KTA Solutions

“The KTA Solutions tools were exactly what we needed to get our global project on target. We were getting things done but weren’t being as effective and efficient as we could have been. To use a racing analogy, you can force the car forward and win the race, but without the lubricant, it’s pretty hard to sustain. We were starting to lose our luster and were throwing some sand in the gears, mostly due to miscommunication and lack of mutual accountability and trust. A positive and trusting environment was the most pressing and immediate need. We knew how to build systems and be good program managers, but we weren’t really great with the people and the sharing authority parts of this new team. We were doing a lot of the right things [to build teamwork]: having strategic meetings, monthly conference calls, starting a 360•review process, et cetera, but we didn’t know what we didn’t know. That’s why we brought you and your team in. We needed expertise in the people-side and organizational side of the project. The assessments you introduced were different. Just going through the process and the follow up discussions were teachable moments for me. I walked away from each session having discovered how to apply my talent, skills, passion, knowledge and experience in a different way. I found myself often giving a 5 on the post­session survey question, “On a 1­5 scale with 5 being high, this tool helped me to think differently.”

“After clarifying my core strengths and seeing my dimensions displayed on a graph during the Intentional Difference process, I really connected with using my traits, and now can see how they make a difference for the team. My driving passion for “positivity” really helps propel the team forward. I have this can-do attitude. Things we have to do are fun and interesting, or I can find a way to make them so; and being around someone who is positive is contagious, so it affects team morale. I’m clearer about my leader impact and how I am uniquely wired to do that, and the intentional and empowering influence I can have on a team. This was very timely and essential for me to learn when we started our coaching relationship. At that time, our employee engagement score was in the toilet. And our patient satisfaction scores were at a dismal thirty-third percentile. The leadership was determined to put a stop to this de-motivating and unresponsive situation. That spring, we began hiring nurses with a unique appetite for the challenge of the emergency department. T we tied their performance to the metric of Left Prior to Medical Screening Exam, which at the time was 11.9 percent. That went down to 2.9 percent after three months. How did we do it? We didn’t—the staff did—by using the tools KTA Solutions provided.”

“As one of a three-person team from The Gallup Organization, I helped design and deliver the Toyota Great Managers program which was one of the aspects of Gallup’s High Impact Team Series (HITS). HITS was built around the Clifton StrengthsFinder© and other leadership assessments. Using the assessments Toyota identified employee strengths and built teams based on the data. They also used the data to select which leader matched which team. Over time they were also able to measure the impact of those selections upon the engagement level and productivity of the teams. Overall, this program helped transform large work groups into motivated and mutually supportive small teams. KTA Solutions tools were born out of the experience and strategies gleaned at Toyota and other Fortune 500 companies where I was lead or senior consultant. Using a similar strengths-based approach, KTA Solutions delivers the same kind of results for an organization. However, instead of being built upon StrengthsFinder©, our tools are built upon the Intentional Difference process which is a multi­faceted leader assessment.”