From a beautiful strategy to an effective execution

We tell the
kind truth

What we do How we work

What we do

We help companies become more effective and less dysfunctional

Most companies have ambitious strategies backed up by thorough analysis. Yet this strategy often ends up being more beautiful than the actual execution. The winning company is therefore typically the company best at translating the strategy into an effective execution. This implies removing the dysfunctions which slow down execution and block the transformation. Specifically, we help companies master the skills of Effective Execution in the following areas:

Collaboration without Politics

We work with teams, starting with the highest levels (CEO / Department Heads) to create the climate required for everyone to be able to speak openly (also about their own mistakes), to disagree productively, to truly commit to the common goal, to hold one another accountable and to be a real team player - focusing on the team goal rather than on their individual interest. The result is collaboration without silos or politics. This is what Patrick Lencioni refers to as eliminating the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.

Clarity without Silos

Once this climate of openness is established, we are able to create actionable clarity. The team has to clarify their specific role to deliver the strategy and make sure that each team member is fully committed to deliver their part of the common goal. Our experience shows that full commitment requires a truly open discussion and that strategy is often interpreted differently by different team members. Any small gap in alignment or interpretation at the leadership team level results in canyons of misalignment further down in the organization. This is why, to speed up execution, it is critical to create full clarity and eliminate any confusion, both at the top and throughout the whole organization.

Cascading Clarity

The next challenge is for top leaders to make sure that their own organization understands how their daily work needs to change to deliver the new strategy. Actionable clarity needs to be created at every level of the organization. We help create this clarity, and design internal communication plans for the very large organizations, using proven large scale communication strategies.

Mastering Meetings

The actual work of top leaders is done in meetings. The more productive meetings are, the faster the execution. We provide leaders with a proprietary methodology to secure fast progress on their clarity goals. It combines removing roadblocks from existing priorities with a systematic review of the team’s behaviours to nurture on-going collaboration without silos or politics.

This makes work more fulfilling and less miserable for all its employees

People actually want to get things done. Yet they often feel miserable about their job. Their real frustration is when the company (due to silos, misalignment or internal conflicts) slows them down. Rather than providing more employee benefits or implementing take-your-dog-to-work Fridays, leaders can generate far more engagement and dedication by creating the climate that allows for collaboration without politics or silos. This makes work exciting, which is exactly what the company needs to become competitive and effectively execute their strategy.

This becomes a real sustainable competitive advantage

Most of us are smart. We know our facts and figures, we have built a functional tool box and we are skilled in strategy. We believe that this is the path to building an effective and winning company. Yet we forget that our competitors also have smart people. And that the real opportunity for winning is in tapping better into all the diverse skills and experiences of our employees. And combining it all into a plan which beats competition. A first kind truth is this: leadership is about making work more fulfilling – and this is what will make our company more effective.

Offerings

Transformations

Any company is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting. Through its operating model and its unwritten rules, companies create habits among their employees. Continuing to work according to those habits will achieve the same results. Conversely, if we want better results, we will have to change our own and our employees' habits. This, in turn, means changing - with intent - our operating model. And making the unwritten rules transparent, calling them out, and changing them to support our new habits. Some people call this a transformation. Others call it a culture change. We look at it as a habit change, at scale.

We start with the business results which you want to change. By observing and talking to your people, we define what habits need to change in order to achieve the desired results. Knowing that habits are hard to change, we identify the barriers to change. Only then do we design the changes in words (role modeling) and actions (operating model) which can overcome these barriers and create the new habits.

We have found that there is no better time than today to change habits. With COVID having disrupted many of our old habits, people are looking for new habits. Let's help them find those habits which will make the company more effective and the work more fulfilling.

CEO Support

It really is lonely at the top. Not just because CEOs don't have a lot of people they can share everything with. But because they live in a bubble, shielded from what is really going on in the organization. As we move up in the hierarchy, more and more people want to shine in front of us. They do this by presenting their work in a positive light - and by avoiding showing their weaknesses. This gives the CEO only a partial view of what happens in the organization. And this is why so many CEOs feel they only get bad news and surprises ... when it is no longer possible to hide them.

Just like it can be hard for information to flow up to the CEO, it can be hard for a CEO to reach throughout and across the entire organization. A CEO of a large company will not interact personally with the majority of the organization. She influences thousands of people through others. This means that her success is completely dependent on her direct reports and their teams. This requires a different approach from the CEO than when she could succeed by personally driving all key decisions and involving herself in all follow-up. This is an area where external support can make a real difference.

HR Support

HR often has the best view of what really happens in the organization. They are close to the CEO and understand her concerns and world view. The organization often speaks more openly with HR than with the CEO so HR also understands the situation from the view of the managers and employees. This can be a very difficult situation, balancing loyalties between everyone across the organization. Yet getting that balance right is necessary for the success of the company. We help HR address those topics, using our experience from many similar situations and the fact that we are outsiders, who can sometimes address topics more directly.

Teams

The starting point for any company transformation or breakthrough in business results is a high performance executive team. Whenever we ask the organization to get better at something that we don't master as an executive team (e.g. speed, agility, innovation, collaboration, etc.), we simply lose credibility and the transformation does not start.

The specific goal is to make the executive team more productive and effective than competition's executive team. It is not good enough to be just capable at collaboration, strategy clarity, execution, etc. If the executive team is only capable at this, the organization will not be able to beat competition.

Building a high performance team requires mastery of the fundamental skills mentioned above: Collaboration without Politics, Clarity without Silos, Cascading Clarity and Mastering Meetings.

Meetings

Do you have great meetings? Most people say that they don't. They say that they often waste time because the agenda was not right, we didn't make decisions, we didn't follow up on last week's decisions, the right people were not there, etc. They'd rather get out of the meeting and get back and do some real work.

The kind truth is that meetings is our real work - when we are leading people and organizations. We do not perform much of the work ourselves. We influence others to do it well. We do that nowadays in meetings - small or large. We therefore have to be outstanding at running meetings. It is our most fundamental tool as leaders.

Meetings are also where the rubber meets the road in terms of team performance. It is in meeting we see if you are a high performance team. Will you collaborate without politics? Will you have a healthy conflict to get to the best decisions? Will you get to true alignment, clarity and commitment to an action plan? Will you remove the most controversial issues which hold the organization back?

Based on the principles behind high performance teams, we help you make meetings as exciting as a 2-hour Hollywood Blockbuster Movie!

Coaching

We coach managers to make companies more effective and less dysfunctional – and to help managers become more fulfilled and less miserable. We believe that coaching should be:

  • Relevant - driven by the real needs of the business and the manager,
  • Practical - leading to tangible actions and noticeable improvements, and
  • Fast - by tailor-making and adapting our approach to the individual.

We draw on our expertise in 3 areas to achieve this:

  • Personality Insight: We help managers find in themselves the qualities and strengths which can help them grow as people and become more effective as leaders.
  • Table Group Methodology: We help managers become better team players and better team leaders.
  • Executive Experience: We use our own experience as executives in large companies to channel the managers' efforts into actions which directly drive business results.

Training

Traditional training has a reputation of achieving little change in the way people do their work after the training. As a result, it often does not pay out. Where training does pay out is as a supporting element in an overall transformation. Everything starts with the executive team mastering the necessary behaviours and skills and role modeling those in words and actions. As part of them cascading that to the rest of the organization, training comes in as a helpful way to provide managers with the skills they need to make their own journey.

We design and deliver training (virtual and face-to-face, large and small groups) as part of a company's transformation based on a clear analysis of the skills needed.

Organizational Research

When a deeper understanding of the organizational barriers and opportunities are needed, we do research to get to clear objectives and plans. This includes:

  • Exploratory Research: It may sometimes be clear that an organization has for example a heritage of command and control (or issues with speed of execution, etc.), but it is not clear why. Or in other cases, interventions to address the issues have not worked and the company does not know why. In those cases, we do qualitative research to identify the root causes and recommend an action plan.
  • Quantitative Research: Our Table Group Team Assessment Survey has been taken by over 50 000 teams and provide a very fast snapshot of how this team stacks up to other teams. In addition, we design ad hoc research to confirm hypotheses or track progress.

How we work

We help the CEO or team leader overcome whatever obstacles
stand in her way to achieve the business goals

We look at the business challenges from a CEO or team leader's point of view. Whatever stands in the way of achieving the business goals is where we focus our intervention. This could be team behavioural issues, strategic alignment, slow execution, ineffective deployment or anything else which blocks execution. Our expertise is in creating the connection between the people and the business to deliver outstanding business results.

It’s about the business

All our work starts with an understanding of the business results you want to achieve. Our interventions are then focused on channelling the energy and productivity of the organization towards these business results. Because we know organizations from the inside – we know what works in the real world.

… and unleashing potential

In addition to our personal experience with leading people in large organizations, we use Lencioni's proven Organizational Health methodology to tap into the full potential of your organization. We draw on Lencioni's global Table Group Consulting practice and its database benchmarking the performance of over 50 000 teams.

We are certified as coaches and practitioners of psychological profiling, including MBTI, Insights Discovery, Hogan and the Enneagram.

Who we are

We are not consultants ... by background

THE TEAM

Our background is in business, as leaders and executives (up to CEO level).
We all combine executive experience and expertise in transformations, team building, coaching, training and communication.

Brian Petersen

Brian Petersen

  • 22-years corporate experience in Management (CEO Copenhagen Airports, General Manager P&G China).
  • Transformed businesses by creating organizational health.
  • Now Executive Coach and Principal Consultant at the Table Group, helping executive teams build a competitive advantage.
Nezha Petersen

Nezha Petersen

  • 15-years corporate experience in Behaviour Change Communication (Consumer Segments & Employees).
  • Created global success models at P&G through deep human understanding and strategic clarity.
  • Now Executive Coach and Consultant, helping leaders build both Trust & Hunger in their organizations.
Henrik P. Jørgensen

Henrik P. Jørgensen

  • 22-years corporate experience in Operations (COO) and Stakeholder Management (VP External Relations, Copenhagen Airports).
  • Turned dysfunctional stakeholder relations into solid partnerships.
  • Now Executive Consultant, helping leaders with stakeholder management, team dynamics and conflict resolution.
Gerlinde Kuehr

Gerlinde Kuehr

  • 18-years corporate experience in Marketing, Innovation and Market Research (P&G).
  • Expertise in strategy development and deployment, leadership and innovation management.
  • Now Executive Consultant helping leaders develop highly effective teams and create strategic clarity in their organisations.
Kim van Wijk – Hermus

Kim van Wijk – Hermus

  • 18 years corporate experience in Marketing, Sales and General Management (P&G, Coty).
  • Expertise in building brands and leading teams and organizations.
  • Now Executive Consultant focusing on creating a successful work environment by unleashing people’s potential.
Chris Nassivera

Chris Nassivera

  • 21 years corporate experience in Supply Chain, Operations & Innovation Management (P&G).
  • Expertise in high performing teams and transformational change.
  • Now Executive Coach and Consultant empowering leaders to champion change in themselves and their teams.
Roula Clerc-Nassar

Roula Clerc-Nassar

  • 24-years corporate experience in Consumer & Market Knowledge (P&G, Pepsi - VP Insights).
  • Developed accredited leadership development program and consistently built high performing teams.
  • Now Executive Coach and Consultant with focus on inspiring women to thrive and supporting corporations to create a more inclusive environment.
Ute Hagen

Ute Hagen

  • 24-years corporate experience in Marketing & Communication (Director, P&G).
  • Expertise in profiling for effective communication.
  • Now Executive Consultant specialized in bringing teams to strategic clarity and creating team health.
Martine Van Campenhout

Martine Van Campenhout

  • 30+ years of corporate experience in HR (P&G and Kellogg).
  • Deep expertise in Culture Change and Leadership Programs within Manufacturing and Supply Chain.
  • Now Executive Coach and Consultant, supporting leaders and organizations to become the better version of themselves.
Andres Ruff

Andres Ruff

  • Over 30 years of corporate experience, 14 years as CEO.
  • Transformed companies through strategic development and change management programs.
  • Now Executive Consultant driving teams to excellence and strong results.
Mira Beintema

Mira Beintema

  • 26 years corporate experience in Product Management, Sales and Merchandising (Senior Director, Nike).
  • Expertise in commercial product strategies and building/leading high performing teams.
  • Now Executive Coach and Consultant, empowering leaders and organization to transform and create healthy teams.
Charlie Horne

Charlie Horne

  • 10 years’ corporate experience in Account and Business Management (TCI Fund Management).
  • Gifted at supporting teams and ensuring operations run efficiently.
  • Now Business Manager and Assistant, responsible for effective execution of client related activities and projects.

EXTENDED TEAM

40+ Table Group consultants worldwide

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Principal consultant at the Table Group, Brian Petersen works with Patrick Lencioni as part of his consulting practice.

While leveraging the tools and writings of Patrick Lencioni (including 'The Five Dysfunctions of a Team' and 'The Advantage'), we work with senior leaders and their teams to build healthy behaviours across the organization, allowing the company to fully tap into and benefit from all of the intellectual capabilities of their employees.

The Table Group is dedicated to helping you build healthy organizations. Healthy organizations outperform traditional companies by minimizing confusion and politics, allowing you to channel all of your employees' expertise and energy into one common goal. While the traditional competitor struggles with misalignment and departmental silos, your employees put all of their energy into having a direct, personal impact on the business. As a result, morale and productivity go up, the best people stay and the others leave.

Who we help

Novus Actus

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