OUR NON-NEGOTIABLES: GROUNDED CONFIDENCE

At The Gunter Group, the leadership traits and characteristics that define us are our Non-Negotiables: Collaborative, Integrity, Intellectual Curiosity, Thrives in Ambiguity, Emotional Intelligence, and Grounded Confidence. These traits and characteristics guide us every day in our interactions with clients, each other, and our community.

GROUNDED CONFIDENCE is an integral part of our company culture. It is in the fiber of who we are and how we lead. This approach to leadership is built on self-awareness and a recognition that we do not have all the answers but also confidence that we have the ability to overcome incredible challenges.

As a veteran, the concept of grounded confidence was a product of necessity to navigate the challenges of leading in the military. It became something that I intentionally practice and work hard to exemplify.

Being dropped into a deployment situation is inherently hard to describe. Nothing is intuitive. When you first deploy you have to reconstruct the fundamental context for how to function on a day to day basis from scratch. The foundational questions are endless, leaving you feeling vulnerable and exposed. It is an incredibly humbling experience.

Yet you have no choice but to persevere and tackle the unknown. And while the feeling of encountering the unknown is almost always uncomfortable, grounded confidence is knowing that you have the strength to move forward and lead for the betterment of the mission at hand and the people by your side.

TGG employs a number of veterans. Although nothing is the same as deploying to a foreign country, our TGG veterans embody the many parallels between the leadership traits and characteristics necessary for success in the military as well as in consulting. Grounded confidence is a key area of overlap.

We look to grounded confidence to grow our firm because we fundamentally believe that people who share this quality can accomplish great things together. By surrounding ourselves with people who flourish in the unknown, we sustain a culture that supports us in overcoming obstacles.

Whether at a client site or working with internal teams, we work collaboratively and support each other in the unknown to solve the most complex challenges. In doing so, we maximize the value we can provide our clients and the opportunities to grow and hone our own leadership skills.

The ability to lead with grounded confidence resonates with our clients. We don’t pretend to have all the answers. We don’t lead from a place of ego or superiority. Our clients’ problems change and the best solutions vary, so we opt to lead alongside our clients through unfamiliar terrain and challenging circumstances with grounded confidence. Together, we solve the most demanding problems.

STOP GETTING TECH STRATEGY WRONG

If your IT department is doing a phenomenal job then you probably never see, hear, or even think about them. They’re out of sight and out of mind.

Then something goes wrong and everything changes.

When systems fall short, IT comes under the microscope. This usually results in knee jerk change: organizations quickly ditch failing solutions in favor of new ones. In doing so, they often unwittingly cause themselves more headaches.

Matt Jamison, Tech Services Lead at the Gunter Group, has been grappling with this problem for a long time. After 20 years working in enterprise architecture, he knows that most problems are business problems with an IT facade. Technology is often where issues are first discovered, so the first instinct is to treat technology as the problem. This often misses a deeper cause.

Jamison has seen it many times: “Most people skip to Step 3, jumping 30% of the way into the process and running from there in a detailed fashion. This forgets the common sense questions: ‘How does this align to our greater portfolio? What are my business requirements? Who are my stakeholders?‘ When people skip these questions, it has consequences a year or two later when the new solution fails. They assume they know what they need, and they’re almost always missing something.”

That’s why Jamison always starts with an assessment. This is meant to familiarize himself with the organization, but it also gets the organization thinking about the basics. Jamison takes the time to (1) map processes, (2) gather requirements, and (3) put together a big picture that integrates the organization’s strategy and goals. He can then use two decades of experience to match that picture with a right-sized solution.

The goal is alignment: “If a tech solution doesn’t clearly support greater business goals and strategic objectives, then it’s not worth the investment. Ideally, if I ask the right questions, the business can start to see the solution for themselves. I just help them align with their own goals.”

Jamison’s approach is grounded in an agile mindset: frequent reassessment is key. “The first step is identifying the end goal. From there you can figure out how to solve the immediate problems in a way that moves you in that general direction. Which specific roads we drive on after the first couple months is less material because there are lots of roads. You move forward, then check the map to see what has changed.”

While many organizations forget the assessment, an even greater number forget the reassessment. After selecting a solution, organizations rarely revisit their roadmap to reassess. “That’s not responsible management of your investment.” Jamison not only favors building a tech roadmap, but he then revisits the roadmap on a regular basis. “Every 3 or 6 months, you have to come back to the table to see what’s working and what’s not, in order to make sure you’re getting the most from the investment. This is regularly skipped, and that’s not appropriate lifecycle management.”

The result is success. Jamison’s common-sense approach has helped many Portland-area companies find right-sized solutions that benefit more than just one particular business unit. Taking these basic steps can save from investing years and millions of dollars into narrow solutions. He now spends his time serving clients in Portland, Vancouver, Bend, Reno, and Sacramento.

Thanks in part to Jamison, the team at TGG is well-equipped for today’s challenges in Tech Strategy. He is helping us integrate enterprise architecture best practices with business needs. Our analysts map processes and steward discovery. Our strategists help clients align their knowledge of themselves with actionable strategy. Our change managers help plan next steps, and our project managers drive execution and adoption.

Could you benefit from our expertise in helping organizations to adopt right-sized solutions that advance their strategic goals? Perhaps we can help you better understand the business value of the solutions that either you or your clients are weighing. Reach out today to learn more!

Matt is an experienced solutions architect with a results-oriented understanding of the intersection between reality and architectural theory. He has the ability to plan, develop, and implement large-scale projects while maintaining impeccable attention to detail. With 18 years of functional information technology experience, Matt has end-to-end IT knowledge from layer 1 networking to application API interaction. An expert in mapping technology solutions to business needs, Matt is also able to conform to required regulations while maintaining IT best practices. Matt’s experience spans multiple industries, including healthcare, telecommunications, and security and software. He is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect. Outside of work, Matt enjoys the outdoors and all things bike-related.

MAKE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WORK FOR YOU: AN EXPERT OPINION

Artificial intelligence has been in the news a lot lately. Most recently, an AI named Pluribus outplayed the world’s best Texas Hold’Em players. Perhaps this causes you a bit of concern, given that an essential element of poker is the ability to pull off a convincing bluff. Should we be worried that a computer can lie well enough to clean out the best card players in the world?

For most of us, AI hasn’t been at the forefront of our minds. Yes, we hear about recent technology advances in the news or somehow find ourselves at the one happy-hour table talking about how robots will replace us. Beyond that we probably haven’t thought too much about AI, resigning it as a topic for the distant future.

In reality, the world has changed under our feet. The future is here: AI is everywhere. It’s no longer a far off concept; AI is a commodity here and now. Companies like Amazon have started to offer AI tools that sort through unbelievable amounts of data and provide valuable insights that were previously unthinkable. AI is being used to identify sales leads, streamline supply chains, optimize logistics, instantly recognize fraud, and even create original content.

This is an opportunity. Companies of all sizes are leveraging commoditized AI tools to stay a step ahead. If you don’t take advantage of this new commodity, your competitors will.

Matt Jamison will be in Reno presenting on this topic at panel discussion on AI this month at the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. As a seasoned solutions architect and the Tech Services Lead at The Gunter Group, Matt’s perspective is grounded in both his tech expertise and his experience in business consulting. Click here for more information and to register for this event. If you’d like to learn more about how to effectively integrate AI into your business and can’t make it to the NCET panel, reach out today to learn more!

Interested in what we have to say about tech? Check out our blog on the future of agile in business.

THE FUTURE OF AGILE: LOSE YOUR MANIFESTO

Matt Jamison is no stranger to agile. As the Service Lead for technology at The Gunter Group, Jamison is putting his twenty years of tech experience to good use. He has kept his finger on the pulse of all-things-IT for quite some time.

Jamison’s latest reflections on tech would surprise you. Lately he has been talking agile, but not in the way you might expect. He believes that business is on the threshold of change.

First, Jamison likes to point out that the idea behind agile is not new. “The Agile Manifesto and the Scrum Guide aren’t revolutionary. Extreme Programming was a thing back in the 90’s. It’s essentially agile. Sit with another person who knows what you’re doing and then iterate. Iterative problem-solving is not new, even if organizations are getting more intentional lately about building agile methods into their structure.”

That being said, Jamison does understand why people go for the rigid approach of particular agile methods. “Someone wrote out a manifesto and it was picked up by Silicon Valley IPO’s that made a ton of money. Now people assume it’s what they have to do to make money.”

There’s nothing wrong with the rigor of a guide or manifesto; it can often be a good entry point into an iterative way of thinking. But Jamison thinks that this can also be an excuse to stop thinking critically.” 15 years ago another developer told me something that still sticks with me. He said, ‘Every problem can be solved with one additional layer of abstraction.’ In an agile environment, you often come to a pain point between a problem and the guide’s method for solving it. That’s when I blur the boundaries outlined by a manifesto and see if I can bring in something new that adds value.”

Jamison has a question that he loves to ask: Does this work for us? “The key is to understand the reason you’re doing something. If you challenge a rule from a manifesto, you need to understand both the reason for the rule and the reason for breaking it. Are you iteratively getting better at something? Then you’re doing agile.”

“Agile has become a thing,” says Jamison. “The experiment worked! The terminology won’t stick around, but the philosophy is a good way to solve problems. In that way, I think agile will continue to move businesses after the marketing engine stalls.”

Jamison believes that agile is on the threshold of a new era. Agile was once a firm framework that provided structure to tech developers. As the hype fades, agile is transforming into a set of best practices that will enjoy wide-spread adoption in a variety of organizations.

Organizations are already putting agile’s successful components to practice. Tech heavyweights like Spotify have experimented with non-traditional loose agile structures. Non-IT companies like banks (Barclays) and manufacturers (GE) have jumped on the wagon as well, experimenting with enterprise-scale structures that promote iterative growth and continuous feedback with less of the rigor. In the end, businesses want what works–and they are finding that in agile.

This is a slow transformation. It is not hard to see the benefit of iteration, feedback, and innovation found in agile methods; it is much harder to make an enterprise-scale transition. Each organization is unique, and the incorporation of agile requires thoughtful planning and customized implementation. Jamison is helping the consultants at The Gunter Group to combine agile best practices with their business experience in order to meet the unique needs of our clients.

SALESFORCE: HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CRM PLATFORM

As someone who enjoys traveling the world and has gained experience communicating with people from many different cultures, communication in corporate environments is no problem for Angela Tekulve.

For more than 15 years, Angela has been working in business analysis and systems improvement. Recently, she has been helping companies get the most out of the industry-leading CRM, Salesforce. We sat down with Angela to talk about this experience.

We started with the basics. What is Salesforce and why is it critical for how organizations do business today?

Short answer: Essentially it’s an application that gives users a shared view of its customers and potential customers. Salesforce is a scalable platform–organizations can do everything from automated marketing to customer support to billing and invoicing with applications built on the platform. Most companies enter Salesforce through buying Sales cloud, which helps sellers track their prospects and leads, and then close deals. A lot of companies expand into the marketing automation realm, customer support, learning and development, etc.

How does Salesforce–or really any CRM–actually help drive business results?

A CRM gets your customer and prospect data out of spreadsheets or notepads and into a central repository. This has benefits. It can help you predict your sales, understand why you lose deals, and help sales representatives focus their time on the most meaningful sales activities.

So it makes the sales process more efficient?

Yes, but not only that. It can increase quality too. A lot of companies use a CRM platform like Salesforce for their customer support function, so all of the notes around your customers live in one application.

So everyone can see it?

Exactly: all functional teams can access the information. So, often you will find that it facilitates better cross-functional communication because multiple user groups can communicate about one customer at the same time.

Salesforce has been around for a while…do organizations use it well?

Some do and some don’t–it depends on the organization. But eventually everyone falls behind in some way.

Do you see room for improvement?

Absolutely! As organizations grow and change, keeping Salesforce in sync can easily become an afterthought, especially where there is siloed communication between business users and system administrators.

How do they get out of sync?

A lot of organizations have their Salesforce administration in an IT Organization and the users of the tools are usually a Sales or Marketing team. The admin looks after the technical bits of the tool. If there isn’t frequent communication then they may feel like everything is working fine. Meanwhile the users are really frustrated because they feel like there are too many fields on the screen or they are being asked to enter useless information, etc.

It seems like it all comes down to communication.

Lack of communication leads to dissatisfaction, every time and for everyone.

What recommendations do you have for companies who have implemented Salesforce, but may not be using it to its full potential?

Listen to your users! Think through the parts of your business that have changed and tidy up the messy parts that aren’t working anymore. Also, try to take advantage of the new features that Salesforce pushes out in its regular releases.

What are the most common pitfalls you see where companies aren’t using Salesforce to its fullest potential?

Some of the more common pitfalls are overlooking end user input for the design and implementation of a CRM for the first time, investing in a CRM without a clear sales process or agreement between the various groups like Sales and Marketing, and running a powerful CRM like Salesforce without training the actual users.

What happens when these elements are overlooked?

Ultimately? Lost resources and missed opportunities. Organizations can spend so much time and money on defining requirements and configuring the tool for go-live. However, without a plan for post-go-live support and training, an organization won’t fully realize the benefits of the tool.

It almost sounds like problems with the tool are actually problems with the organization…

I’m a business process person at heart. I fundamentally believe that tools like Salesforce work best when the end-to-end business process has been fully thought out, ownership and accountabilities are clear, and there is a compelling narrative for how the tool will help achieve broader strategic goals.

And that doesn’t always happen?

Of course not! So where this forethought doesn’t exist, I enjoy putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Communication between business groups can be hard, but I enjoy helping people talk to one another.

What’s your approach for putting the pieces together? Especially when working with people who are afraid of the change that might be necessary for maximizing the use of a tool like Salesforce?

Listen, be empathetic, and put yourself in their shoes. Once you understand where they are coming from, you can talk to them about how the tool is going to make their life easier. If it’s a tool that you believe in (which, in the case of Salesforce, I do), then usually it will make things easier! All I do is ask them to come along with me and trust that it’s going to make their lives better.

Angela is an experienced management consultant with over 15 years of experience in business analysis, project management, systems implementation and quality improvement. She loves the ambiguous and changing nature of complex projects and has a proven track record of developing the systems, processes, and tools necessary to make the complex simpler. Angela’s open, collaborative working style and can-do attitude fosters team building and cross-functional communication. Angela has deep expertise in leading large global projects for Fortune 500 companies with locations across North America, South America, and Europe. She holds both a Bachelors in finance and biology from the University of Georgia and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Angela is a travel junkie and in her spare time enjoys globetrotting to some faraway locale.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

By Ashleigh Gunter, Managing Partner, and Laura Magrone, Consultant at The Gunter Group.

If you could improve your company’s profits by 21%, reduce attrition by 24% to 59%, and improve your employees’ morale—all without significant cash outflow or investment—would you do it (1)? It is doubtful anyone would answer no to the above question, although that is what many are essentially doing when they don’t make employee engagement a priority in their organization.

Employee engagement extends far beyond simply measuring employee satisfaction; it can be defined as a measure of employee commitment to the organization, which drives company performance and outcomes. It is the act of including all employees in a conversation about what would make your organization better and then including each and every one of them in an action plan to drive changes. This is a proven effective approach for organizations of all sizes.

Business outcomes are directly impacted by employee engagement and are a key driver for implementing an employee engagement program. In an analysis completed by Gallup, a popular vendor for employee engagement surveys, results revealed that groups with higher employee engagement ratings significantly outperformed groups with lower ratings on crucial performance outcomes, including decreased turnover rates (2).

Establishing an Employee Engagement Program

Once you’ve decided to embark on improving employee engagement, you need to first consider how you will measure engagement. There are a wide variety of tools and vendors you can use, ranging from self-administered surveys to integrated platforms with extensive consulting support. If you choose to create your own and use something straightforward like SurveyMonkey, keep your survey simple. We recommend using publically available engagement questions rather than trying to develop new questions on your own. This will save you the time and effort of figuring out how to ask the right questions.

The Gallup organization has spent years developing the science around employee engagement. After millions of surveys, interviews, and significant in-depth analysis, they devised 12 statements as the key drivers of employee engagement. In the book 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter, Ph.D. describe these elements in detail. Here they are at a glance:

The 12 elements can be categorized based on four key areas: Basic Needs, Management Support, Teamwork, and Growth. These must be viewed as foundational. Basic Needs must be met before shifting to Management Support. Management Support must be solid before focusing on Teamwork, and so on. When using an engagement survey provided by Gallup, the results include these 12 elements and are helpful in honing focus areas to ensure your employees’ needs are being met.

If you choose to engage with a vendor that provides an engagement survey tool or provides a package of tools and consulting services, make your selections based on the availability of benchmark comparisons, confidentiality, cost-effectiveness, ability to view segmented results (department, tenure, function), and flexibility of question format. Take time to carefully consider these criteria and select something that will work for your organization in the long-term.

After selecting a tool/vendor, you should determine an effective communication strategy to launch the program, ensuring employees know why, how, what, and when the program is happening. Participation is critical. If you only get a small percentage of your organization to respond to the survey, you won’t have meaningful data. Too often, only the employees who are really unhappy or are really happy end up responding, leaving the employer with an inaccurate view of true engagement across the company. It is okay to provide incentives to encourage employees to participate in the survey. It is not okay for managers to tell employees that they have to take the survey. We’ll review more common pitfalls when implementing an employee engagement program below.

Once the results are received back from your employees, it’s time to get to work! Most employers make the mistake of assuming that they should take the results of the survey and ‘fix things’ for their employees. However, what we find is that this leader-led approach doesn’t improve engagement. What actually improves engagement is including all employees in the process of reviewing the results and making a commitment to change one item in each work group and then following through on that commitment. For instance, one of the clients I work with had a team who worked through how to improve vacation coverage for one another. The approach provided a softer re-entry to work and enabled employees to enjoy their vacations more and not stress too much about coming back. This led to increased engagement within the team and was a win for all involved.

While this approach sounds easy, it still requires very clear communication to employees and good engagement meeting facilitation. When employees review engagement results, they often want to focus on what they cannot control. For instance, “If I just got paid more, I would be so much more engaged” or “If I had five more days of vacation each year, things would be so much better.” The leader in the conversation must focus the discussion on what your team can change rather than what the team wishes the leadership would change. Once they can land on a specific thing to change, then the team needs to collectively commit to an improvement plan and determine how best to track and report progress against it. Don’t forget to share your results with others so that successful ideas can be replicated across the organization when appropriate. Sharing results also builds momentum and motivation to continue building on your employee engagement program.

There are some common pitfalls many organizations encounter which can undermine an entire employee engagement program. They are (3):

Lack of trust in confidentiality. Employees will not answer questions honestly if they aren’t confident that their answers will be confidential. Once confidentiality is compromised, it’s very difficult to rebuild trust in a survey. This often occurs when management attempts to determine by process of elimination how employees responded.

Lack of transparency. If scores come back low, an honest conversation is necessary—don’t just gloss over the low scores for fear of adversely affecting morale or to avoid difficult conversations. Focusing on problem areas and developing an action plan to address them will yield the greatest results.

Preferring high scores to honest feedback. Treat low scores as an opportunity for improvement and encourage employees to provide honest feedback without fear of repercussion.

Measuring managers by their scores. This can have a two-fold effect. Managers may pressure their employees to respond favorably in an employee engagement survey leading to skewed results. Alternatively, employees may not answer questions honestly for fear of negatively impacting their manager’s success.

Poor change management. If you don’t explain the survey and provide enough support to ensure managers are able to have honest conversations with their teams about the survey results, the activity becomes more of a ‘check the box’ than an opportunity for understanding and greater engagement. Be sure to take the time to prepare the entire organization for the process—in particular, the management team, who will need to facilitate the conversations with their teams.

Delayed communication. Survey results should be reviewed and an action plan should be developed as soon as possible. If there is substantial lag time between the survey and results, the engagement program becomes distant and possibly even forgotten.

Executive involvement. The most successful employee engagement programs are championed by senior leaders who promote accountability and follow-through. However, executives CANNOT decide that they will respond to the survey to fix everything, ultimately taking control from the employee population for improving the engagement.

In an engaged environment, employees are not only excited to come to work, but are committed to driving toward business goals. They take pride not only in being part of a great team, but in contributing to the success of the business. They are empowered to use their strengths to shine and are energized by doing so. It requires committed leadership and an openness and humility to evaluate yourself and your organization’s growth opportunities. Making employee engagement a priority provides amazing possibilities for improvements both for your employees and your organization as a whole.

References:

1 – https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx

2 – http://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/163130/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx

3 – https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/employee/engagement/pitfalls-to-avoid/

FROM THROWING POTS TO LEADING TEAMS

An Artist’s Insight Into Running a Successful Marketing Program

As a ceramics hobbyist, Tracy Bell is well practiced adapting to changing circumstances. “What results from 2381℉ is amazing,” says Tracy, “but your piece might not turn out exactly as intended, regardless of best-laid plans.” Knowing what you can transform – and how – are valuable skills, not only in the world of ceramics, but program leadership as well. Tracy called on that knowledge – and over twenty years of program leadership experience – when she led a $2.5M strategic marketing program at one of our clients.

Despite strong national brand awareness, our client recognized that many potential customers weren’t actually considering their services. To favorably shift that consideration, they wanted to launch an events-based marketing strategy in order to deliver a consistent, differentiated presence in several large key markets.

In her role as marketing program lead, Tracy worked with the client to define their business objectives and identify success metrics. In partnership with outside agency partners, she established timelines, budgets, and marketing plans that they would use to improve brand consideration. By working closely with senior leaders, Tracy facilitated buy-in of the program. With an approved plan, goals, metrics, and budget in place, it was time to turn up the heat!

But like a pot that cracks in the kiln, the unexpected did arise. When faced with budget reductions, funding constraints, and staffing limitations, Tracy adapted to these new realities and helped the client adjust their plan accordingly. The result? Improved ROI on their marketing dollars and a whole new perception of the client’s brand for thousands of potential customers.

“As a potter,” says Tracy, “I’ve learned that the process of creating something beautiful and functional is rarely uneventful. However, just like building a program from the ground up, progress over perfection delivers results well worth the effort!”

Tracy is known for her ability to jump into a new situation, quickly adapt to its unique demands, and lead teams to a common goal. She has two decades of experience in strategic planning and execution and brings a well-rounded view to the table with a background in marketing, product management, and business development. One thing that holds steady across roles is her aptitude for connecting the dots across an organization to reveal opportunities, efficiencies, and possibilities. Tracy holds an M.B.A from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University. Outside of work, Tracy enjoys spending time outdoors; camping, running, and biking.

TGG SPONSORED AGILE PDX EVENT – FROM MINDSET TO CONSCIOUSNESS: PLAYING THE INFINITE GAME OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

We hope you will join us for June’s event to learn about how to spot developmental as opposed to lower level learning experiences in the context of an agile consciousness.

RSVP here: From Mindset to Consciousness: Playing the Infinite Game of Human Development

Wednesday, June 19, 2019
6:30PM – 8:00PM
Puppet Labs, 5th Floor
308 SW 2nd Ave
Portland, OR 97204

Details about the event:

Agile is part of an evolution in consciousness–in the nature of our awareness and noticing skills and our knowledge of self and other. When agile emerges in an organization, it does so within a consciousness unlike its own. Yet, our approaches to agility often impede its ability to stick where it emerges.

Agilists have used the frames of mindset and learning. But, we need to use the frames of consciousness and development in order to truly transform. In doing so, we see agile transformations are actually personal transformations. Organizations don’t change, people change and then the organization adapts.

This deep dive session discusses the agile mindset and puts “mindset” in the context of “consciousness.” It speaks to advancing agilists who are trying to understand why adoptions go wrong when they have done everything “right.” You are more likely to receive full value in this session if you have been pursuing agility within organisations for at least three years.

This session provides pointers on how to spot developmental as opposed to lower level learning experiences. It is based on my own practice, on research I did for my master’s thesis, and on my book The Preservation of the Agile Heart: From Mindset to Consciousness.

Learning Outcomes:

Be able to articulate a working definition of consciousness
Understand the difference between mindset and consciousness
Understand how consciousness and human development align
Understand the difference between learning and development
Be able to spot learning opportunities that do not facilitate development
Be able to create opportunities for personal development and self-care in the context of development

Speaker Bio:

Jean Richardson is a consultant and coach with nearly 30 years of experience in software development, with half of that time spent in learning about agile and participating in the agile movement. For the last six years she has coached individuals and teams in agile-aspiring organizations. A former AgilePDX Coordinating Committee member, Jean is actively involved in helping, guiding, and coaching the agile community at the local and national levels toward a collective agile consciousness!

In case you missed our previous posts, Agile PDX is a large organization of Agile practitioners among the greater Portland metropolitan area. Their vision is to see Portland as a world-class leader in software development. Their vision is to see Portland as a world-class leader in software development, defining “world-class” as profitable, sustainable, and joyful. Their mission is to work together to create a vibrant, successful Agile community of practice in Portland, sharing experiences, distilled wisdom, and innovative ideas for Agile done well.

Their regularly held meetings are as follows and more information can be found on their Meetup page:

Downtown Pub Lunch: 12:00PM – 1:00PM on the first Friday of the month.

Westside Cafe Lunch: 12:00PM – 1:00PM on the fourth Friday of the month.

Downtown Evening Events: Third Wednesday of the month at Puppet Labs: Doors open at 6:30PM, main event starts at 7:00PM and usually runs to 8:00PM, out of the building by 8:30PM.

We will announce each TGG sponsored event as they are posted, so please check back for updates! Mark your calendars now for June 19th and we hope to see you there!

OUR NON-NEGOTIABLES: COLLABORATIVE

At The Gunter Group, the leadership traits and characteristics that define us are our Non-Negotiables: Collaborative, Integrity, Intellectual Curiosity, Thrives in Ambiguity, Emotional Intelligence, and Grounded Confidence. These traits and characteristics guide us every day in our interactions with clients, each other, and our community.

At TGG, COLLABORATION is in our DNA. It’s a foundational principle for how we work together and with our clients, and how we have built our firm. We believe creating partnerships is the best way to achieve goals, whether it’s delivering a complicated project for a client or supporting each other in getting our work done.

When we opened our doors in 2011, we knew that our early success would rely on collaboration and empowerment. As a result, we built a culture where each of us believes in raising each other up and sharing in the decision-making process. We look to each other to work with that same spirit of collaboration and partnership.

Naturally, we’ve grown by bringing in team members that share this value. At TGG, we believe in the value of diverse backgrounds and diverse experiences.

Through a strong spirit of collaboration, our team learns from each other’s experiences. By growing our consultants, we grow our firm. When we learn from each other, develop strong relationships, and support each other, we create a positive work environment and foster a culture of trust. We are proud of the fact that our collaborative approach has led to high employee engagement scores (in the 95th percentile).

Sharing our experiences also helps us to prepare for client engagements and address the complex challenges that they face. Our clients resonate with our collaborative approach as we listen and partner closely to help them develop and implement solutions.

Collaboration is a foundational leadership quality at TGG. We establish trust through meaningful connections that build authentic relationships with our clients and each other. Through these open and collaborative relationships, we’ve been able to help our clients accomplish amazing things. We don’t presume to know what our clients want or need or have a pre-canned methodology to sell. We prefer to build relationships and actively partner with our clients to solve problems.

At TGG, our leadership qualities are non negotiable. Whether with a client or on internal teams, our approach is always the same: develop strong relationships and collaborate to solve the problem.