NEW TEAMMATE ROUNDTABLE

We love welcoming new teammates to the TGG family! Over the past year we’ve had a variety of talented professionals come onboard, add to our culture, and help clients maximize their potential.  

Recently, we held a TGG Roundtable with three teammates who joined us this year to discuss their transition to, and time with, The Gunter Group. We invite you to read the questions and answers below, ranging from first impressions, to client work, and even TGG’s four legged friends.

Thank you for taking time to visit today. To get us started, can you share when you joined The Gunter Group and briefly tell us about your professional background? 

Heidi Brown: I think I might be the newest in this group, my start date was September 13th. My professional background consists of time in technology and healthcare, and work centered around systems analysis, project management, and program management.  

Samya Thangaraj: My first day with TGG was June 1st, 2021 and my background is in strategic work focused on healthcare and technology, data visualization, business analysis, and employee engagement.  

Anton Cotelo: Well, I moved to the United States from Spain in March of this year and started with TGG on June 15th, 2021. A large part of my professional background is centered on industrial engineering, project management, and data analysis.

What are three words you would use to describe your time at TGG so far?

Heidi: Supported, engaged, and challenged.

Samya:  I was going to use “supported” and “challenged” also! I’ll go with community, growth, and fun!

Anton: Engaged, professional, and friendly.

What were your first impressions of TGG?

Heidi: When I started the interview process I immediately found that the TGG team had authentic soft skills and strong professional skills as well. This made the process very refreshing and genuine. I felt that the TGG team really wanted to understand my background and skill sets.

Samya: How personable everyone is, really stood out to me. I also appreciated that everyone has each other’s best interests in mind and the emphasis on technical skills but equally important, personal skills.

Anton: My first impression started before any of my interviews because I really tried to become familiar with the company and the leaders at the company. In that process it seemed like TGG was a family environment and once I started talking to more and more people with TGG, I could feel the family environment right away. It wasn’t forced, it was very natural between everyone in the company. The entire team was incredibly helpful, always available, welcoming, and checked in regularly.  

How are you currently supporting a client organization?

Heidi: Right now I’m helping a global sportswear manufacturer create a strategic roadmap that helps support a large end-to-end workflow.

Samya: I’m working with a client on a large data migration project between two platforms, and identifying ways to make the systems and reports more efficient and effective on the new platform.

Anton: I am helping a client automate and streamline processes in order to free up time for the organization’s personnel so they have more time to spend on high level strategic initiatives and developments for the company.

What do you see being something that is really important for organizations to consider and/or develop in your area of consulting in the next 1-3 years?

Heidi: The first thing that comes to my mind, working in a space with a lot of systems that need to talk to each other in real time, is the need to focus on strengthening organizational culture and engineering around APIs and data integration across systems.

Samya: In terms of the technology space, integrating and updating platforms and software while streamlining reporting to help make it more valuable, efficient, and effective.  

Anton: There are a lot of trends but I think it’s critical to walk before you run, especially in regards to data and technology. Really gaining an understanding of where your organization currently stands and identifying what the best path forward is for your group.  

What have you enjoyed most about your time with TGG so far?

Heidi: I’d have to say the number of people who have been willing to support me along the way, with both internal and external circumstances. It’s really helped me hit the ground running.

Samya: In short answer I would say the people. To elaborate a little I would say working with such a diverse group of skill sets and talented people across various spaces has been awesome. And getting to meet people one-on-one has made it even more enjoyable! 

Anton: The cross-functional, yet compatible skills of the team has been really cool to see — and when I say skills I mean hard skills and soft skills both. 

We’ll end on an easy one, with all the talk about dogs at recent TGG events — who from TGG has the cutest dog?  

Heidi: Dan’s new puppy, for sure!

Samya: Well I have to say my own dog, Garbanzo, of course!

Anton: Trisha’s definitely because it’s the only TGG dog I’ve actually held.

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Interested in learning more about how our great culture comes to life? Click here and see what fuels our team, our relationships, and our work. 

Ready to jump in? Our TGG team is growing and we are currently hiring! Click here to see our open positions and apply.

TGG BOOK REVIEW – SCRUM

Over the past year, TGG consultant Josh Bathon has provided book reviews for The Project Management Institute of Portland. Throughout the coming months we will periodically share some of the reviews that previously appeared in the PMI-PDX newsletter.  

Book: Scrum by Jeff Sutherland

Agile project management is not a fad. Over the past 20 years it has become the dominant organizational system for software development, and has also started to flourish in other industries as well. You have most likely come across either an agile tool or an agile team, such as Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe. You might even have an agile certification; PMI offers the PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) and agile theory is included in the PMP and CAPM.

Regarding agile, there are thousands of books and tens of thousands of articles online. Everyone has an opinion. So if you want to learn more, where should you start? Why not learn from the founder of Scrum, the most popular agile methodology out there?

In his book, Scrum, The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, Jeff Sutherland is a master teacher. He slowly unravels the various parts of Scrum, illustrating with examples from his clients over the years. The goal of his book is to make Scrum usable for people who don’t work in software. And he succeeds. 

Transitioning to agile can seem like a paradigm shift for many people but Sutherland demonstrates how this change doesn’t have to be dramatic. Throughout the book, he works through various aspects of Scrum, breaking them down into digestible chunks that could be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Take for example a venture capital company which decided to embrace Scrum in their daily operations. Investors, management, researchers, and administrative staff all started to use Scrum to organize their work. Sprint planning, daily standups and team retrospectives resulted in transparency: everyone could see what was currently being worked on, major blockers were identified early and the team regularly reviewed the way they worked. These small changes had large benefits: the average work week at the company dropped from over 60 hours to less than 40, and the team started completing almost twice as much work.

A key problem with agile project management is the army of purists that help implement it. They advocate for strict adoption and rigorous adherence to an entire system. But this dramatic, one-size-fits-all approach fails because businesses come in all shapes and sizes. This book is different. Sutherland provides practical advice for adopting agile, using real world examples of success. 

This is a must-read for project managers, even for seasoned agile professionals. I have 2 scrum certifications and have worked in several agile environments, and I still found Sutherland’s book to be a valuable exploration of how and why to use agile. In my experience, it’s hard to do agile without understanding why it works. Level-up your skills with this quick read, straight from the founder of Scrum himself.

FROM OUR PARTNERS: TGG PROUD TO ANNOUNCE OUR NEWEST PARTNER,
TONY SCHWEISS

2021 has been an important year in The Gunter Group’s journey. We named a new Partner, Matt Bader, at the beginning of the year, and now we are proud to announce our newest Partner, Tony Schweiss. What a great way to celebrate our 10th Anniversary!

Tony joined TGG in 2014 as a consultant after a career as an Officer in the U.S. Navy, and as a project manager in the construction industry. Over the last seven years, Tony has become a leader in our company, continually delivering stellar client service, developing new markets in Nevada and California, coaching and mentoring other TGGers, and supporting clients in Oregon. 

Tony has had a profound impact not only on our company’s business, but also on our Culture. At The Gunter Group, we take our Non-Negotiables seriously, and Tony embodies each of them. We are excited and proud to have Tony as an owner in TGG.

We are excited for our future at TGG under Tony and Matt’s leadership. To the next 10 years (and beyond)! 

TGG RANKED AS A BEST SMALL FIRM TO WORK FOR IN THE NATION BY CONSULTING MAGAZINE

For the third year in a row The Gunter Group has been recognized as a “Best Small Firm to Work For” in the nation according to Consulting Magazine.  

It is an honor to share that The Gunter group was selected as the #6 “Best Small Firm to Work For” in the nation for the 2021 rankings and finished in the top 10 for the third consecutive year.

When asked about this year’s recognition TGG Founders Mike and Ashleigh Gunter commented, “We are so proud to be recognized again as a Top 10 Consulting Magazine Best Small Firm to Work For nationally, alongside so many other great firms. It is an important recognition for us because we believe it reflects the culture we have worked so hard to build, and our amazing team. What a great way to celebrate our 10th Anniversary!”

The Consulting Magazine rankings were announced on September 9th, 2021 at a dinner gala in Chicago. Only 18 small firms were chosen for recognition, based on an annual survey of over 12,000 consultants from approximately 300 firms nationwide. Award candidates were evaluated across six different categories of employee satisfaction including, client engagement, culture, firm leadership, career development, and compensation and benefits.

To learn more about the 2021 Consulting Magazine Awards and see the complete rankings visit: https://www.event.consultingmag.com/best-firms-to-work-for

The Gunter Group is a management consulting firm headquartered in Oregon, serving the west coast with offices in Portland and Reno, Nevada. Learn more about us and the services we offer here.

EXECUTION PRACTICE Q&A WITH TRISHA BENNETT

At The Gunter Group we categorize our work into four practice areas: Technology, Execution, People, and Strategy, with client engagements often stretching across multiple service categories.

Our work within our Execution Practice supports clients as they pursue large transformation programs and change initiatives, in order to achieve complex and impactful objectives.

In this Q&A we explore our Execution Practice in greater detail with Trisha Bennett, Principal Consultant and Execution Practice Service Leader.

Tell us a little bit about the nature of work TGG focuses on within the Execution Practice:

Our Execution Practice is the intersection of all our practice areas and brings ideas to life for our clients. It’s about implementing strategies and using technology to align and serve people. These types of engagements usually take the shape of larger transformation programs or change initiatives. Our clients may think of these types of programs as focused efforts that just need to be executed, but we make sure that our team is bringing a perspective for how to realize strategic objectives through changes to the people, process, and technology ecosystem of a business.  

Tell us about a recent engagement supporting a client initiative:

We have partnered with a national insurance provider that is undergoing an effort to move from their 20-year old legacy on-premise ERP to a more flexible cloud based solution using Workday Financials. Our consultants supported the organization’s business transformation by leading the program management, technical project management, business analysis, process design, and training strategy and delivery. This engagement was a great example of how our consultants in the Execution Practice used their skills in analysis and project management to make sense of a complex organizational, process, and system environment in a way that was collaborative but with a relentless focus on outcomes.  

What do you anticipate impacting organizations over the next 3-5 years in the Execution category?

Organizations will do more projects in the digital space and these projects are going to require companies to show up differently for their customers and their employees. To make these changes happen, organizations can’t work in the same way that they were working. Internally these changes impact organization structures, internal communications, HR/hiring, and work has to be managed and measured differently. 

Tell us about one of your favorite projects your team has worked on:

Working with executives in translating their visions of the digital space into executable work for the teams that make it happen. These range from creating a new customer experience for a health insurance company to standing up apps for retail sales.

More about Trisha Bennett:
For nearly 15 years Trisha Bennett has partnered with business leaders to advise and lead strategic initiatives in the healthcare, insurance, retail, education, and veterinary services industries. Her career has focused on delivering best-in-class portfolio strategy, program management, project management, and analysis. As a Practice Leader, Account Leader and Manager, Trisha leads teams of consultants to support clients, solving complex business problems. She has a proven dedication to deliver and a reputation for building highly effective project teams by seeking clarity and understanding, even in the most ambiguous environments. Trisha’s management style is focused on collaboration, transparency, and meaningful communication. Trisha holds a BA in Supply Chain Logistics and Business Management from Portland State University; she is also certified as a Project Management Professional, Change Manager, and SAFe Agilist.

TECHNOLOGY PRACTICE Q&A WITH MATT JAMISON

At The Gunter Group we categorize our work into four practice areas: Technology, Execution, People, and Strategy, with client engagements often stretching across multiple service categories.

Our Technology Practice focuses on understanding clients’ technology needs and challenges, and crafting pragmatic action plans.

In this Q&A we explore our Technology Practice in greater detail with Matt Jamison, Principal Consultant and Technology Practice Service Leader.

Tell us a little bit about the nature of work TGG focuses on within the Technology Practice:

Our Technology service line stands out in that it’s an extension of our management and business consulting work. We’re always engaging with our clients from a business lens, utilizing processes and people, and adding a technical depth and expertise to our client partnerships.

What is the most rewarding aspect of supporting clients in TGG’s Technology Practice?

Meeting our clients where they are, understanding their needs and challenges, and crafting a pragmatic action plan. This means evaluating their tech stack, teams, and asking, “What can we do in the next 6 weeks and 6 months?” With this approach we can start helping and start delivering value right away and not just toward a project’s end.

Tell us about a recent engagement supporting a client initiative:

A national education services provider planned and started a digital transformation initiative. We helped them step back and assess their readiness to execute their digital transformation strategy. Additionally, our team made a series of digital program structure and agile product delivery recommendations that we are helping drive forward.  

What are recent trends you see impacting organizations in the Technology space?

COVID has substantially increased consumer expectation for a robust digital experience for many companies. People are much more willing to engage in a digital experience now because it became a reality during the pandemic. And this aligns perfectly with our Technology Service offering. Consumers are demanding a great digital experience and we’re able to help because that transformation is built from everything TGG does.

What do you anticipate impacting businesses over the next 3-5 years in this area?

Expectations of digital experiences are going to be high. Whoever is doing this experience well right now, will likely be doing it well in 3-5 years. Ones that aren’t doing this well or didn’t do it in the past, might not be here in 3-5 years and expanding and creating a digital experience is expensive. Instead of buying property for storefronts, you’re investing in technology costs and data centers — and this will be just as true in the future as it is now.

Tell us about one of your favorite projects your team has worked on:

A global athletic wear company started their digital transformation back in the mid-2000s mostly focused on North America. Now we’re helping expand their global footprint because they sell so many products outside of the United States. This leads to interesting questions to answer, involving how to make technology scalable and reliable. It’s even more interesting because we can use prior learnings to inform new strategic ideas.

More about Matt Jamison:
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 20 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 and a Certified SAFe 5 Agilist. Outside of work, Matt enjoys the outdoors and all things bike-related.

PEOPLE PRACTICE Q&A WITH
KARA O’CONNOR

At The Gunter Group we categorize our work into four practice areas: Technology, Execution, People, and Strategy, with client engagements often stretching across multiple service categories.

In our People Practice work we empower companies across all industries to align their people and strategic objectives in order to maximize results.

In this Q&A we explore our People Practice in greater detail — as we visit with Kara O’Connor, Service Delivery Manager – People Practice.

Tell us a little bit about the nature of work TGG focuses on within the People Practice:

What separates our People Practice is the unique and focused way that we ensure people and culture are cared for and prioritized in any big change. We frequently assist organizations with large complex change initiatives that balance technical proficiency (project management, business analysis, etc.) and people proficiency (change management, employee engagement, etc.). Our team focuses on being well-rounded so we can thoughtfully bring both perspectives to the table.

What is the most rewarding aspect of supporting clients in TGG’s People Practice?

If we do our jobs well, people feel like we’ve helped them prepare for and overcome something challenging. We’re helping avoid burnout, helping find clarity, and helping design a future with people at the forefront. This truly makes a difference for people’s lives, when their human emotions and reactions are respectfully accounted for. When we’re able to support change like this, it’s very meaningful and very rewarding.

What are recent trends you see impacting businesses in the People Practice space?

I’ve really loved seeing more conversations about integrating change management into agile projects. You’ve typically seen change management presented in very traditional, waterfall methods and these methods are not the only way! 

What do you anticipate impacting organizations over the next 3-5 years in this area?

I think People Practice issues are becoming more mainstream. A few years ago, change management was really on the periphery, not many people were prioritizing it in their projects. Now, we’re seeing more acknowledgement that without addressing the human component in the workplace, you’re missing half of the picture. 

Tell us about one of your favorite projects your team has worked on:

Right now we have someone working on a social and emotional wellness program for a large public school system. At a time when school staffs are being stretched thin, it is great to know we have someone to help organizations strategically plan for and build programs that support the mental wellbeing of their staff. This ultimately has a huge impact on our community as a whole in light of school staff connecting with parents and students.

More about Kara O’Connor:
Kara owns a diverse background in organizational change, team leadership, project management, communications, and marketing analytics. She is passionate about keeping “people” at the center of change management and large-scale initiatives and has enjoyed bringing strategic, people focused solutions to her clients for over 10 years. Kara is very skilled at considering issues with a fresh perspective, which results in her suggesting and implementing viable solutions that may not have been previously considered by an organization. She has worked in a wide range of industries for many nationally-recognized brands, in technology, healthcare, sportswear, and education. Kara holds a B.S in Business Administration and Marketing from Central Washington University. She is also a Certified Scrum Master and PROSCI Certified Change Practitioner. In her free time, Kara enjoys spending time in the great outdoors with her family of four.

STRATEGY PRACTICE Q&A WITH STEPHEN BACON

At The Gunter Group we categorize our work into four practice areas: Technology, Execution, People, and Strategy, with client engagements often stretching across multiple service categories.

Our strategy work capitalizes on existing organizational strengths, as we lead executives and their teams to develop and implement plans that allow them to reach their strategic objectives.

In this Q&A we talk with Stephen Bacon, Service Delivery Manager for our Strategy Practice, and explore our strategy work in greater detail.

Tell us a little bit about the nature of work TGG focuses on within the Strategy Practice:

Strategy for us is about working to articulate our clients’ goals and then helping to articulate and organize a plan for them to get there. Sometimes clients might not know their goals, and sometimes they do. We help them discover the path and make recommendations.

Tell us about a recent engagement supporting a client initiative?

We helped a senior leader in a financial services organization articulate their long-term strategy for a product line. We helped them discover a different way to go to market and recognize the challenges of the industry. And by using their strengths to overcome those challenges and execute, they delivered a record financial year.

What are recent trends you see impacting businesses in the Strategy space?

There are unique economic factors at play right now. Since capital is abundant and interest rates are low, businesses can undertake a wide variety of initiatives. Deciding where to go and how to use their capital in the best way, for their organizations and shareholders, is going to be the main goal. 

Tell us about one of your favorite projects your team has worked on:

We worked with a healthcare organization to learn about and recognize the impacts of an engaged workforce. The results of an engaged workforce result in a multitude of benefits like a sense of collegiality, more effective leadership of teams, and decision making processes that are inclusive and engage the whole workforce. 

More about Stephen Bacon:
Stephen is passionate about understanding the overarching strategic goals of an organization and leading the changes that are so often necessary to implement those strategies. His expertise is guiding strategy and change efforts across a variety of organizations. Stephen has spent twenty years leading initiatives at Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions and not-for-profits in the education services, technology, financial services, consumer products, and healthcare industries, including extensive international experience. Stephen is a PROSCI Certified Change Practitioner, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), holds a green belt in Six Sigma, and is accredited in various psychometric assessments (MBTI, ESCI, NBI). He holds a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from Boston College and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. In addition to his service on not-for-profit boards, Stephen has three young children and a chocolate lab. He lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

TGG BOOK REVIEW – UPSTREAM

Over the past year, TGG consultant Josh Bathon has provided book reviews for The Project Management Institute of Portland. Throughout the summer and fall we will periodically share some of the reviews that previously appeared in the PMI-PDX newsletter.  

Book: Upstream by Dan Heath

Much of what we do is planned out, driven by templates and schedules. We’re project managers: careful planners, skilled organizers, disciplined doers. However, no amount of planning can solve for everything–problems creep into our projects no matter what we do. Good examples include chronic last-minute change requests, hectic go-lives, scheduling conflicts, unforeseen emergencies and unexpected long-term stabilization escalations. Even the best-planned projects will experience pain points.

That is where Dan Heath’s book Upstream comes in. The book asks a key question: how many of our problems could we solve before they even happen? Reacting to issues is necessary, but preventing them by upstream intervention is even more valuable. Upstream provides a number of questions, barriers, approaches, and case studies that encourage us to think about problems differently. Here are a few of my favorite concepts and applications from the book:

Barrier – Tunneling – The problem arises, escalations occur and everyone scrambles to fix it. But once the fire is out, it is rare for the team to stick around and ask, “How do we prevent this from happening again?” Instead, we simply move from problem to problem with tunnel vision, never addressing root causes in the system. Moving beyond this barrier is key to upstream thinking. 

Approach – Unite the Right People – The ones reacting to a problem aren’t necessarily the right people to change the system. Take the example of a scrum team that experiences a periodic loss of velocity. Once a quarter, a request from the executive team forces 3 of your developers to stop their work and spend time updating reports. This extra work causes a delay in feature releases. You can’t solve the issue of your developers’ productivity by asking the developers to make a change–solving this problem requires the involvement of the leaders who are making the request. By bringing the right people to the table, you can understand the reasons for the last minute requests and try to plan ahead.

Approach – Use the Right Measures – Any single metric can be abused. At a previous company I worked for, the corporate office decided they needed better visibility into our project spending. They required that any proposal above $5M be routed to Corporate for several months additional review. Within a year, every strategic initiative in my region had been broken up into several smaller projects with budgets under $5M, resulting in an enormous overall loss of efficiency. Upstream suggests a simple fix: pair multiple measures together, to prevent people from gaming your metrics and demonstrating a false indication of success.

Project managers spend a lot of their time scrambling to solve problems. Excellent project managers know how to solve problems before they materialize. Upstream is a solid read for the project manager looking to improve their approach.