Ava S. Butler

Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach

Creating the Right Operating Model to Enable your Business Success

August 29, 2017
Ava S. Butler

Creating the right operating model to enable your business success is important to every organization.  I’ve lead several discussions on this topic recently and share my short presentation with you below.

I hope you found this overview helpful. As always your comments are welcome!

NOTE:

If you would like to receive e-mail notification when I post additional blogs on similar topics, please sign up through this link.   http://eepurl.com/KILan  You may unsubscribe at any time.

You will find my book Mission Critical Meetings: 81 Practical Facilitation Techniques on Amazon. Your feedback and reviews are most welcome.

http://www.amazon.com/Mission-Critical-Meetings-Facilitation-Techniques/dp/1627870377/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408719109&sr=1-2&keywords=Mission+Critical+Meetings

 

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Growing your business, Strategic planning
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Free Webinar: Practical Tips for Leading Productive Meetings

April 10, 2017
Ava S. Butler

For those of you who are interested, I will be hosting a free webinar this Wednesday on Practical Tips for Leading Productive Meetings. It will be held at 11:30 Central Time in the US, and will be available for replay for those who sign up but cannot attend live. The webinar is hosted in partnership with Ascendis Learning Connection.

Below is the link with more information.

https://cc.readytalk.com/r/x7eun83hmbsi&eom

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Managing the Change that Nobody Wants

October 6, 2016
Ava S. Butler

I’m an organizational development consultant and I specialize in partnering with business leaders to achieve transformational change. I’ve lead dozens of large scale change projects, most of them moving individuals, teams and organizations to a stronger and better place. I think of change as a positive thing and managing transformational change is my life’s calling.

But not all change is wanted and not all change has a happy ending. My dear husband has Parkinson’s disease and Lewy-body dementia. Its taken over our lives. We fight a battle every day that we will not win. Richard’s ending won’t be fast and Continue reading →

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Implementing Change, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease
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4 road tested ways to maximize the impact of your strategic plan

June 6, 2016
Ava S. Butler

Most organizations put a lot of effort into creating their strategic plan.  And most organizations do a lot of things right. They gather their leaders together to agree their future direction.  They share their strategy with employees, and cascade goals to relevant departments and teams.   They even check back a few times a year to see how they are doing.

However few organizations truly maximize their efforts.  If your strategy doesn’t call for significant   changes to the way you do business, don’t worry about it.  But when your strategic plan calls for major Continue reading →

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Growing your business, Strategic planning
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What Richard Sees: Insight into the hallucinations affiliated with Lewy body dementia

February 2, 2016
Ava S. Butler

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is not as well known as Alzheimer’s, but it is the second most common form of dementia, impacting over 1.3 million Americans.

The disease did get a boost in publicity recently when Robin Williams was diagnosed with LBD after his suicide, but far more public information is needed.

Lewy body dementia a progressive neurodegenerative dementia closely associated with Parkinson’s disease. My dear husband, Richard has both.

Persistent and recurring visual hallucinations are often an early symptom of LBD.   This was true for Richard. Not all LBD hallucinations are fear based, but Richard’s were. His ability Continue reading →

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Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease
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Why are so many people in meetings where nothing gets done?

August 27, 2015
Ava S. Butler

Too many executives and managers complain about being stuck in back-to-back meetings all day with no time to ‘get work done.’ This is especially true during organizational transition, where roles and decision-making authority are unclear, and organizational discipline is low.

Here are a few tips to use meetings effectively and free up time for getting work done.

Appoint an owner for each meeting: 

This person is accountable for inviting the right people and setting an agenda that is worthy of participants’ time.

Be clear about the purpose and expected outcomes of every meeting:

If the only purpose of the Continue reading →

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Meeting facilitation, Techniques to Improve Meeting Productivity
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12 ways my dear husband’s dementia has taught me to be a better consultant

June 21, 2015
Ava S. Butler

I am an organizational development consultant specializing in transformational change. I’m also the wife of my dear Richard. We’ve been happily married for almost 24 years and are deeply in love. But our relationship is a non-traditional one because Richard has Parkinson’s disease and Lewy-Body dementia. In January, he moved into a memory care facility. He’s 63 and I’m 57.

Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010, but we’re sure he had the disease long before the diagnosis. We were somewhat prepared to take on the physical challenges of Parkinson’s but utterly ill-equipped to deal with the accompanying dementia. Richard’s Continue reading →

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Implementing Change, Transformation Tools
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An award winning case study for implementing transformational change

May 29, 2015
Ava S. Butler

MCA (Management Consultancies Association) based in the UK annually recognizes consultancies for outstanding work.  I am proud that the project Nigel Waterson and I led with Imtech and Curzon & Company was honored with the Highly Commended award for Change Management in the Private Sector.  Below is the case study.

Shaping Imtech for UK Growth

Executive Summary

This project started with a loose affiliation of regional legacy companies and ended with a single £600M category-leading UK Engineering Services group with 3800 staff. Described here is Imtech UK’s journey to this position, and the role Curzon played in helping Continue reading →

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Growing your business, Implementing Change
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The Positive Approach to Transformation

May 7, 2015
Ava S. Butler

Those of us who consult with organizations going through large scale transformation can sometimes forget how unsettling change can be to the individuals involved.  Below is an article written by Tamara Lechner providing practical advise on managing personal transformation.  When coaching your clients (or yourself) through change, you may want to reference her advise for insights and perspective.

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The Positive Approach to Transformation

Whether you want to eat a healthier diet, exercise regularly, or embark on a new way of parenting, the biggest barrier to change is you. You can make the task as easy as pie, Continue reading →
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Growing your business, Implementing Change, Transformation Tools
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New research hints at ways to make meetings more effective

April 27, 2015
Ava S. Butler

The April 4th edition of the Economist shared valuable new research on the pitfalls of decision making in meetings and how to avoid or diminish them.  The article is below and practical tips are highlighted.

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WORKING life often seems like an endless sequence of tiresome meetings. Catch-ups, kick-offs and reviews litter the calendars of most professionals. Effectiveness around the conference table can determine success in almost every career. Chief executives spend a third of their time in pow-wows of one sort or another, by one estimate. Monetary policy is usually set by committee; juries deliberate behind closed doors Continue reading →

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Meeting facilitation, Techniques to Make Decisions
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