Blog
Insights and practical applications from the FlexPoint Consulting team around business transformation, technology modernization, process optimization, and more.
What’s Disguised in Your Organization?
As Halloween approaches and costume plans come together, Rachel Rubin shares some common disguises masking business and technology challenges. These include low adoption, perfect metric attainment, and immediate agreement.
Five Small Investments to Make in 2024
Kim Ehrman shares five targeted investments for CIOs to include in the 2024 budget, focused on helping teams deliver better and setting IT up for long-term success. These include an IT Strategy Workshop, a Demand Management Optimization effort, and more.
How Teams Back Each Other Up Well
Kim Ehrman describes four practical steps for team members to cover each other well during time away from work. These include sharing transparent lists and resources, early practice and intentional overlap, as well as setting clear expectations and authority.
In Search of a Referral, Not Another Project
Michael Daehne shares how FlexPoint takes a different approach to growth than many consulting firms: we do great work for our clients and trust that they will help us grow by referring us to colleagues, friends, and family who may be facing similar challenges.
Ready for Your Next Inflection Point?
Kim Ehrman shares a series of audit questions and tips for success around preparing for the next big turning point in your business, including how your team works together, how you deliver as promised, using strategic stretch roles, and prioritizing finances.
Ninja Warrior and Business Transformation
Pedro Cortez shares an edge-of-your-seat story from his son's Ninja Warrior world championship competition, along with the business transformation lessons it reminded him of.
Flexing through an Incredible Experience
Aarushi Gupta describes her spring internship with FlexPoint, including the process of getting to know a new team, contributing to client and internal efforts, and learning a lot along the way!
Achieve Real Benefits without Scope Creep
Kim Ehrman shares four recommendations to realize lasting benefits without scope creep: specify a clear and compelling why, create an intuitive and accessible backlog, build in scalability, and embrace structured continuous improvement.
CXO Quick Start Best Practices
Michael Daehne describes the framework we use when working with new executives to set their team up for long-term success. Using a structured approach helps to make sure we don’t miss an important element among the many details of navigating a new role.
Be Firm and Kind, Short and Sweet
Kim Ehrman shares how guidance given on writing an important email relates to several powerful business concepts that come in unlikely pairs, including paradoxical leadership skills and featured pairings in the Agile manifesto.
A Team that is Built to Last
Henry Howard shares lessons learned from his time at FlexPoint, starting with joining as a new team member last summer, finding a sense of belonging, and enjoying the collective growth of his team, company, and personal perspective.
How to Foster Employee Engagement
Aarushi Gupta shares the benefits of employee engagement, proven methods for fostering it, and how she’s experienced these topics through her internships with Apple and FlexPoint Consulting.
Practical Ways to Build Trust within Teams
Kim Ehrman shares how to build -- and rebuild -- trust within professional teams, leveraging Brené Brown’s BRAVING framework from Dare to Lead and Charles Feltman’s four distinctions of trust from The Thin Book of Trust.
Lessons in Teamwork from Middle School Band
Kim Ehrman connects her middle school band experience to talent management principles. She concludes that their success stemmed from having an inspiring leader who encouraged them to have a growth mindset, along with exemplifying GRPI.
Avoiding the Band Aid Solution
Rachel Rubin reflects on how to avoid workarounds in architecture and code based on her experience in consulting and technology firms. She recommends fostering a culture that prioritizes clean coding and building in safeguards like tech debt clean-up sprints.
Building Great Teams for Transformation
Kim Ehrman draws lessons learned from how Carousel Motor Group built a great team to roll out their pre-owned car-buying experience, Carousel Online. Key to success were customer-centric vision, thoughtfully applied skillsets, and realistic expectations.
How to See the Forest for the Trees in Transformation
Kim Ehrman shares techniques to see the forest for the trees across transformation programs, and ultimately to drive transformational success. These include welcoming and heeding various perspectives, minding the gaps between workstreams, and more.
Navigating Transformation with Creativity and Courage
Fifty-four years later this month, FlexPoint Consulting Founder & CEO Michael Daehne reflects on the creativity and courage required
to navigate a moment of crisis in Apollo 8 -- and how we can apply
lessons learned to transformation challenges.
A Recipe for Effective Change Management
Kim Ehrman shares the essential ingredients of change management, along with some of the personalizations and updates we’ve scribbled in the margins of change strategies and plans over the years, to help you in driving out effective change where it matters most.
How to Fix Program Status Reports
Michael Daehne shares four things to include in a status report, focusing on what will actually predict project success. These include team dynamic & collaboration, customer engagement & alignment, solution clarity, and what’s keeping people awake at night.