One of the distinguishing features of Summiteers is that, as consultants, we not only focus on content and process, but also on behavior. It is precisely that behavior that is indispensable. After all, delivering high-quality content or a tight process is not enough if effective collaboration is not possible. In this blog, Simone Halink, one of our management consultants, explains how Summiteers involves the behavioral component, both internally and in a customer assignment.

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Why behavior matters

What makes Summiteers unique is our focus on behavior when we carry out an advisory assignment with a customer. Many consultants only focus on solving the content puzzle and taking the project from A to B. We strongly believe in the power of behavior as a building block for success. It's not just about solving challenges, but also about optimizing efficiency and effectiveness. Strong content is important, but it only really works when employees work together harmoniously. By naming and cultivating positive behavior and talking about the less effective behavior we observe, we help people to excel. We connect content to personal development.

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In practice

But what does this mean in concrete terms? Let's say a company CEO approaches us to advise on their strategy and how to change the company culture. She has huge ambitions to connect employees, but we see that she is very hierarchical in how she speaks to her people and how she acts. She creates a distance between herself and the employees and does not have a pleasant way of communicating. In this case, we bring up these observations in a friendly way. That requires the necessary vulnerability on our part as consultants, I already wrote about that. rather a blog. Of course, such a situation can also be less drastic. For example, if we support a project manager in making a project go smoothly, and we notice that there is room for improvement in the field of professional development, we will discuss this openly. A project becomes even more successful if you also let the individuals grow in their roles as professionals. This ensures long-term impact, even long after the assignment has been completed. This aspect is always explicitly an integral part of our assignment, either at the request of the client or on our own initiative.

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Content, process and behavior

Summiteers' consultancy model revolves around three aspects: content, process and behavior. All three of these aspects are indispensable because they reinforce each other. We use various methods to work with behavior. These methods were not devised by us, but are based on existing models that we strongly believe in and that we have used, tested and enriched over the years. We select the most appropriate method based on the situation, so that the customer benefits as much as possible. By the way, we use these methods not only with our customers, but also within our own team at Summiteers. In future blogs, my colleagues and I will delve deeper into the methodologies we use. Here are a few examples.

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Naked Service model

A methodology that I mentioned earlier is based on the book 'Getting Naked'by Patrick Lencioni. This method is about how you can bring more to organizations by showing vulnerability in the form of humility, selflessness and transparency.

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Feedforward

Another method that we like to use is feedforward, which Luc says in his blog described as feedback's cheerful brother. Both are about discussing behavior, but where feedback looks to the past and is not “actionable”, feedforward is forward-looking and can be deployed immediately.

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Conscious leadership or conscious leadership

Conscious Leadership is my personal favorite. This method helps people approach the world, themselves and others in an open, curious and inquisitive way. The model is actually super simple: one black line. But once it's in your head, it's a powerful tool. You can ask yourself at any time of the day: Where am I sitting? Above the line? Then you adopt an attitude of openness, curiosity and eagerness to learn. If you are below the line, you have a closed, defensive attitude and are out to be right. Exactly where you are doesn't really matter, but the way you approach the world, from what perspective, has a significant impact on the connections you create with those around you.

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Accountability

For groups that we train for a longer period of time, we formulate learning goals — these are specific behaviors that they want to apply in practice. For this purpose, we also previously wrote a blog. Twice a week, people are asked how they are achieving the learning goals. Did they do their very best? This appears to be very effective in stimulating personal growth. We often use this in extensive training programs and collaborations, both at group level and one-on-one with project managers or directors who want to take action. We also apply this approach internally to our own team.

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Need help with strategy and execution?

In this blog, we have provided an overview of a number of methods that we use. In the following blogs, we will zoom in on various methods and discuss how we use them internally as well as for an assignment.

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