DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

With wars on two fronts, the VA has faced increasingly challenging treatment needs with limited resources under intensely stressful circumstances. The VA wanted to sustain the morale of their employees so that they could better serve our veterans, and engaged Giant Leap to provide both leadership and team development programs. Since 2002, we have led over 50 workshops at 10 VA hospitals to help VA employees incorporate courage into their workplace and team dynamic. Giant Leap has also conducted classes in business writing, communication effectiveness, conflict management and relationship building.These skill-building workshops are designed to support the continued development of VA employees and have been for all levels of employees from front-line staff to executive leaders.

TESTIMONIALS

PNC BANK

PNC Bank came to Giant Leap the same way many of our other clients do; they were looking for ways to boost Managerial Courage. One of the nation’s largest banks, PNC had identified Managerial Courage as one of the critical competences most needed by its middle-management ranks in its Global Investment Servicing division (now part of BNY Mellon). Working closely with PNC training personnel, Giant Leap designed and delivered a series of Courageous Leadership workshops for middle managers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

ALDRIDGE ELECTRIC

Aldridge Electric Incorporated is a $300 million dollar electrical company based in Chicago, and is one of the nation’s leading electrical contractors. Known in the industry as the company that takes on risky projects that others shy away from, among other things, Aldridge puts in runway lights at O’Hare Airport, stadium lights at Soldier Field, and wires giant wind turbines throughout the U.S.
 
Aldridge values personal growth and development, and sees it as a source of competitive advantage. In 2006, Aldridge hired Giant Leap to design and deliver a 10-month leadership development program for the company’s senior leaders. The program was so successful that Aldridge decided to rollout the program to the entire workforce – a process that continues today with groups of new hires.
 
The more experience Giant Leap gained in working with Aldridge, the more valuable Giant Leap has become. Now Aldridge entrusts Giant Leap with its leadership succession program, which involves customizing unique leadership experiences for two groups of high-potential managers. Aldridge also continues to engaged Giant Leap to work with its senior leaders (vice presidents and above). Giant Leap facilitates monthly meetings on issues and challenges that are critical to moving the company forward.

TESTIMONIALS

SAKS FIFTH AVENUE

Saks Fifth Avenue had identified Managerial Courage as a critical competency it wanted to build and develop among its management ranks. After evaluating a number of books on the subject, they decided that the ideas and messages in Courage Goes to Work were engaging, inspiring, and practical. They hired Giant Leap to conduct a pilot workshop with participants in Saks’s Leadership Journey program, as well as a Courageous Leadership train-the-trainer session for the company’s training personnel. As a result of the success of the pilot, Saks decided to rollout the program across the company, and officially designate 2012 as the year of Managerial Courage! Giant Leap remains deeply involved in this endeavor.
 

TESTIMONIALS

GEORGIA CENTER FOR CHILD ADVOCACY

The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy (GCCA) is an Atlanta based non-profit whose work may be difficult to talk about at times but is so very needed. The GCCA provides intervention and therapy services to children who have been severally physically or sexually abused and is leading the way in empowering communities in their state to prevent the sexual abuse of children.

The staff and board at GCCA are passionate about their work and face a struggle common among non-profits. They can’t be all things to all people, so how do they prioritize and focus on their goals? Giant Leap has the opportunity to work with GCCA for over a year. We began by working with the staff responsible for the prevention initiative. Their bold goal is to train one million adults in Georgia in how to prevent sexual abuse. Before ever meeting to develop the strategic plan, Giant Leap conducted extensive stakeholder research to help inform the staff during the planning process. Many one-on-one interviews were conducted, over a hundred people surveyed, and three focus groups conducted across the state. This wealth of information helped the staff to understand the needs and opportunities before them. The strategic plan that was informed by all of this knowledge has proved to be a robust plan that will continue to guide the prevention team for the next several years.

Giant Leap also lead the effort for the development of an agency wide strategic plan. This planning effort brought together staff from across the agency and Board members to consider what the GCCA wants to achieve within the next five years and then work through the necessary steps to achieve those goals. Giant Leap’s approach to planning is practical and focuses on implementation and accountability. Both the agency wide and initiative specific plans that were developed during this period of strategic thinking have contributed to better organizational alignment, improved communication, and have supported the GCCA staff as they strive to make positive impact on the communities they serve.

TESTIMONIALS

CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)

Looking to raise public awareness of the widespread detrimental effects of child and elder maltreatment, the CDC asked Giant Leap to help them develop ways to engage businesses and the legislative community in addressing this issue. Since 2006, we have worked with the CDC on this challenge by facilitating a series of knowledge to action workshops. As the lead facilitator, we guide the diverse interests of a group of researchers and help them translate their expertise and knowledge into specific actions that companies and lawmakers can take.

These workshops have resulted in the identification and definition of a unique set of best practices that are being shared with businesses and the legislative community.

UBS BANK

In 2011, Giant Leap conducted our signature Courageous Leadership workshop for UBS, a large international Swiss bank that was facing significant organizational challenges as a result of the global recession and an extremely tough competitive climate. Rather than let the fear of the economic climate drive its people to seek safety, UBS wanted to encourage innovation and bold thinking. We met with over thousands of UBS employees in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the UK and the United States to help their leaders better understand the role of courage in leadership and to provide practical tips for how to courageously lead their teams in a variety of situations. After our workshops, the company received many comments from its employees about courageous acts they had undertaken – including delegating more, intentionally seeking out higher level leadership positions, and pushing back on difficult clients.

ACCENTURE

Giant Leap’s first client, we designed, developed and facilitated a customized leadership development program to help Accenture’s middle managers on their largest client account develop their leadership and skills. We worked with Accenture over two years to customize and refine the program, and roll it out throughout the organization, in addition to leading multiple executive team development sessions for senior executives in the U.S. and India. Giant Leap has also supported the continued development of Accenture professionals through multiple skill building workshops on presentation skills, business writing, professionalism and creativity.

SPANX

Spanx, a $400 million international retailer, was looking for a partner who could help with team building inside the organization. They came to Giant Leap because courage is a core value for their organization and they wanted a partner who could help reinforce the importance of courage for team performance. Giant Leap conducted four high-impact team-building workshops at offsite locations to help improve the collaborative energy and productivity of employee team, while also helping their teams learn how to continue to be courageous in the workplace.

TESTIMONIALS

WALSH CONSTRUCTION

Since 2008, Giant Leap has collaborated with Walsh Construction, a $4 billion construction company based in Chicago, on leadership development and team building. To help Walsh identify and develop emerging, high-potential leaders, we designed, developed, and facilitated a development program for emerging leaders that included mentoring, executive coaching, assessments and a regularly occurring series of leadership workshops. Since being in the program, several of these high-potential leaders have been promoted into senior roles and are impacting the organization. We also regularly conduct two-day presentation skills workshops for Walsh employees at all levels throughout the U.S. to help employees create focused and high-impact presentations.

TESTIMONIALS

CAYUSE TECHNOLOGIES

Cayuse Technologies is a technology and data management company owned by the Umatilla tribe in rural Oregon, but managed by executives from Accenture. The organization recognized that the core values of the tribe differed from the business values of the executives and engaged Giant Leap to help them develop a set of core values that integrated the two and could guide the company for years to come. We conducted a two-day offsite event with all of the originating employees from the tribe and Cayuse’s senior management. During the event, the group aligned around how to take the best of their Native American values and premier business class values from Accenture to create and guide a world-class commercial enterprise.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF)

To support recently funded research centers and help prepare them for success, the NSF asked Giant Leap to lead center teams through a strategic planning process and help them come to better alignment around the center’s purpose and management. Entrusted with significant, long-term research grants, these large centers face a challenge of managing collaboration and communication across geographic distance and disciplinary boundaries. Since 2008, we have led center teams from MIT, UC Berkeley, UMass, GA Tech and others through a strategic planning framework to articulate their mission, major goals, measures to gauge their success and specific actions necessary for progress.

TESTIMONIALS

BANK OF AMERICA MERCHANT SERVICES

Giant Leap worked with BAMS top-level executives to strengthen, align and unify the senior executive team. Through upfront one-on-one interviews, the administration and analysis of an online survey and an executive teambuilding workshop, we helped senior executives align around their purpose during a time of organizational growth and pressure. After the workshop, Tom Bell, the CEO, related that Giant Leap had “done the team a great service”.