Sense of Partnership Strengthened

Firm Implements Culture Change Process

A professional services firm was experiencing all of the challenges associated with success: rapid growth, hundreds of new clients, record-breaking earnings, and a complex matrixed organizational structure. One by-product of the firm’s success, of course, was sheer size. When asked on surveys how they felt about the firm, partners ranked all areas high except one Sense of Partnership. The firm’s growth and the matrixed organizational structure had eroded the partners sense of personal connection to each other and personal ownership in the firm.

A senior partner in the firm wanted to solve this problem. He approached Flynn Heath Holt to work with him and a Working Group to design and implement a culture change process which would strengthen the Sense of Partnership throughout the firm. The Working Group was made up of 14 partners representing every region of the country and all of the four businesses of the firm. Over a period of four months Flynn Heath Holt facilitated meetings of the Working Group where they accomplished the following:

• Connected with each other on a personal level and bonded as a group.
• Got consensus about their mission, purpose and direction.
• Identified their common values as partners.
• Got consensus about their mission, purpose and direction.
• Wrote a draft document describing the dimensions of Sense of Partnership to be “ratified” by partners across the United States.
• Designed an involvement process of Partner Exchange Sessions to engage partners in every location.

Impact

The Working Group took the Sense of Partnership document and the Partner Exchange Session process out to partners across the country. Ultimately the Sense of Partnership dimensions were approved by the firm’s Board of Directors. More importantly, the Partner Exchange Process resulted in the individual involvement and support of more than two-thirds of the firm’s partners across the United States.

Expectations are that this year’s Partner Survey will show a significant increase in Sense of Partnership.