Spring into Courage: Embracing Change and Growth 🌻

Dear Readers,

As we transition from winter into spring, a period marked by growth and renewal, it's an opportune moment for organizations to focus on the untapped potential within their teams. The emergence of spring, symbolized by flowers blossoming from their bulbs, serves as a compelling analogy for the growth we aim to cultivate in our professional environments.

This season challenges us to be the catalyst for our teams, providing the necessary support, encouragement, and belief in their abilities to flourish. Our objective is not only to recognize the current contributions of our team members but also to invest in their growth potential, crafting a culture where development is not just encouraged but ingrained.

How can we foster an environment that values individuals for their potential as much as their achievements?

Stay Courageous,

Bill T. 

Risk Being Yourself

Risk being yourself. This concept is far from new. Throughout the ages, the most consistent prescription for personal well-being is this: Be who you must be. The Greek poet Pindar said, “Grow into what you are.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Insist on yourself, never imitate.” Famed psychologist Erich Fromm said, “Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.” Robert Louis Stevenson said, “To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end in life.” Abraham Maslow said, “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.” These sages said explicitly what we all know implicitly, that when you have become far removed from who you are supposed to be, when your work-self and personal-self are wholly different people, and when the masks you wear don’t look anything like your real face, you expend too much energy living a life of pretense.

Join Bill on LinkedIn for additional insight and more short videos!

Among the most important and gratifying work that Giant Leap does for our clients is helping them define their core values. Often times the work involves teasing out the values that have been foundational to the business for years, but never explicitly written down. Sometimes new, more aspirational values are also defined. Once the values are defined, they are woven into other aspects of the business to help animate them. One of our clients, for example, changed their recruiting questions so they could better identify job candidates who were more likely to be a good cultural fit, and thus more likely to stay. 

Five years ago, Giant Leap helped facilitate the development of core values for IES Communication, an electrical contractor that serves large clients in the communications and data industries. Now the company values are proudly displayed on the wall of each of the company's 17 branch offices. The core values are also reinforced throughout its leadership development program, which Giant Leap also facilitates. To speak with a Giant Leap consultant about developing and codifying your company's core values, contact us at info@giantleapconsulting.com.

Since 2008, Giant Leap has facilitated strategic planning engagements for over 30 scientific research centers at major universities throughout the United States, including Harvard, Yale, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and MIT. Each center is pursuing a grand challenge that, potentially, could change the world. Many of these centers have received grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the tune of $25 million. If their science shows demonstrable progress after five years, they can receive a second helping. Yup, $25 million more to help further the science. To ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used wisely, the NSF requires each center to have a rock-solid strategic plan to guide the research efforts. That's where Giant Leap comes in.

Through our road-tested planning process - that involves the development of a mission, high-level goals, objectives and measures, and tangible actions - Giant Leap helps increase the likelihood that the grand challenges will be achieved.  This March and April, we'll be working at scientific research centers at the University of Arizona, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Laura Cohn and Ahli Moore, two long-time Giant Leap facilitators, at the University of Arizona. March 2024. 

Giant Leap enjoys wowing our clients with top-notch leadership experts. Experts like the former director of the FBI Hostage Negotiation Team, Stephen J. Romano. Drawing on his vast experience in tense situations, Steve shares practical tips for building empathy, quickly establishing trust, and de-escalating stressful situations. This month, we brought Steve in for an encore performance with one of Giant Leap's valued leadership development clients, IES Communications. To inquire about Steve or our other top-notch experts, contact us at info@giantleapconsulting.com.

Bill Treasurer, Giant Leap's founder, and Stephen J. Romano, ex-director of the FBI Hostage Negotiation Team. 

The nature of Giant Leap's work is delivering high-impact training programs. It's a lot of output. But once a year, at the end of March, Giant Leap turns on its intake value and soaks up a bunch of learning and new ideas at the Annual Business Retreat of ISA, an association of prominent organizational development companies. Giant Leap's founder, Bill Treasurer, serves on ISA's board, and in 2023 received the Outstanding Member award.  

Top executive coaching author, Michael Bungay Stainer, and Bill Treasurer, Giant Leap's founder, at ISA's business retreat.

Members of ISA's Annual Business Retreat Committee at the JW Camelback Resort, March 2023.