Organizational Transformation

Naming Elephants

A Strengths-Based Process for Learning Skills and Creating Effective Action Plans

In this age of whistle-blowing, ethical quandaries, intense scrutiny and feverish competition, it becomes even more important to focus on the skills executives need to deal with tough issues head-on. Often, people are reluctant to point out sensitive issues because they are afraid they will lose their jobs or lose face. So it is up to the leader to decide whether to acknowledge the issues and solve them or ignore them and let them impact the productivity and profitability of the organization.

Ewing Change Consulting offers a program to help organizations safely and effectively come to grips with issues that others deem too risky to tackle. The program is a two-day team process and the first day concentrates on skills-based training in how to identify and handle delicate issues. This training was written and inspired by The Thin Book of Naming Elephants by Andrea Mayfield and Sue Annis Hammond. (Esther Ewing is licensed to use this training.)

On Day One, teams learn to identify the sources of untapped productivity, erroneous or unshared assumptions and unaddressed risks. Ewing Change Consulting provides a customized case, so teams can practice their skills, apply them in a simulation and develop a shared language and awareness around the issues.

On Day Two, Ewing Change Consulting facilitates a process where the team uncovers its own issues, does a risk assessment on the payoff of tackling or not tackling these issues and assesses how much difficulty might be involved. Then the team creates practical action plans for handling the top priorities.

Naming Elephants Check-Up
Ewing Change Consulting can also provide an optional third day for teams that would like a “Naming Elephants Check-Up.” The program is held three to six months later and allows teams to reassess their action plans, celebrate their successes, make adjustments to the plans, if necessary, and create new plans. The Check-Up also shows teams how to run their own follow-up meetings, so they can facilitate them independently going forward.

http://www.thinbook.com/pages/books/naming_elepants_book.htm