FAQS
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How is Volition Partners different?
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We deal with business and behavior simultaneously. Our work starts at the intersection of strategy and OD, and evolves as needed in either or both directions
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We see companies as complex human ecosystems - not machines or battlefronts or any other limiting metaphor
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You get the adults - Dave and/or Sean lead every engagement - we love doing the work
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What are your capabilities?
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Strategic and GTM planning and facilitation
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Senior leadership team development and dynamics
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Deep organizational skills and capabilities assessments
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Operating model design and performance
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Why is “purpose” so important to you?
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Clarity of purpose in an organization is the throughline that enables fundamental strategic, operational and cultural alignment. Purpose is the north star that gets team through the toughest times and inspires them to do their best work day after day. Read our blog spot for more on this topic and why it matters so much.
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What is your definition of a high performance team?
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High performance teams are made of highly capable individuals who have developed deep trust and confidence in one another as human beings and professionals. HPTs make decisions quickly, adapt, and act with purpose and certainty. Our role in HPT development is to create an environment of trust between team members and, where needed, develop the tools and skills to deepen that trust over time.
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Are you a strategy firm or an organizational design firm?
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We believe that strategy and OD are inseparable. The best organized, happiest teams in the world won’t have impact without a strong strategy and strategic alignment. Similarly, the best strategies in the world are useless without thriving, well organized teams that can take ground against them. Our work starts where the two intersect
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Why should I hire Volition Partners rather than a big consulting firm?
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Because you want a partner who cares deeply about your success - and can focus on you and your situation and give you a unique tailored solution
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Your investment in us, gets an extremely high rate of return - we don’t have expensive overhead to fund
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See question #1
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Why should I hire Volition Partners rather than a [organizational design] firm?
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OD is a big part of what we do, but it’s not all we do. An OD firm has OD tools and sees OD problems - if you have a hammer, everything is a nail…
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We are business consultants with a toolkit that spans strategy, operations and culture… our multi-tool is capable of finding tailored solutions to your challenges
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What types of clients do you focus on?
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We are generally industry agnostic: our work spans from tech/bio-tech to professional services teams and non-profits. But most of our engagements fall into three buckets:
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Purpose-driven organizations that want to step up their game and have a bigger impact/move faster in what they do
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High-growth startups whose business is scaling and need the organization’s team, strategy, culture and operating model to keep up with the opportunities in front of them
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Organizations going through significant change, whether externally driven (shift in market dynamics, competition, customer preferences) or the result of an internal shift (acquisition, business model pivot, digital/technology transformation)
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We focus primarily on teams of a few dozen to several hundred with emphasis on senior leadership regardless of size or stage
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What clients have you done work for?
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See client list…
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Do you respond to RFPs?
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Sometimes. If we believe that your situation is right for our skills, we might. BUT, generally RFPs have a lot of pitfalls - poorly written, unfocused, used as data gathering vs. real decision making, etc. We do our best to choose wisely before wading to the RFP pool
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Do you ever work for equity?
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Yes, often - we choose our clients because we believe we can make a difference. So, when we believe that there is a mutual commitment to a long term relationship, where we can have a substantial impact, we like to have shared incentives.
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What’s a typical engagement?
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Our engagements often start with a focused project (see capabilities in question 2), but we frequently work with clients over several months or in some cases years as executive teams get to know us and trust us to help them navigate challenges and opportunities.
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Do you work with other consulting firms?
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Yes - we are honest about what we do and what we don’t do - it serves us and our clients.
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We see ourselves as trusted advisors to our clients, and as such are committed to their success and are happy to work within a broader constellation of support.
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Who will actually do the work on my project?
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Dave and/or Sean lead every engagement. Depending upon the scale and focus of the project, we assemble the skills and capacity needed through a team of trusted experts with whom we work regularly.
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We have consultants that support our core offerings, and we also have specific specialists that do things we can’t do - we bring together the right team for the job.
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Do you offer executive coaching?
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Yes, we do. 1:1 coaching is often a key ingredient in driving change or improving performance, especially at the C-suite level. As we we said in #1, we work on business and behavior simultaneously, and in some cases, that means helping an executive with embedded patterns of thought or behavior that need focused attention to change.
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