Consulting Solutions and Services

If your organization is going to survive or thrive in the global economy, employees must trust in themselves and their leaders to be willing to take risks necessary to adapt to the changing conditions of the marketplace. Yet, building trust and dealing with betrayal is challenging work. The topic is highly complex, emotionally provocative and means different things to different people. And that is a big part of the problem!

What differentiates us?

• We at Chagnon & Reina Associates, Inc., provide pragmatic solutions to the highly complex, emotionally provocative and challenging topic of today's workplace: trust & betrayal.
• We take a unique systems approach in helping people develop a shared understanding and a common language to be able to discuss trust-related issues and take action on them.
• Our body of work is thoroughly grounded in years of research and application in variety of organizations across industries and cultures. (Research and experience in 67 different organizations and 19 different industries).
• We pioneered the development of The Reina Trust & Betrayal ModelTM which helps people understand the different kinds of trust and the behaviors that build trust, those that break it. It outlines the effective steps people must take to rebuild trust and heal relationships from betrayal in the workplace.
• This model provides the context for our unique approach, the framework of our book, Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace: Building effective relationships in your organization, (Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco) and the basis of our trust instruments.
• We developed and utilize statistically valid and reliable survey instruments that measure and monitor trust at the organizational, (Organizational Trust ScaleTM), the team, (Team Trust ScaleTM), and the individual leadership levels, (Leadership Trust ScaleTM).

Trust Building Applications

Chagnon & Reina Associates, Inc. is devoted to working with leaders and organizations that want to build trust in the workplace. Over the last decade, we have utilized our work to help clients achieve a variety of results. Some of these include:

• Enhancing risk taking, innovation and creativity
• Opening honest communication and information sharing
• Developing collaborative working relationships
• Accelerating and managing change effectively
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback
• Rebuilding customer/supplier relationships
• Retaining good employees; lowering absenteeism
• Developing effective leaders
• Managing project expectations and parameters
• Mediating conflict; reducing stress
• Aligning employees toward organization's purpose and achieving its goals
• Developing individual, team and departmental performance capacity
• Improving overall organizational productivity

Consulting Services

Chagnon & Reina Associates, Inc. is your performance partner. Based on a solid foundation of trust, we help you and your organization become more adaptive, effective and productive in achieving your goals and maximizing your results.

How do we assist organizations in maximizing results? We take a sytems's approach in working collaboratively with our clients. Our consulting services are designed to be in context with your organizational strategic plan. We help organizations design strategic plans and evaluate existing ones.

Following are some of the processes we utilize:

Organizational Design/Development:

Assist organizations in designing long-term strategic plans to meet customer's needs and move the organization forward:

• Building a shared vision - "Where do we want to be?"
• Defining a mission as a tool to guide the decision-making process.
• Developing measurable goals and objectives.
• Determining the most appropriate organization structure for meeting goals and objectives.
• Developing open communication systems.
• Involving employees at all levels in meeting organizational goals and objectives.
• Assist clients in understanding the dynamics involved in organization change and in developing the skills necessary to deal with those dynamics effectively.

Organizational Assessments:

Conduct organizational assessments to provide leadership with answers to vital questions facing their organizations such as:

• Employee's understanding and commitment of the organization's vision, mission and long range goals.
• Employee's understanding of the organization's customers: who they are and what they expect.
• Employee's view's of the organization.
• Employee's level of trust in the organization and it's direction.
• What prevents or limits employee commitment?
• What hinders productivity?

RESULT: Your organization knows where it stands: its strengths and its weaknesses, and the critical issues getting in your way of achieving your goals.

Team Design/Development:

We work with clients to design the most appropriate team structure to meet business objectives and long range goals. Team structure may include: task forces, intact work teams, cross-functional teams (to include management and non-management members), management teams and self-directed work teams. We help our clients identify the appropriate ways in which to handle team roles, tasks and functions to ensure their success. Working collaboratively with our clients, we design long-range team development programs based on a solid foundation of trust to provide employees with the skills necessary for successful teamwork.

RESULT: Your organization defines the appropriate team structure necessary to be successful and contribute to the strategic plan and develops the team skills necessary to carry out your strategic plans.

Leadership Development:

Through a comprehensive, developmental program including coaching, training and skills enhancement, we help individuals acquire the leadership behaviors that will inspire trust and confidence from his/her employees, manager, peers and customers. Leaders gain a deep understanding of their role and responsibility to create and maintain effective relationships based on trust. We help them identify betrayal and take action to help people heal from betrayal within their organizations and make the shift toward higher levels of trust. Leaders have an opportunity to participate in the " Leadership Trust Scale", which gives quantitative and qualitative feedback on the level of trust as perceived by his/her employees, manager, peers and customers.

RESULTS: Leaders develop conviction, courage, compassion and a sense of community necessary to lead their organizations in the global marketplace.

Executive/Management Coaching:

We work in a partnership with leaders coaching you to realize your vision. Working with you independently or within the context of your organization, we help you build your capacity for trust in yourself and others, to achieve your goals.

• What is coaching? Coaching is about helping you have what you want, take action on where you want to go. It is about helping effective people become more effective.

Coaching is a designed partnership that provides a safe environment where you can be proactive in your change process rather than at the effect of crisis. As your equal, we actively collaborate with our clients in creating an alliance for the purpose of meeting your needs. As your coach, our job is to serve you as a partner. Our job is to hold your agenda, not decide what is best for you, but to facilitate you in getting what you want out of your life.

• What happens in coaching? We use a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build your level of awareness and responsibility, and provide you with structure, support and feedback. As your coach, we help you stay on track, focused on your goals, taking actions that are in relationship with your values. We are your sounding board to bounce off ideas to help you think through difficult decisions and keep your best interests in mind.

As your coach, we help you assess where you are right now in your professional and personal lives. What goals do you want to achieve? How you are doing living your values? Balancing your life? We help you develop strategies for being effective in all aspects of your life.

Through a process of inquiry, we ask questions that help our clients discover the answers that are appropriate for themselves. Clients are then positioned to take action that lead to further learning and growth. When results are not what was expected, many individuals may be inclined to give up. As your coach, committed to your agenda, we help you keep focused until you find what works for you. We are your catalysts to assist you in reaching your full potential. Coaching involves learning about yourself, reflecting on your behavior, asking and answering tough questions, introspection and feedback, accountability and commitment to accomplish your goals.

• What does the coaching partnership look like? In the initial consultation, we work with you to design our partnership. Critical to our success, is the development of a relationship based on trust and the definition of the role the coach will play throughout. We will suggest guidelines or agreements for the design of the partnership such as, confidentiality, safety, commitment, accountability, etc.

The most important factor of the coaching partnership is that it occurs over time. It is scheduled, reliable, consistent, and accountable. You know that this is your regular time in your day/week/month when you can pause to look, learn, design, clear, vent, complain and then return to action and to a renewed focus and clarity.

• What can coaching do for you? In short, regular meetings via phone or in person, we help you identify your challenges, breakthrough your barriers, generate solutions and implement action plans to accomplish your goals and achieve personal and professional fulfillment. Following are examples of how coaching has worked for others:

Result: Coached CEO feeling alone without the support of his organization through the crisis of dealing with the rift in his management team and their lack of confidence in him as a leader. Within five months he was able to successfully rebuild his management team and their confidence in his ability to lead.

Result: Assisted senior manager in developing more effective interpersonal skills to run a more effective meeting and facilitate the development of her direct reports.

Result: Coached newly appointed president to grow into the position and take full command of the responsibilities he was hired to perform. Within six months, he was capable of taking on greater challenges outside the original scope of the job.