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.
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.
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.