability
• 34% improvement is all areas for each individual champion
• 65% increase in trust leading to greater collaboration, friendlier work environment improved staff retention, increased productivity
• Customer Service Standards documents created in each department
• An inventory of customer service stories to use in meetings, during training and in newsletters to build a customer service culture
• Improved performance, attitude and sense of responsibility in each champion

Recommended for:

• Fast growing companies that do a lot of hiring
• Companies that want to mitigate employment costs by making fewer hiring mistakes
• Managers who want to know how to best manage, train and motivate newly hired or newly reassigned employees, or develop new goals with existing team members
• Leaders who want to build well balanced teams for maximum productivity and best results
• Leaders who want to engage in team building, facilitating their teams to learn more about and respect each individual’s differences in communication, decision making, motivation and other attributes
• Leaders who are doing succession planning and want to promote individuals into roles where they are most likely to succeed

Recommended For:

• Companies that are willing to invest in high performing teams to achieve their strategic goals
• Companies that want to turn around a low performing team
• Companies that want to form an interdepartmental team for the first time
• A newly merged company that wants to create a single team from the separate groups of staff

Client Success Stories

A Commercial Locksmith Company
Problem:
The company is a small family business led by parents and two adult children. There were six employees. Profitability was low, the space was too small. The father wanted to retire and didn’t want to modernize. The mother wanted to leave and start her own business. The daughter (age 30) had the most business experience and was totally overwhelmed. The son (age 25) although a good lock technician, didn’t take his role in the business seriously. They did not get along well. They had inventory but no tracking system, and purchased things they already had in stock but couldn’t find. They weren’t sure if they were making money on each item or on the labor. They did have some good commercial contracts. They were constantly interrupted by retail walk-ins from which they made no profit. There was no one seeking new contracts. The mother and daughter hired Driving Improved Results with the consent of the father and son.

Solution:
The daughter and son went through a leadership program where they learned leadership content and also formed a better relationship based on appreciation of each other’s contributions, planning the forward motion of the business, coming to agreement on the vision and values of the business. They started to function as a team. Additional one-on-one coaching helped the daughter to de-stress and the son to realize the impact of his attitude and behavior. Sessions with the mother and father facilitated the hand-off of the business to the children. Team building meetings with the six employees built the company culture. The coach made introductions to a variety of professionals needed by the growing business. A large team project was a massive count of all the inventory and posting it into the accounting software.

Results:

• The son stepped up and started taking his role in the business seriously. This improved his relationship with his sister. Subsequently, they even went on vacations together.
• They were able to get out of their lease and move to a larger space on a higher floor, eliminating retail traffic.
• With an accurate inventory and the ability to generate more accurate financials, they were able to establish cost savings on products. With no retail interruptions there were cost savings on labor.
• They raised their prices after alerting their clients with no pushback.
• The parents legally transferred the business to the children. The mother went full time into her own business and the father retired.
• The daughter was able to hire an office assistant.
• They were able to hire an outside salesperson to pursue new contracts.
• They were able to modernize and get into electronic systems.

New York City Housing Authority
Problem:
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) wanted to empower the Board of the Fred Samuels Houses Resident Association to represent residents in their relationship to NYCHA. The group was comprised of 6 members, some of whom were new, others didn’t get along. There was no trust. The group had been relatively inactive and didn’t know its mission, bylaws, roles and responsibilities.  They hadn’t formed a sense of how decisions would be made, or how to create goals and execute them. The members were disengaged. Driving Improved Results was brought in by one of the board members and a grant was obtained from NYCHA to create leadership and teamwork among board members.

Solution:
Three one day sessions were conducted over 3 months. At each session members did activities to get to know each other better and build trust and express appreciation. They determined the vision and values with which they would lead the residents. They identified their roles on the board and the role of the board in its relationship to both the residents and to NYCHA. They took turns leading various segments of the meetings. They learned goal planning/achieving methodology, how to work effectively with volunteers and manage motivation, how to create a strategic plan. They role played different communication strategies, explored where to find resources, and discussed how to develop programs, how to hold people accountable and what to do about succession planning.

Results:

• The Board had documented structures including vision, values, mission, bylaws, roles and responsibilities in place that they could use and that they could pass on as board membership changed.
• The members of the board developed a good working relationship and were able to accomplish a number of goals together including several enrichment events for residents.
• Several board members reported that they were doing better in their professional work environments because of things they learned during our meetings.
• The Board was officially recognized by NYCHA for its leadership and its ability to get things done to improve the quality of life for the residents.  
• The members were invited to an out-of-state advanced leadership conference.

Recommended For:

• A complacent sales team who could use a refresher or has a need to all get on the same page of an evolving sales strategy
• Sales and marketing departments that are siloed and rarely communicate effectively
• A new company looking to create their marketing and sales strategy as well as train their staff
• A new salesperson who needs to know the basics
• An experienced sales person who wants to reach new heights and earn bigger commissions
• A company whose sales team is providing lackluster results and wants to increase performance
• A leadership team that wants to change sales/marketing strategy and is finding the sales/marketing team resistant to change

Client Success Stories

Recommended For:

• Teams with scheduling issues, to organize a bigger program into a series of workshops
• Teams with remote members
• Presentations at conferences, trade shows, internal and external events
• As a trial and an introduction to the services provided by Driving Improved Results before investing in a longer program
• Companies that have requests and they can’t find a speaker/facilitator to address their needs

Client Success Stories

Recommended for:

• Companies that want to shift their culture to be more open, engaging, and innovative
• Companies going through change where resistance is strong
• Business Partners who want to deepen their relationship and run their business better together
• Individuals that feel stopped, stuck, easily triggered,
• Individuals who want to maximize their ability to connect with others professionally and personally
• Sales people who want to be better at relationship building and developing the ‘know, like and trust factor.’

Client Success Stories

Arts-Related Non-profit
Problem: 
A, B and C were directors of a non-profit focused on the arts. Their titles were founding director, executive director and artistic director. They couldn’t get along and they were critical of each other. Their perceptions about each other were full of unmet expectations, hurt feelings, anger, and resentment. There was confusion about their roles. Some individuals on the Board of Directors were taking sides. The organization was at a standstill. The President of the Board of Directors brought in Driving Improved Results.

Solution:
Jeri worked with A, B and C in multiple group sessions and several individual coaching calls. It was discovered that above all the bickering, there was a love for the art, the artists and for seeing the art promoted in the world.  They learned each other’s stories and back stories about how this love evolved. From this space of trust, respect and empathy, they learned each other’s strengths and motivations. They explored where they had made decisions that had resulted in hurt and anger for the others. Apologies were made and new skills were learned about how to communicate more effectively. They pinned down their job descriptions and responsibilities of each of their roles. They explored the way things get done in other non-profits to add some objective models to the way they managed their own agency. They discussed what they each wanted for the agency and explored how they each wanted to contribute.

Results:
It became apparent once the personality conflicts were resolved, role responsibilities were clarified, and communication was more fluid, that there were two conflicting directions. One was to keep the agency smaller and more focused on innovation and outreach. The other direction was to create a much larger organization focused on extravaganza performances.  The directors, the board and the funding initiatives were all split on these two directions. The artistic director decided to leave the agency and start a production company that focused on large performances. The parts of the Board that favored that choice also left to become part of the Board for the new agency. Both organizations now have their focused directions and are moving forward.

Goodwill Industries
Problem:
The director of the agency wanted the senior leadership team of all the agencies of Goodwill to have better communication skills, especially since each had to present to the board and funders to explain and justify programs and budgets. Driving Improved Results was hired by the Agency Director.

Solution:
Driving Improved Results provided two days of training and coaching to 12 Executives. Interactive activities focused on understanding the audience, structuring a presentation so the audience can easily follow it, adding humor, the power of stories and metaphors, use of props and visual aids, using emotional intelligence, being authentic, developing confidence, different communication styles. Also, discussed and practiced: Smiling, eye contact, non-verbal gesturing, pauses, volume, pitch, strategies for preparation and delivery.

Results:

• During the sessions each participant gave two presentations, pre and post training. These were recorded and given to each person on a DVD along with the post-training comments of the trainer and other participants. The detailed comments after each presentation showed that each participant showed remarkable improvement in engaging the audience and implementing the skills they had learned.
• Each participant received an assessment of their own strengths and capabilities to help shape their unique authentic style.
• Participants received two workbooks which had been custom created for the engagement plus another book on authentic speaking. These were intended to be resources as participants gave future presentations.
• “I found our program very productive. I learned a lot of good skills and strategies that I can use with both my staff and supervisors. We had some very interesting conversation throughout the program.” Kirsten Giardi, Senior Vice President, Goodwill NYNJ
• “I am now more aware of how different /similar others might be from me in certain traits and the need for me to be aware of them so as not to cause undo stress.” Linda Turner, Executive Vice President, Goodwill NYNJ
• “I can now be a better representative of the organization and will communicate better with the Board and staff.” Mauricio Hernandez, Executive Vice President, Goodwill NYNJ

Recommended For:

• Individuals who want to grow, know their life purpose, develop their best selves and prepare for future opportunities
• Individuals dealing with personal conflict, trauma, feeling stuck, wanting to make changes
• Individuals who have important decisions to make and want a listening objective ear and to achieve clarification
• Companies that recognize what research shows and want to invest in employee growth: Research states employees who have been coached and who know their purpose, values and goals are more confident and resourceful, and contribute more productivity, innovation, loyalty resulting in an increased bottom line

Client Success Stories

Recommended For:

• Organizations whose senior leadership team wants its personnel to adopt a culture of continuous or continual improvement and a commitment to performance excellence.
• Operational situations in which the root cause of the problem or the opportunity for improvement (OFI) has not yet been clearly defined and where there is substantial uncertainty about the appropriate solution or corrective action for it.
• Individual employees or contractors, at ALL levels, who want to master the philosophy, concepts, tools, and techniques of Lean, Six Sigma, or Lean Six Sigma.

Client Success Story

Startup Formalwear Rental Company’s Distribution Center:
Problem:
It was taking too long to fulfill orders. Mistakes were being made on these orders. Clients were complaining, and staff were not engaged in admitting or fixing the problem. Plus, because of workload and scheduling issues, staff could not be trained all in one group. The VP of Operations brought in Ruggles².

Solution:
Ruggles² conducted two customized workshops on a split schedule (half days) on applying the Lean 5S + 1 Technique for these two separate groups each with 20 participants (40 total participants). covering:

1. An Introduction to Lean and Kaizen;
2. The History of Lean Thinking Applied to a Supply Chain Environment;
3. Applying the 7 Deadly Wastes +1 Concept; and
4. Performing the 5S+1 Technique

Created A “5S+1 Technique in a Warehouse/Distribution Center Playbook” for the participants to use as a practical reference following the two, half-day, split-schedule sessions.

Conducted quarterly, web-based, virtual Coaching Sessions with all of the participants for one year following the workshops.

Results:
A 12% improvement in the Order Fulfillment Process (Pre-Training performance vs. Post- Training performance) for the ensuing 3 Quarters.

Recommended For:

• Organizations whose senior leadership wants their personnel to adopt a culture of driving change in a way that is fundamentally proactive, integrated, and preventive.
• Operational situations in which the root cause of the problem or the opportunity for improvement (OFI) has already been clearly defined and where there is relatively little uncertainty about the appropriate solution.
• Individuals who want to master the principles, processes, and practices of Project, Program, and Portfolio Management.

Client Success Story

Fortune 100 Pharmaceutical Firm

Problem: The Learning Shared Services department of this company and the Continuing Education arm of an accredited University wanted to customize the University’s existing Project Management Evening Certificate Program, so it would better suit the company’s need for well-prepared project managers. A team of Senior Trainers was needed as well as a team of Senior Instructional Developers/Consultants to customize the curriculum and to create a Project Management Framework for consistent project performance outcomes. Their mission was to create a set of common metrics to evaluate, plan, and execute requirements, schedules, and budgets, and to manage project risks. The GSS Chief Information Officer, the R&D Chief Information Officer, and the Chief Learning Officer hired Ruggles².

Solution:

• Recruited, selected, oriented and prepared 5 pairs of Senior Trainers to team-teach the series of evening classes.
• Recruited, selected, oriented and prepared a team of 6 curriculum consultants. Four focused on a customized Project Management Framework for Large-sized Projects based on the PMBOK® Guide Two others focused on a customized Project Management Framework-Lite for Small/Medium-sized Projects based on the full-scale PM Framework.
• Developed with the team a set of 18 Tools and Templates for use with the PM Framework and PM Framework-Lite.

Results:

• The trainers and consultants created the Continuing Education Project Management Evening Certificate Program and delivered the twenty-four 3-hour sessions to eleven “waves” of trainees, totaling over 300 participants.
• 70 participants went on to become certified Project Management Professionals (PMP).
• The company saw a 17% improvement in the Average Project ROI and Project Outcomes one (1) year after the completion of the first 6 “waves” of Training and the use of the PM Frameworks, Tools and Templates.

Recommended For:

• A team retreat to build team collaboration, motivation, trust, working relationships
• 2 or more business partners having an annual partner review meeting, or another meeting where they want to resolve issues or make future plans
• 2 employees in conflict, especially where others are impacted
• A family meeting where multiple generations of a family-owned business have to make decisions together
• Two companies that are merging and the senior teams have issues to work out that go beyond the M&A Agreement
• Interdepartmental meetings where conflict and silos occur and better working relationships are desired

Client Success Stories

Tech Start Up
Problem:
A and B became partners in a new tech startup because they wanted to create a business. They shared a vision for a solution that could be used to solve a particular problem. They also heard from venture capitalists and other tech strategists that partnering was encouraged. A was very numbers oriented, progress was measured by stats, views per page, pay per click. His view of their strategic planning was data driven. B was more people oriented, focused on the customer experience, customer service, having non-web strategies to support the business outcome. Not only did these two orientations affect business strategy, it effected how they worked together. B took some time off to handle family issues and A resented it because he would not have made the same choice. A & B together decided to hire Driving Improved Results to facilitate the meetings that would help them move forward.

Solution:
A and B hired Jeri to work out their differences. Jeri coached them to rediscover why they had chosen each other in the first place, and helped them reestablish trust, empathy and likability. Then in that space of using the prefrontal cortex, Jeri debriefed assessments so they could objectively look at their similarities and differences. They then looked at options for moving forward, dividing duties, growing different parts of the company, using scarce resources in various ways. 

Results:
A and B decided to break up their partnership. They continued as friends respecting each other’s different points of view. They came to the conclusion that, as a startup, they couldn’t work together when they each wanted to follow such different strategies to grow the company. And the resources weren’t present to do both simultaneously.

Recommended For:

• New entrepreneurs who are creating their first business plan
• Companies who intentionally want to think bigger, plan growth, and engage everyone in implementing expanded goals
• Companies facing challenges who may be seeking clarity about new directions
• Companies led by multiple business partners, so all partners can contribute and come to agreement on the future direction of the company

Client Success Stories