Services


AIM provides seven areas of services:


Strategic Planning Systems

Why does strategic planning have to be so... hard (scary, big, intimidating, worthless... choose your descriptor)?  People tend to make it more difficult than it really needs to be.  And many tend to put the strategic planning "trophy" on the shelf and ignore it for a year when they are saddened by their lack of progress!

 

Our winning combination:

  1. Extensive Strategic Planning and Organizational Excellence experience

  2. Access to best practice knowledge and business approaches

  3. Extensive supporting tools, and

  4. A proprietary Strategic Planning model

This combination helps us assure we deliver an exceptional service to your organization in Strategic Planning facilitation and follow-up.

 

Strategic Planning System

AIM’s proven Strategic Planning system has been used and continuously improved for over 15 years based on knowledge attained through involvement in the National Malcolm Baldrige program and ongoing business coaching experience.  The model has been described and cited in Management course text books.

 

Our model, and a variety of supporting tools, helps us simplify the process without sacrificing the quality of the outcome.  Environmental scanning and stakeholder input are used to identify organizational challenges, advantages and needed competencies.  And we help put structures into place to insure that your plan is deployed throughout your workforce, and that people are working towards your goals in your daily operations.

 

Facilitator

Jackie Beede has been an Executive Coach and business mentor for over 18 years.  She has been involved with the Malcolm Baldrige Award for Performance Excellence for 17 of those years, currently serving as a Judge for that program (2011).  Jackie focuses on organizational alignment to the strategic direction and fosters commitment to the plan.  She uses strategic planning to drive process and performance improvement initiatives at all levels of the organization.

Return to Top

Performance Excellence Coaching

You do it every day – you manage your organization.  It is often very difficult for an active manager executive to see the areas of the operation that are ripe for improvement in their organization.  Our expert executive coaches provide a “second set of eyes” and 20+ years of experience in performance excellence to help you understand your opportunities for improvement.  We assist executives in establishing a culture of change in order to create the environment to accelerate their improvements.

Return to top

Baldrige-based Assessment and Application Writing

The effectiveness of our services are enhanced when our clients participate in a state or national award for performance excellence.  The feedback received from these award programs provides invaluable insight to understand the areas of highest-impact improvement.  We know that this activity is not an area of core competency for you … but it is for us.  We provide expert assistance in application development.  We have read and/or evaluated over 75 applications and we have the passion and talent to effectively capture an organization's systems on paper.

 

Our process for developing applications for state, national, and internal organizational quality award programs is comprehensive, focused, and proven successful time and time again.  The approach is appropriate for any size or type of organization.  We include all stages of the award program from developing and submitting the application, preparing for site visit, using the feedback, and even what to do when an organization is announced as a recipient.  Our approach for application development is based upon knowing and understanding the Baldrige Criteria and process, and combining years of Board of Examiner and Panel of Judges experience into the development process.  The results of developing an application with AIM are beneficial whether or not you are seeking the actual award.

 

Our application development process is an established, effective approach using facilitators to create a written, examiner-friendly application.  You first respond to various easy-to-understand questions reflecting the Baldrige Criteria. AIM translates your responses in language and format that's easy to read for the Examiners.  A side benefit of the application development process is the documented areas for improvement that naturally surface when responding to such an in-depth questionnaire about your organization.  These “gaps” can then be used to feed your strategic planning efforts and keep the wheels turning on this road to performance excellence.  AIM facilitators can lead the organization through proven change management techniques to facilitate this cultural transition.

 

Return to top

 

Process and System Design and Improvement

Together with several of our partners, AIM has developed a comprehensive approach to process and system design and improvement.  Using a PDCA-based (plan, do, check, act) model, we provide services aimed at systematically identifying stakeholders, understanding requirements, designing approaches to meet those requirements, testing, implementing, and tracking solutions.  But don’t let all those steps scare you off!  The approach is easy to understand and implement, yet extremely effective.

 

AIM helps you identify areas for improvement, select teams to address issues, train the teams, and facilitate their improvement meetings to accomplish desired outcomes.

 

With each iteration, we are working to make your organization self-sufficient.  It is our intent to help you create a performance improvement environment so that you can continue the cycles of improvement on your own – including the training.

 

Return to top

 

Measurement System Design, Implementation, & Review

Measurement systems can be a daunting task.  So many measures, so little time!  And yet having an effective measurement system is the key to being successful in your performance excellence pursuit.

 

AIM consultants are experienced in assisting organizations to identify key measures to help run their operations successfully … and to determine if they are on track to accomplish their strategic plan.  Using a simple dashboard and scorecard approach, organizations have found their keys to managing their organization by facts.

 

AIM is currently working toward a system of collecting comparative data from clients and their competitors or “like” organizations to assist them in understanding the relevance of their performance in the marketplace.

 

Return to top

 

Culture Assessments

AIM has a variety of tools that have been developed or identified to help assess the type and depth of an organization's culture.  We use both on-line and on-site assessments to assist your organization in identifying the type of culture you desire and whether your culture exhibits those qualities.

 

Return to top

 

Training and Public Speaking in a Variety of Areas

AIM provides training and public speaking engagements in a number of specialty areas including:

  • Process Improvement (PDCA)

  • Process Design

  • Performance Excellence

  • Baldrige

  • Systems Thinking for Leaders

  • Customer Listening and Learning Techniques

Return to top



Home
:: Testimonials :: Related Links and Partners :: FAQ :: News :: White Papers and Publications