Resource Development Systems, a Macon based Organizational Performance Consulting Firm, is pleased to announce that it has just finalized a partnership with John Wiley & Sons, an international publishing company, that will allow RDS to use Wiley’s new Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team assessment that is used for teambuilding.  The new assessment is based on the popular model from the bestselling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list continuously for the past 12 years.  RDS is the only Authorized Partner in the Central Georgia area. 

“The new assessment provides a much greater depth of information that will allow us to more quickly get to the issues that are holding management teams back from working together to create an exceptional organization,” said Gary Lear, President and CEO of RDS.  “The lack of a solid foundation of Trust and a clear focus on organizational goals over individual goals as a daily priority is one of the paramount issues that keep executive teams and other senior management teams from keeping the rest of the organization in alignment and working on the important things that really make a difference to the bottom line.”

Lear shares that the average organization has a Payroll Efficiency Factor of only 63%.  The Payroll Efficiency Factor is an RDS proprietary measure of how much work is being done per payroll dollar, and is based on the percentages of the engaged, unengaged, and actively disengaged employees in the organization.  This low number means that the average organization is wasting about one-third of its payroll.  In addition, the work that is being done often is not focused on the things that are important for the success of the organization. 

Exceptional organizations, on the other hand, have a Payroll Efficiency Factor that is 25% higher than the average organization. In addition to getting more work done because they have a higher level of employee engagement, the work that is done in exceptional organizations is more aligned with the needs of the organization and has a greater impact on its performance.

“But alignment, employee engagement, and higher levels of work efficiency and effectiveness begin with the senior team.  If that group of managers is not fully aligned with each other and working as a team, then how can they expect the rest of the organization to achieve that kind of alignment and focus,” said Lear.  “It really does start at the top.”

Lear shared that this new assessment will allow his company to more easily and quickly dig down to the issues that are keeping senior managers from functioning as a team.  “This new assessment is a huge improvement over the previous assessment that we were using that was also based on Lencioni’s model.  He has a great model and it works well with our own Seven Elements of High Performance™, but this new team assessment really helps uncover issues and team dynamics, and allows us to help a team move much quicker in their progress.”

The Seven Elements of High Performance is another RDS proprietary model that is based on over a decade of research, and easily explains the dynamics of high performing organizations. The model is revolutionary, and has been adopted by several organizations and government agencies, including the US Navy’s Center for Naval Leadership, and is being taught in several business schools. 

“The Lencioni model really does complement our Seven Elements model, so the assessment is a natural fit.  We can still focus on those things that drive performance, but give management team members some insight into the dynamics of their teams, as well as a glimpse at the dynamics of their organization,” Lear said.  “This will become an important tool in our work in team trust-building.”

The number of consulting firms that will have access to this assessment is limited at this time to under 400 firms world-wide.  Lear said that “while I am sure there will be more Authorized Partners in the future, it is exciting for us to be in on the ground floor of this new endeavor by Wiley and Patrick Lencioni.”