Organizational Formation

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As a leader, you bring critical skills and experience for managing change. However, leading humans during times of transition can be unpredictable and tricky.

Change is inevitable; flourishing is intentional.

3 Consulting can help you stay focused on your future by placing people at the center of change.

Get Started

The concepts we practice may seem simple, but how they are integrated depends on the setting. Begin your journey:

Learn how to design the ecosystem for flourishing to occur within the workplace. Read more →

Schedule an introductory conversation with us. We’ll listen to your needs and follow up with a summary of what we heard and how we can help. Let’s connect →

Once we agree on a plan, we’ll dive into the journey together. Scroll down to see what it typically looks like.

Designing your journey

3 Consulting will work with you to co-design a change pathway that moves your organization from exploring to evolving. Applying a specific approach and toolkit in thoughtful ways will drive energy for change as people become empowered to move together. While we work through the “mess in the middle” of this process, we’ll cultivate a culture for flourishing that lasts through the inevitable disruptions ahead.

Roxanne Pals serves as Lead Culture & Change Architect and collaborates with expert colleagues and thought partners depending on your unique needs.

“Roxanne took the time to fully understand our business, the leadership team, and the goals of our culture improvement program. She facilitated a detailed and well-organized planning process that was executed thoroughly and thoughtfully. Our leadership team was very satisfied with the process and outcomes.”

-Chris Snyder, CEO, Riley Resource Group

What it looks like

Our journey usually involves defining the big picture, exploring your organization’s current climate, and engaging people in problem solving. It starts by asking these questions:

  • What are the conversations that need to happen?
  • What are the questions that need to be answered?
  • Who needs to be in the room?
  • How can we transition from where we are to where we need to be?

Just like opening a door and stepping into a room, these questions will help you enter conversations you need to be having now. 3 Consulting helps you cross that threshold into new places. We are your thinking partner, your strategist, your co-author, and your trusted advisor—guiding you to where your teams need to go.

Peek into each room by clicking on the boxes below and discover the possibilities of what lies on the other side:

Start a new conversation

Change begins in conversation. That’s why we’re committed to sharing ideas and questions to spark reflection and discussion in your organization. Dive in with these resources.

Define the big picture

Where does this conversation begin? Well, first and foremost, we build relationships of trust and safety. Our 3 Consulting team visits you on-site to meet you and members of your leadership team. We want to understand: Is there coherence in this group? Do people feel safe to speak their mind? Do they hold a shared definition of the big picture? If not, we start with this first challenge: Get leaders aligned.

When leaders are ready and on the same page, we work with everyone to understand the current situation and where people want to be. Interviews, focus groups, readiness assessment, surveys, and one-on-one conversations yield critical data, patterns, and, often, big surprises as the picture enlarges beyond leadership’s view. We analyze the data and make strategic recommendations for where you can begin, what you can do, and what you can expect to happen if you follow the plan.

In this room, we will:

  • Make good decisions with less than “perfect” information.
  • Synthesize lots of data – some unrelated – and take action that makes an impact.
  • Gather evidence to justify and recommend a strategic direction and engage the right people to make it happen.
  • Extrapolate patterns in data to bigger picture, bigger population.

Follow the data

Where do we begin in creating a transformative plan? So often in change, organizations begin by deciding what they intend to do, set out a plan, and then tell people what to do. This can create a plan that is under-informed.

Instead of a few key people setting a plan in motion, consider beginning with focused conversation involving people from across the organization. Ask them what they know about the current situation and what they believe it will take for the organization to be different.

The information that comes from these conversations is the beginning of a great plan. Looking at all the information available to you will help direct you towards a transformative solution with the least amount of rework and chaos. People tend to support change when their voices are heard. Take the time to understand what they know!

In this room, we will: 

  • Focus on conversations that bring forward important information.
  • Intuitively observe and recognize patterns.
  • Analyze with quick understanding of situations and solutions.
  • Create strategies and plans to meet transformation goals.

Name the elephant in the room

Have you been in a room where everyone knows the issues, knows what needs to be said, but won’t say it for a variety of reasons? So, what happens is nothing. No forward movement. No solutions found. Just a dance of dialogue to avoid the real conversation.

To name the elephant in the room, you must have a safe environment. This involves a process to hold a safe space, along with carefully crafted questions that support a conversation that otherwise may not happen. Through careful tending and facilitation, individuals can become open to new ways of thinking and new possibilities of behaving.

Once the elephant has been named—and it might be a good idea to give it a name!—the group can move forward in creating solutions to clean up the messes invisible elephants tend to make. 

In this room, we will:

  • Ask though questions.
  • Provide insight into thinking that has been challenging to overcome.
  • Facilitate conversations that no one wants to have.
  • Provide space for individual reflection and growth.

Work with the Willing

How do you know if someone is ready and willing to move forward towards something new? How do you know when people are with you in the midst of change? What do people need to participate in change?  First, they need to know what is happening and why it’s happening. Lack of awareness is the number one reason for resistance. People don’t resist change; they resist change they don’t understand.

The desire to participate willingly and eagerly is the next important step. To do that, people need to be able to answer these 3 questions:

  • What’s the impact on me?
  • Is it good for the organization?
  • Do we have what it takes to be successful?

These questions will move people along in the direction of change. You will know they are with you when they ask things like: What can I do to help? Stay in the conversation. The desire will come.

In this room, we will:

  • Understand readiness.
  • Facilitate conversations that create willing and eager participation.
  • Align thinking through understanding others and creating solutions together.
  • Be willing to let go of ideas, solutions, and people when necessary.

Think and solve together

Being inclusive while sharing experiences can be challenging. How do you engage others in the conversation so that solutions are creative and diverse? How do you ask tough questions so that insights can be gained?

We are experienced and inclusive in our approach. We believe that creativity happens in community and that people support change they help create. We will partner with you to create an integrated solution across diverse groups, while maximizing the potential of your people and your organization. We believe that, together, we have everything we need.

In this room, we will:

  • Value people and relationships.
  • Ask good questions – sensitive questions from the heart.
  • Be transparent and vulnerable.
  • Coach others to excel.

Listen to Each other

Have you ever been in a conversation where you were “loudly” agreeing with someone, but you couldn’t hear them to understand that you were aligned? This is common during disruptive change as we go through change project on top of change project, transition on top of transition. We are moving so fast that we don’t have time to listen, really listen, to each other.  

What can happen in our haste is that we distrust each other and disengage. The idea of having a conversation where we listen beyond words, in such a way that everyone feels heard and valued, can feel strange today. However, if we take the time to listen in that way, we build trusting relationships, stronger teams, and connections that can reduce confusion and increase our ability to move faster. 

In this room, we will:

  • Create safe and trusting partnerships.
  • Share tough information that guides collective change.
  • Be authentic in conversation, reaction, and approach.
  • Engage groups across differences.

Flourishing Together

Join the conversation to learn and explore how we flourish in change. You’ll receive an occasional email offering ideas and tools you can apply.

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