How We Help Our Clients
We will be there to guide you, support you, and then leave you equipped and ready. We don’t change your culture. You do.​
The Riverbank® Way is a System for Cultural Change that includes steps to:
Our methodology combines the disciplines of business strategy, organizational development, organizational change, and leadership development into an integrated system for cultural change.
Infused with award-winning research, Top 10 business school teaching pedigree, and executive leadership experience, we help clients create and sustain culture change.
Click on any section of The Riverbank Way to learn more.
Diagnose & Recommend
Have you ever felt like consultants recommend the same set of solutions to every client?
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Or that consultants “know” the solution before they even talk with you?
Riverbank is different. Our approach ensures we custom fit our recommendations to your current state, considering what’s happened in the past and where you want to be in the future.
1. Conducting a meta-study of existing assessments and surveys, including all past data. We synthesize what you already have before recommending whether an additional assessment is needed to fill in any gaps.
2. Talking with your leaders and your key influencers. We will undertake one-on-one and small group interviews, engage your people, and learn their views on the current state and desired future state, while identifying enablers and blockers.
3. Gathering a broad level of input from employees. We conduct larger working sessions that are engaging and insightful.
We then synthesize all quantitative and qualitative data and share our report and custom recommendations with senior leadership.
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The Organization Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)
Riverbank® is licensed to administer the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument.
What is the culture of your organization today? Where do you want your culture to be in the future? The Organization Culture Assessment Instrument is a tool to answer both of these questions.
Developed and copyrighted by Kim S Cameron, the OCAI is based upon the Competing Values Framework, which has been identified as one of the top 40 most important frameworks in the history of business.
Engage & Implement
Are your leaders and influencers aligned on what to change and their roles in making it happen?
Do you have a team in place that has the integrity and credibility to run with the change?
Does your team excel at authentic, engaging communications for all audiences?
Do you have a systematic process for engaging, aligning and energizing action throughout the organization?
Once senior leaders are aligned on what to do, the work begins on the how. While organizations are often ready to spend time on the what, the how sometimes gets short-changed. Riverbank’s approach ensures the how gets the attention and time it needs. We are with clients step by step - guiding, supporting, and sometimes supplementing leadership capacity by doing – all based on the unique needs of each client.
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1. Communicate to the broader organization about the journey to date and reasoning for the changes that are going to be implemented. Invite everyone to support and participate, through Riverbank's inclusive process. Ensure senior leaders are giving their authentic support for the implementation in private and in public.
2. Engage broad support and involvement across the organization. Form a Core Project Steering Team that is highly diverse and representative of your best employees, from all levels and functions.
3. Partner directly with leaders who are key to the change or need to increase their skills in leading culture and people.
During this work the change begins to be felt through prioritization of actions, changing mindsets and behaviors, and large-scale involvement.
Refresh Processes
Does your onboarding program assimilate new hires into your desired culture from Day 1, or does it reinforce your old culture?
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If your desired culture involves getting better at collaboration and innovation, are there processes or systems where these qualities are stifled?
It’s important to look at existing processes that may be inadvertently communicating the “old way” instead of reinforcing the new culture.
1. Identify Processes and Systems - both low hanging fruit and the big rocks. Prioritize the opportunities. Don’t try to fix everything all at once. Do a few of these well and showcase the progress. Momentum will take hold!
2. Analyze each process from the view of all stakeholders. Document the current state of the process. What’s working and what’s not? How can this process be a shining example of our new culture?
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3. Scan the External Environment – Identify best practices for each process from beyond your organization. Riverbank brings extensive industry experience to share best practices and works with you to identify a broader set.
4. Choose Priority Next Steps to refresh your processes and implement.
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The Leading With Values Assessment (LwV)
Riverbank® invented and administers the Leading With Values Assessment.
Your organization has likely established worthy organizational values. The Leading with Values Assessment generates a thorough picture of the extent to which leaders are seen to embody those values, individually and collectively. Our process helps you identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. We partner with you to create development plans that increase alignment between the stated goals and your current reality. We work with you to create a communication plan to bring your organization along on the journey.
Develop Leaders
Are your leaders equipped to lead and sustain culture change, or are they reinforcing old behaviors?
Are leaders being supported to achieve their individual and collective potential?
How your leaders behave is the strongest representation of the true culture of the organization. While many leaders get on board with new culture efforts supported by the CEO, it’s easy to backslide into old patterns and behaviors. If leaders’ own actions and behaviors don’t represent the new culture consistently, the change will lose momentum.
Riverbank works with clients to develop leaders, both to meet the needs of the leader and to ensure the culture will take hold and be sustained.
The following solutions draw on our expertise in business strategy, organizational development, organizational change, and leadership development:
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1. Riverbank executive consultants include seasoned business executives and certified coaches. We provide experienced assessment, coaching, and support for individuals and team development.
2. The Riverbank Leadership Development Platform combines premium, expert-led content delivery for top formal and informal leaders with an infinitely scalable peer-to-peer development system to deepen the application of key principles and practices throughout the entire organization. These programs are available with or without customization via downloadable workbooks and materials.
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3. Custom leadership development workshops connected to your culture and strategic priorities.
At Riverbank, we believe all employees are key to changing their organizations for the better. Leaders play a key role in modeling, inviting, and recognizing the efforts of employees to make a difference.​​
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Strong Circles by Riverbank™
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Strong Circles is a highly scalable and cost-effective ongoing leadership development platform with options to suit all levels of leadership. Inspired by research, the learning approach is action-based and bite-sized, with a built-in structure for peer-to-peer support to build social capital even beyond the program. Strong Circles offer:
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1. Interactive and engaging 75-minute sessions, drawing out leader insights.
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2. Practical application, enabled by a peer accountability system.
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3. Routinized Checkpoints between sessions that sustain momentum and learning.
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4. The growth of a supportive community of leaders.
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The first year includes twelve foundational modules. All future years are a customized combination of electives and foundational sessions. Typically, courses are delivered once a month, but that can be adjusted based on the partnership between Riverbank and the client. We tailor the program to meet your needs. ​​​​​​
The foundational sessions include:
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Leading Positively
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Applying the Positive Lens
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Enabling High Quality Connections
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Creating a Helping Culture
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Harnessing Growth Mindset
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Developing a Feedback Culture
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Connecting to Purpose
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Leading from Our Best Selves
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Growing as a Servant Leader
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Becoming a Transformational Leader
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Our extensive library of electives include:
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Inclusive Leadership
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Innovation & Creativity
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Communication & Building Relationships
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Dealing with Change
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Developing Others
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Managing Up
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Strategy and Decision Making
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Skills for New Supervisors
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Positive Change Without Authority
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Sustaining Ourselves in Challenging Times
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​There are two main delivery methods on the platform: Strong Circles and Strong Circles Plus. Both have advantages. Usually, clients choose one or the other, but it is possible to mix and match. We will help you make the best choice!
Strong Circles:​
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Modules occur within a RANGE OF DATES.
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Circles of 6-8 are IN-PERSON OR WEB-BASED
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Trained peer facilitators inside circles.
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Any SENIOR LEADER MESSAGING in support of specific modules can be distributed in writing or by video
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Strong Circles Plus:​
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Modules typically occur on or around the SAME DATE and TIME each month.
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Sessions are IN-PERSON OR WEB-BASED.
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RIVERBANK EXPERT shares insights and facilitates discussion specific to each module.​
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The program includes both larger group format sessions, and smaller Circles of 6-8.
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Trained peer facilitators inside circles.
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Opportunity for SENIOR LEADER KICK-OFF if desired.
The Reflected Best Self Exercise™ (RBSE)
Riverbank® is certified to facilitate the Reflected Best Self Exercise™.
The Reflected Best Self Exercise™ (RBSE) is a personal development tool that helps you see who you are at your best, engaging you to live and work from this powerful place daily. Created from research at the Center for Positive Organizations (Ross School of Business, University of Michigan), the RBSE has helped thousands of executives, managers, employees, and students discover new potential. Unlike most other feedback tools, the RBSE isn’t limited to self-assessment. It invites people from your life and work to share stories of moments they feel they’ve seen you at your best, surfacing what few of us become aware of otherwise. The RBSE enables you to gain insight into how your unique talents have positively impacted others and gives you the opportunity to further leverage your strengths at work and in life.​
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The Korn Ferry 360-Assessment
Riverbank® has an Executive Consultant who is certified in Korn Ferry’s state-of-the-art leadership assessment, which provides 360-degree feedback up, down, and around the leader.
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Leaders need a clear view of their current situation to understand how to get where they want to go. As leaders advance, they often receive less and less honest feedback from those around them, diminishing their true potential.
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Korn Ferry has the world’s most robust and highly validated comprehensive competency model, which is the foundation of the assessment.
Korn Ferry Competency Model:
38 competencies are broken down into four categories to demonstrate a person’s competencies and identify strengths, opportunities for improvement, and potential development needs. The categories are:
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o THOUGHT - understanding the business, making complex decisions, strategic mindset
o RESULTS - taking initiative, managing execution, focusing on performance
o PEOPLE - building collaborative relationships, optimizing diverse talent, influencing people
o SELF - authenticity, demonstrating self-awareness, flexibility, managing ambiguity
To enhance these competencies, Korn Ferry is also set up to measure ten STALLERS and STOPPERS, which can identify the key element(s) standing in the way of performance improvement.
Call us if you have leaders who want to improve yet lack the feedback they need. Our solutions for 360 assessments can be delivered for individuals, groups, or every leader In your organization. The process for gathering feedback is done digitally and confidentially. Reports are then debriefed with each leader and can be integrated into group reports for shared development in your team or organization.