How we work together, and what we are asked at the start
One approach for all three offerings, in five steps. Then the questions executives ask us, and our answers.
Five steps, from assessment to autonomy
It always starts with the assessment, and every step is scoped with you. An organization can stop after any of them: each step stands on its own and leaves something in place.
- Step I3 days
Assessment
Make visible what drives your performance and what holds it back, at team level and across the organization. It starts with the online assessment and commits you to nothing more than taking a look.
Two days in the field, one day of consolidation.
- Step II3 days
Retreat
The leadership team works on its own real situations, not on case studies. Everyone leaves with their profile and their two priority shifts.
Two days of retreat, half a day of preparation, half a day of consolidation.
- Step III1 day
Keynote
The story before the method. That is what makes an organization want to try. Ninety minutes in front of all teams.
Half a day of preparation, a ninety-minute keynote, ninety minutes of consolidation.
- Step IV20 to 40 daysover three months
Rollout
Volunteer teams build their own ritual with a sponsor from a team that already practices it, and anchor it in their day-to-day.
Twenty days for up to five hundred people, forty beyond that, in three phases: immersion, implementation, integration.
- Step V30 to 60 daysover six months
AI anchoring
Rituals and metrics are built into your own systems, with no platform to adopt, so the approach keeps living without us.
Five days a month for up to five hundred people, ten beyond that.
Nine questions, and our answers
I've already brought in a consulting firm. How would this be different?
Because we work on performance and leadership together, consistently, with the same people, who embody it and pass it on by example. Most firms send one expert for each dimension, and the two dimensions stay separate, when integrating them is exactly what your managers and leaders are asked to do. The TOTEM System →
You're a small team. How do you guarantee results?
We don't guarantee results; we observe them and build them with you. And for that, we don't need the junior-senior-partner pyramid of conventional consulting firms. We are not meant to be many: the approach is designed for your teams to carry it themselves, supported by the engagements, books, card games, guides and assessments built for that purpose. Teams that already practice sponsor the ones getting started. Resources →
My team works. It's not the top priority.
Really? It is almost always the first thing we hear, and it's partly true, because these gaps in how a team works don't look important. Yet what plays out in your team doesn't stay in your team: the way it makes trade-offs, communicates and handles cross-functional issues is copied by your direct reports, all the way down to frontline teams. Realign your executive committee, and your whole organization transforms. The TOTEM System →
How does it hold up once you leave? What makes it last?
Our methods are put into practice with your teams, who make them their own and keep them alive over time. What we look at is not the rollout rate but the ownership rate, and our job is done the day teams no longer need us. The fifth step builds the rituals into your own systems, with no external digital platform imposed. The resources illustrate the key elements of that ownership. Resources →
How long, how many days?
Three days for an assessment, three for a leadership retreat, one for a keynote. A rollout takes twenty to forty days over three months, depending on the size of the organization. Each step stands on its own, you can stop after any of them, and they follow on from one another to gradually bring the whole organization on board and make it self-sufficient. Our approach →
We've already done Lean, agile, AI.
And in more than seven cases out of ten, it didn't last. Not because the methods are bad, but because they were copied from elsewhere and imposed on teams rather than built with them: that is methodological interference, and the rejection that follows. We start from what already works in your organization, we build on your skills and your industry experience, and within the approach we identify the tools and methods that will make them pay off. Intrinsic Performance →
When you say performance, which performance do you mean?
The five dimensions of TOTEM. T, management performance and what teams experience. O, alignment from vision to execution. T, operational performance and its indicators. E, continuous improvement, Lean, agile, AI. M, projects and programs. An organization chooses the dimensions that matter most to it. The five dimensions →
What concrete references can you share?
Fifteen cases, sorted by area of work, with our clients' videos where they exist: Ariane 6, RATP, France Télévisions, Alstom, École polytechnique Executive Education, CentraleSupélec Executive Education and others. Case studies →
Lots of firms talk about people, and so do you. Why would it work better with you?
Because our leadership is neither theoretical nor wishful, and so it is never disconnected from the field. The leadership we support and pass on is tied to each of the performance tools. That is how the Heart Head Hands model is practiced and anchored in each team's regular ritual, not in a training room. Heart Head Hands →