M. david consulting

M David Consulting focuses on all three tiers of any organization:
Individuals, teams, and the organizational structure. We provide targeted interventions at all levels with a particular focus on the individual:

• Individual Coaching across All Levels (Executives, Managers, New Hires)
• Reducing Interpersonal Conflict and Improving Communication
• Leadership Assessments and Development
• Detoxifying the Workplace Culture
• Employee Assessments for Placement and Job Satisfaction
• Improving Team Performance and Integration

We emphasize a non-traditional approach that combines clinical practice with business wisdom to produce results.

In medical care, especially in mental health, understanding all aspects of what a person is experiencing requires the ability to see the big picture and integrate multiple contradictory positions. One professionally researched method to accomplish this goal is called a case-formulation approach.[1] This is a working hypothesis about the structures and factors that are causing and maintaining problems. The process involves several important steps, including assessment, diagnosis, and planning.

Assessment involves gathering data to obtain a diagnosis and create an initial understanding of the problems. In the consulting context, this means gaining a nuanced picture of the managers, employees, products, goals, and overall work culture in an organization. This can be done with interviews, self-report questionnaires, real-time observation, and the 360-feedback process.

Once the data has been gathered, it must be examined and integrated to create a meaningful understanding of the whole. This is the diagnosis; recognizing where the problems lay and what to call them.

Here’s an example:

Jeff is struggling to meet his quarterly goals for the company (Obstacle). He seems angry often and is disruptive in meetings (Sign). He struggles to meet deadlines and doesn’t seem to be engaged (Obstacle). His fellow managers noted a change in his behavior and his subordinates don’t want to bring up problems out of fear that he will blame them (Obstacle). Jeff was promoted to his current position because he did well in previous positions; he reported on his self-assessments that he didn’t really want to leave his old team and become a manager (Sources). He avoids anything to do with deadlines (Process) and has very negative beliefs about his managerial skills (Process).

This brief snapshot of Jeff’s issues and what is causing them are the basis for the next step in the process, the treatment plan. A treatment plan is similar to a good business plan- it guides effective growth. A good plan identifies targets for intervention, addresses specific mechanisms of ongoing disruption, and creates a way ahead to ensure gains are made permanent.

M David Consulting will partner with you to learn about your goals, your organization’s needs, and the culture that makes it unique. Our process creates an effective roadmap for understanding and correcting the barriers in your workplace. Contact us to start unlocking your business’s potential.

[1] Jacqueline Persons (2008) has written a tremendous book that outlines this modality in mental health settings, called The Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive Behavior Therapy.