Learning and Development (L&D), also called training & development, corporate training, or workforce education, is a performance intervention aimed towards ensuring employees are properly trained to do their jobs. More specifically, Instructional design (ID) uses proven methodologies to design and develop instructional content for a variety of modes of delivery including instructor-led classroom training, e-learning, mobile learning, micro-learning, and blended approaches. When done correctly, ID activities also include the development of and/or alignment to key metrics to evaluate learning outcomes to determine whether a performance gap was closed and/or mastery of task completion is achieved. Training is one of many possible solutions for addressing performance gaps, so a needs analysis is required to ensure it's the appropriate approach.
Generally, training is appropriate for newly hired or existing employees to learn new knowledge and skills. White Wolf Consulting has several years of experience in developing learning for management and leadership development, software integration, operational procedures, and execution of regulatory, compliance, and organizational policy requirements. We also develop performance support tools such as job aids, technical guides, training videos, and software simulations.
Change management is a critical process that enables organizations to navigate and successfully implement significant changes within their operations, processes, and systems. Our consultants are highly trained and experienced and hold a Certified Change Management Professionals™ (CCMP™) credential, a Prosci® Certified Change Practitioners certification, or both.
We adhere to the Standard for Change Management© and the ACMP Change Management Code of Ethics set forth by The Association of Change Management Professionals® (ACMP®). Additionally, we are able to implement the Prosci® PCT and ADKAR® Models. We implement these best practices to develop a structured approach that helps individuals, teams, and leaders in your organization adapt to change effectively while minimizing disruptions. There are several reasons why change management is essential:
Facilitation of smooth transitions: Change can be unsettling, causing resistance, confusion, and productivity dips. Change management provides a systematic framework to guide employees through the transition, ensuring they understand the reasons behind the change and how it will impact them. This clarity minimizes uncertainty and helps maintain productivity during the implementation process.
Reduces resistance: People naturally resist change, often due to fear of the unknown, concerns about job security, or a sense of loss. Change management addresses these concerns by actively involving employees, communicating the benefits of the change, and providing support throughout the process. By proactively addressing resistance, change management increases the likelihood of successful adoption.
Maximizes benefits and ROI: Training programs, performance improvement initiatives, and just about any large-scale project or organizational shift often require significant investments of time, money, and resources. Without proper change management, the full benefits of these initiatives may not be realized, leading to wasted resources and missed opportunities. Effective change management ensures that the intended benefits are achieved, optimizing return on investment (ROI). According to Prosci® Benchmarking Data, projects that implement change management are SIX times more likely to meet or exceed project objectives. And, "70 % of a project's overall results and outcomes depends on employee adoption and usage of the change."
Enhances employee engagement: Employees who feel involved and informed during times of change are more likely to embrace the new direction and contribute positively to the organization's success. Change management fosters a culture of transparency and empowers employees to be active participants in the change process, leading to increased engagement and a sense of ownership.
Mitigates risks: Change initiatives can introduce new risks and challenges that need to be identified, assessed, and managed effectively. Change management provides a structured risk assessment and mitigation approach, helping organizations proactively address potential issues and ensure a smoother transition. By identifying and managing risks early on, organizations can prevent costly mistakes and avoid unnecessary setbacks.
Supports long-term sustainability: Change is not a one-time event; it is a continuous process that equips organizations with the tools, methodologies, and skills needed to embrace and adapt to ongoing changes. By embedding a change management culture within the organization, it becomes more resilient and better equipped to thrive even during challenging times.
Whether for individuals or teams, professional coaching is a valuable investment for companies looking to enhance their performance, develop their talent, and achieve sustainable growth. Here are several examples of how your company can benefit from professional coaching:
COACHING FOR INDIVIDUALS
Leadership development: Professional coaching plays a pivotal role in developing effective leaders. Coaches work closely with executives, managers, and aspiring leaders to enhance their leadership skills, improve decision-making capabilities, and cultivate a growth mindset. By investing in coaching, you can prepare leaders to navigate complex challenges, inspire their teams, and drive organizational success.
Improved employee performance: Coaching provides individualized support to employees, helping them identify and overcome barriers that may hinder performance. Coaches work with employees to set clear goals, enhance skills, and provide ongoing feedback and guidance. By addressing specific performance gaps and unlocking the employee's full potential, coaching can significantly boost productivity, engagement, and job satisfaction.
Change management support: Coaching is an invaluable part of organizational change. Coaches assist employees as they adapt to new roles, processes, or structures, thus minimizing resistance and optimizing the change process. They provide guidance, support, and tools to navigate uncertainty, manage emotions, and maintain productivity, ensuring a smoother transition and successful implementation.
Talent retention and development: Investing in professional coaching demonstrates your commitment to the growth and development of your employees. This fosters a positive and empowering work environment that attracts and retains top talent. Coaching provides individuals with opportunities to expand their skills, develop new competencies, and pursue their career aspirations. By investing in employee development through coaching, you can cultivate a loyal and motivated workforce.
Personal and professional growth: Professional coaching goes beyond improving performance at work; it also focuses on personal growth and well-being. Coaches help individuals develop self-awareness, build resilience, and enhance their overall satisfaction and fulfillment in life. By supporting employees in their personal growth journeys, companies can foster a positive and supportive culture, leading to increased loyalty, satisfaction, and overall well-being.
TEAM COACHING
Enhanced team dynamics: Professional coaching can improve team dynamics and collaboration. Coaches often facilitate team-building activities, foster effective communication, and resolve conflicts. They help teams understand and leverage their unique strengths, promoting a more cohesive and high-performing work environment. With improved teamwork, companies can achieve greater efficiency, innovation, and collective success.
Higher Team Performance: Team coaching encourages interdependency among team members, thereby building trust and improving internal communication, while fostering adaptability and agility. This enables teams to respond to ongoing organizational challenges for effectively. While coaching the team as one entity, coaches help teams validate their shared purpose and co-create shared objectives. Clarifying roles and responsibilities, aligning efforts, and reducing redundancies, reduces misunderstandings, promotes collaboration, and helps reduce silos, thus improving productivity and efficiency. When teams function at a higher level, this also aids in smoother transitions during times of organizational change.
Improved Problem-Solving and Decision-Making: When teams tackle challenges collectively, they draw on a wider range of perspectives, experiences, and strengths. Team coaching helps create the conditions for open dialogue, healthy debate, and shared ownership, so issues are explored more fully. The result is clearer thinking, better-aligned decisions, and solutions that teams are more confident in, and more committed to putting into action.
Constructive Conflict Resolution: Differences are a natural part of working together, but without the right skills and structure, they can quickly become sources of tension or avoidance. Team coaching helps teams address conflict openly and respectfully, focusing on understanding rather than blame. When conflict is handled constructively, trust grows, communication improves, and teams become stronger, more resilient, and better equipped to work through challenges together.
Performance consulting initiatives help enhance organizational performance and include needs analysis, business process mapping and analysis, developing evaluation metrics, assessing workplace performance, designing performance improvement deliverables, and more. Non-training solutions may include:
Business process improvement
Development of OKR (Objectives and Key Results) and KPI (Key Performance Indicators) frameworks
Restructuring of job task inventories and job descriptions
Certain parts of a Change Management strategy
Onboarding programs
Custom assessments
After analyzing your current situation and reviewing your desired outcomes, we create measurable, quantitative, and qualitative deliverables to address your organization's unique needs.
Training isn’t always the answer to address workforce performance. Quite often, what's needed to resolve workplace performance problems is not attributable to a lack of training.
Whether part of a training program or not, performance support empowers learners by providing information they need to take control over their own learning and improve their job skills. It's up to them to access what they need when it’s most relevant to them.
This eliminates the pressure and cost of loading an excessive amount of informational content into intensive and highly concentrated training sessions and enables learners to get the immediate benefit of accessing that information and hands-on assistance which can be directly applied in real time to real-life work situations.
Performance support is an ideal way to increase productivity while reducing training costs. When applicable, performance support tools can be delivered in a variety of formats including online applications, knowledge bases, videos, software demonstrations, or job-aids. These tools provide immediate support for the employee and decrease time away from work for training.
Yes, you absolutely could. Staffing agencies offer a great service. However, it has been our experience that by taking that route you may be more likely to:
Wait longer to find the right candidate who has precisely the unique skills and experience necessary to properly assess and effectively address your needs.
Pay more because staffing companies represent an added layer of cost between you and the resource. Because our business model is not based on the markup of a consultant’s hourly rate, you not only get the quality your project requires, but also a higher value for your investment.
You may also be less likely to:
Encounter the high level of service and consultative approach you’d get from working directly with us and benefiting from our highly attentive hands-on approach.
Attract highly qualified consultants with the same level of experience and an extensive background that enables them to oversee a project from beginning to end and ensure its quality. The reason is often related to cost and availability. High quality consultants are in demand and are often too expensive for a staffing company to bring on board because the fees they command impact profits.
Understanding what’s needed can only be achieved through proper communication. First, we offer a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your situation. When you're ready to explore further, we’ll set up a longer discovery call to gather detailed information about your specific goals and discuss your budget, timelines, and an approach. We'll follow up with a summary of that call and an initial quote with one or more solutions based on what we discovered during our initial meetings.
When you're ready to move forward, we'll prepare the contract within a few days, including a detailed overview of the project, with scope, timelines, deliverables, resources, and costs. When you’re ready to launch the project, we’ll get you onboarded usually within a couple of weeks depending on the scope of the engagement.
After the project kicks off, we'll get to work right away with an analysis. We'll work closely with your subject matter experts, stakeholders, and leadership to validate and get approval on the stated objectives before we move into development, to ensure transparency and that we're on the right track.
We'll then proceed from there, implementing proven methodologies, models, and best practices, continuing through all phases of the work cycle. We work iteratively to get approvals at each milestone along the way throughout the project. We'll maintain close communication with all involved parties and provide regular status update reports as we work toward timely completion of the project.
We work remotely across various time zones between Europe and The United States. However, we understand that each client has unique needs. So, if there is a valid and pressing reason for completing certain tasks onsite, we will work with you to accommodate that need. Details are discussed in the discovery phase of the engagement and factored into your proposal.