Using a Governance Team to Overcome Scaling Obstacles

Years of becoming increasingly siloed impacted the company’s ability to scale. A governance team was put into place to decrease inter-departmental issues. This led to several improvements: achieved $1.2M in estimated efficiency gains, reduced 3 months time on each project, and created standardization of almost 400 business and workflow processes. 

The Challenge

The company was so siloed that cross-department cooperation and communication were severely limited. For several years, the company struggled to get everyone to work together as one team. As a result, whenever a project required multiple departments, there were excessive inefficiencies and miscommunications. Client issues were also on the rise, especially misunderstandings around expectations and accountability. And finally, there was no process in place to resolve these conflicts or optimize performance.

The Solution

A Governance Team was created, which included the business line owners and senior executives from every organization. This instantly aligned people and teams to expand bandwidth, execute projects, discuss problems, mature, and evolve the organization together. Ultimately, the team’s work grew skill sets, expanded influence, and created efficiencies within key corporate initiatives.

The Results

Once formed, the Governance Team was able to identify and direct +70 managers and associates to advance talent, improve experiences, improve operational delivery, and grow the business.

• Prioritized and directed 72 projects that led the investment of +45K hours across multiple service lines
• Advanced teamwork and knowledge sharing among +330 professional services associates
• Created ‘Manager Collaboration Forums’ to bring managers together across all business units, enhance manager skill sets, increase team capabilities, and improve staff satisfaction
• Created a ‘Trusted Advisors’ program to uplift associates’ skill sets: needs assessment, strategic consulting, and client stakeholder management
• Standardized 398 regional business and process workflows across the organization
• Saved 9.2K hours per project, which achieved $1.2M in estimated efficiency gains
• Reduced the average time to complete projects by 3 months (+16K project hours)

Dr. Shawn Foley, Founder of FOLEYWORKS, has spent his career in management consulting, education services, and information sciences, working both in the United States and internationally. His focus has been on advancing people and talent, enhancing organizational capabilities, and accelerating the performance of businesses.