The Kennedy View of the World
Solutions to intractable organisation issues
We offer no set procedures or pre-determined solutions, yet our work is underpinned by a core strategic management philosophy — The Kennedy View of the World.
Here we illustrate that philosophy — four interdependent organisation needs, necessary to making strategy a reality. Read on to identify the symptoms of dysfunctionality and the solutions we can install to overcome them.
Click the links below to jump to the relevant information.
Effective Top Team Leadership
Masterminding future organisation success
Kennedy offers a selection of services that enable the top team to shape and secure the future of the business. These services encompass:
- Facilitated resolution of a critical business issue or project
- Understanding of how the individual will impact individual and group decisions
- Detailed decision-making profile of the individual and aggregate impact on group decisions
- Review and recommendations for improving Governance and oversight arrangements
Management that delivers performance and can take hard organisation decisions with confidence
So often problems emanate from the top of the organisation where critical decisions are not being made or are made without confidence. We begin to question whether our colleagues are equipped to drive the business forward as individuals or have the complementarity and diversity of skills as a team.
Kennedy help to deliver the following outcomes:
- The Board, Executive and Senior Management Team deliver clear and consistent leadership to shape the business and secure its future
- Effective decision-making runs throughout the business
- Corporate strategies are aligned with long-term corporate goals
- Complex issues are managed competently and professionally
- Unfamiliar challenges are managed in a timely and effective manner
- Robust planning, monitoring and review processes are in place and actively used
The gold standard in personal and team assessment
The Kennedy Decision & Interaction Analysis (DIA) is a unique and cost-effective assessment tool that accelerates successful implementation of organisation change. DIA has been used to support Board and Executive recruitment, leadership development, strategic alignment and personal and team development programmes, with tangible results.
Unlike psychometric testing, The Decision & Interaction Analysis provides a definitive measure of an individual’s strengths that cannot be faked, and shows how effective they are, or will be, in making critical business decisions. Our Profiles, therefore, show how the business can maximize individuals’ performance and their contribution to your business strategy. A detailed action plan helps overcome disabling issues.
Our assessment methods give an objective measure of whether an individual or team has the ability to:
- provide clear strategic leadership and concentrate on the critical issues
- adopt a corporate perspective and demonstrate a genuine commitment to implementation
- communicate effectively and take decisions that are clear, consistent, and timely.
See how we can help your team become its most effective
Winning Strategic Direction
Changes that are innovative, sustainable, and integrated with your strategic direction
Can your management team think strategically and are they contributing to your competitive vision and strategy? All must be making a positive contribution to success but is everyone focused on short-term imperatives rather than your longer-term goals?
Kennedy helps to deliver the following outcomes:
- The Board, Executive and Senior Management Team deliver clear and consistent leadership to shape the business and secure its future
- Effective decision-making runs throughout the business
- Corporate strategies are aligned with long-term corporate goals
- Complex issues are managed competently and professionally
- Unfamiliar challenges are managed in a timely and effective manner
- Robust planning, monitoring and review processes are in place and actively used
See how we can improve your strategic direction
Aligned Organisation Design
Tailor-made organisation structures designed to achieve corporate success
A new strategy demands that your organisation structure is re-aligned to eradicate the old silos and unify outputs. Unless an organisation’s structure and culture are embedded and it is made clear how everyone will contribute to the future success of your business, are you really going to grow to become a more successful force in your markets?
Kennedy helps to deliver the following outcomes:
- An organisation structure that can support your business objectives
- The definition of operational activities that will secure business success
- Clarity of roles and responsibilities, throughout the organisation
- A set of standards, policies, processes, and procedures that will determine effective working practices
- A realisable and demonstrable set of organisation benefits following a merger, restructure, or market change
- Improvements in the motivation of colleagues who adapt to the changing needs of the business.
Achieve corporate success with us
Successful Operational Delivery
Significant improvement in business performance
Being distinct from the Board and Executive isn’t a reason to not focus on delivering the required outcomes for the business for both operational managers and front-line staff. Work needs to take place to ensure that the right management skills are in place to embed delivery of your corporate goals.
Kennedy helps to deliver the following outcomes:
- An effective change management programme
- Establishing the best fit of people to roles throughout your organisation
- Providing supportive organisation and personal development
- Resolving key performance issues
- Embedding effective performance management throughout your organisation
- Establishing business processes that add real value to your business.
Driving business priorities throughout the organisation
The Board and Executive will set the overarching priorities and objectives each year. To be effective these will be cascaded throughout the organisation so that all departments, teams and individuals know how they are expected to contribute to the success of the business. Kennedy can provide the support necessary to achieve this.
Our focus is on:
- real-time implementation of corporate decisions
- alignment against all priorities across the business
- top-down clarity on what is required of everyone to deliver those priorities
- integration of ‘bottom-up’ initiatives within the corporate framework
- identification of potential organisation bottlenecks
- the identification of personal development needs
- real-time progress reporting
- resultant cost-saving benefits.
Focused operational assessments
Kennedy offers bespoke yet cost-effective profiling services for managers to support your personal and team development programme.
In response to your business objectives, we will create a bespoke blend of psychometric and 360° assessment tools to ensure a more rounded view of each individual is obtained than could have been achieved by one instrument alone. These are usually administered via the Internet. The results are shared in one-to-one feedback sessions, that are delivered in a constructive, non-threatening and non-judgmental way by one of our experienced profilers.
Through a bespoke Report and Development Plan, your outcomes will include:
- A clear understanding of the strengths and development needs of individual employees
- Increased motivation and efficiency; employees will have greater awareness of their strengths and a better understanding of how they can contribute more effectively.
See how we can help optimise organisation performance
Kennedy Services Overview
Kennedy offers four main services: Breaking the Stalemate, Board & Executive Performance Audit, Fast Track to Performance and Governance & Oversight. Here you can see how the Kennedy Effective Top Team Leadership strategies fit into the services.
“I have known and worked with Sherril for many years and I never hesitate to put her in front of my clients.
She is very comfortable (and very good) in dealing with teams of executives and Boards. She also has very good diagnostic instincts and capabilities.”
Jean Pousson, Finance and Strategy Trainer
“Sherril is an outstanding OD practitioner. The task she took on with me and my colleagues in a major public sector organisation was quite daunting but she tackled it with total confidence and carried it through to a highly successful conclusion. She is a one-woman poster-person for the arts and science of OD and a pleasure to work with. I can whole-heartedly recommend her as offering powerful direction and support for top teams and HR departments who want to achieve transformational change in their organisation.”
Mike Emmott, Associate adviser at Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
“Sherril undertook an Organisational Review of an organisation on whose Board of Directors I have served for several years. She worked closely with the Executive team and Board during several months developing a Governance & Strategic Framework clearly identifying Purpose, Priorities & Objectives as well as critical success factors. As a consequence, the Board and Executive have a clearer focus, work more effectively, and provide clear and consistent leadership.
Sherril has a remarkable capability to get everyone engaged, involved and contributing to the process. She is a clear thinker and very focused as well as highly analytical. She is a pleasure to work with and a true team builder and leader.”
Eva Wisemark, Owner of Optima Management (IOM) Ltd
“Sherril provided highly valuable insights into the senior management of my company and assisted in the successful restructuring of the whole organisation.”
David Wertheim, Chairman at Arts Aid
“Sherril is a highly skilled development professional. She works very successfully with complex teams and individuals, working in high-pressure areas where relationships and achievement were critical. Her work is challenging, but the outcomes are both impressive and long-lasting.”
Zoe Van Zwanenberg
“I had the recent pleasure of working with Sherril on an Executive Coaching, Board Development and Change Programme, working with the Executive and Board Directors of DHU Health Care. Sherril very quickly assesses the issues and main drivers for effective change and quickly gets to work in providing tools, experience and recommendations based on underpinning knowledge and academic resources. Sherril has the ability to work with the participants to understand the root causes, analyse the findings and guide colleagues into a new way of working and thinking. Sherril successfully removed red tape and complex processes and provided a framework for effective decision making, responsibility matrices as well as designing a more succinct Board Reporting structure. I would highly recommend Sherril in supporting with Board Development, Executive Coaching and Organisational Design and Development.”
Lisa Wallis, Executive Director of HR & O.D. Derbyshire Health United
“Thank you for the summary and the session, it was really enjoyable. I picked up some reflective moments and certainly an approach to factor into Board behaviour and their own preferences and styles that once smartly considered will improve their collective performance. The session was the right amount of time. The interactive chat worked well, and allowed us to get involved and share and you picked up our questions – made it feel more personal across the screen.”
Karen Malone, Deputy CEO (Governance), Department of Health and Social Care, Isle of Man Government
“When we were faced with extremely tight timescales, Kennedy were able to design an organisation structure and detailed role profiles for all staff within a remarkably short period. The result was robust, comprehensive, and helped us change our whole approach to providing client-focused services.”
Taroub Zahran, Director of Organisational Development, Glasgow Housing Association
“Kennedy developed the model that enables us to tackle a key issue - the prevention and control of infection and communicable disease. The model details how each person in the healthcare system contributes to preventing and controlling infection and provides the tangible measures by which we can monitor our success in tackling this issue. The innovative and professional approach taken proved to be great value for money, and was undertaken at remarkable speed.”
Mary Henry, Nurse Consultant, Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health