Engaging and Straightforward
What you do is complex. Let us simplify things.
We'll work beside you to find the solutions you need.
You can trust our commitment to results!
"I highly recommend Ian as a consultant, strategist and advisor. Don't let his humility fool you. He's brilliant, experienced, and thankfully for me, patient.”
Rob Barrett
To Provide Direction
It's an important job, one that you and your team will be held accountable for. And it's the 'why you do what you do'. Some people are stressed out at the mere mention of the words 'strategic plan'. Especially trying to implement one when day-to-day crises are overshadowing everything.
Seize Growth Opportunities
It can be so exciting to identify the new opportunities that are there for the taking and will help you grow! But the anxiety of adding more to the plate and then trying to balance it all can be a bit overwhelming.
Traditional Consultants
You've spent a lot of time and money on traditional consultants in the past. That investment may have left you with some big impressive plans on the shelf that miss the mark and aren't implementation friendly. Subtleties can make or break you, so the generic approach isn't good enough.
In-House
You've tried managing the whole thing in-house and that's tough too. You're simply too close to the issues and that makes it hard to be objective and able to step back and connect the dots strategically.
Wish List
Lessen the stress of planning, ensure you've worked through your options thoroughly and strategically, and give you a plan that's doable. One tailored to your unique situation and environment.
Even better, be able to access some additional support to put these plans into action and help hold the team accountable.
Building and Implementing Your Strategic Plan
Compass can be your solution to strategic planning.
Experienced people, you can trust to work with you and your team. Who understand your organization and the challenges you face, and are willing to work together to make sure the 'plan fits you'. Partners who will help you sort through the complexities and are there whenever you need them. They become a part of your team so you don't need to start from scratch every time, but they can bring a more objective perspective.
Flexible, informed, and no surprises when the invoice arrives.
Senior Advisement
As a Thinking Partner
You might be new to your role and still sorting out what it means. So, having someone to help and work with you to close the gap between where you are and where you need to be could ease the stress. Or maybe you're just be heading into some unknown or rough waters and need support thinking through what's ahead. Getting a bit of seasoned, unbiased feedback before you make the final call. After all, a lot is riding on the decisions you make.
Supporting Professional Development
Is there someone on your team who's got no end of potential and is bright and capable, but for some reason struggling to connect the dots or manage their challenges? Someone who could use an experienced, approachable coach to help them identify and work on solutions that will improve their performance and move them closer to where they want to be?
Or are you simply looking for somebody to simply help them along their path and build out what their future goals could look like because their success contributes to the success of your organization?
We can help you chart your path.
Guides with solid experience at all levels of an organization (business and not-for-profit), whose effectiveness comes from their lived experience and talent, not just from certifications. Theory is important, but so are tactics that are tested and realistic. People you can trust, who have a proven track record, and a keen sense of relationships and how people work together.
We're happy to have a conversation to see how we fit.
Strategic Communication
Critically Important
Although it's often an afterthought, communicating well supports and strengthens every single thing we do, from strategic objectives and operations to organizational culture, partnerships, and on and on. But it doesn't just happen. It takes discipline, consistency, and know-how.
Organizational Impact
It's our responsibility to ensure that all our stakeholders (staff and beyond) get the right information at the right time. Given the speed and quantity of changes in our world, people can be overwhelmed by all the messages they receive in a day. This is why it's so important to be targeted and strategic in what, when, how, why, and to whom we say what we say. Especially if we expect to influence their thinking or behaviour.
Off the Side of a Desk
If you can't justify a dedicated communication person, it's likely one more thing being handled off the side of someone's desk, whether your own, an admin's, or someone in the HR department. If that's the case, then guaranteed it's not getting the time or attention it deserves.
We can be part of your communication team.
A skilled resource that's available when you need them and has the capacity to dedicate to the task at hand. Someone with loads of experience in all shapes and sizes of environments, and whose on-the-ground understanding has built up a wealth of best practices to draw on. Someone who can come in and work with you to assess what's working and what's not, build out a plan, and then help make sure it's implemented while building skillsets and capacity along the way.
And as a trusted partner, the more you work with them, the more they'll become one of your team and get to know your organization inside out. They're up-to-speed and ready whenever you pick up the phone, without having to carry another staff member.
Compass can be at your service whenever you need us.
Board Governance
Clarity of Purpose
Boards of any kind, for-profit, not-for-profit, community based or corporate, volunteer or paid exist to do two things. Direct and protect the organization they govern. Obviously, there are other activities involved, but if you don’t get these two things right, there will be much bigger challenges ahead.
Relationships
To do these things well, there needs to be some healthy teamwork going on and ideally only one agenda. Sometimes boards can be made up of very capable, well-intentioned people who may have competing agendas and don’t necessarily perform that well as a team. And the Board/CEO relationship is one that is critical to healthy well-functioning board-led organizations.
Bottom line is that relationships, how well they’re aligned and clarity of purpose are key to ensuring a Board is able to perform it’s work well.
Let us support you and your governance team.
Decades of for-profit and not-for-profit Board experience have taught us a few things that we’re happy to share with you and your team as governance coaches. We can help new boards learn the basic of governance, address the areas where you might be stuck, or support you with longer term coaching and alignment needs.
Governance leadership, strategy and implementation are all connected.
Let us help you build capacity and strengthen the skills of your team.
Special Initiatives
Beyond the Team
New opportunities present themselves in their own time, which is not always the most convenient time for us. So, finding the time and resources to deal with them can throw a real wrench into our plans. And sometimes the particular skill set or experience required isn't available in your current team. Or maybe an outside perspective would be beneficial.
Supporting. Navigating. Managing.
These opportunities or initiatives often take the form of projects that complement or support things you're already doing, like a new quality improvement program that you may need some help positioning and implementing as a pilot project.
They can be in response to something happening in the marketplace or environment outside your organization that is or has the potential to impact you. A new government policy for example, that you could use a hand assessing and navigating.
Or it could be something internal like a potential acquisition or a merger with another business or organization, where there will no doubt be a need for strategic communication and a plan for managing the impacted employees and stakeholders.
The right help at the right time for those special projects.
With over six decades of experience in a wide variety of industries, sectors, and projects, we've been able to hone a few specialized skill sets that come in very handy for our clients. Government relations, business integration and negotiations, project communications, and managing change, to name a few.
Tell us about your latest challenge and we'll let you know how we can help.
Business/Service Development
Finding the Facts
Committing to enter a new marketplace or provide a new service is a big decision and one that should be based on facts that can demonstrate the demand or need. Gathering the right information together takes time, effort, and know-how.
Connecting the Dots
Developing environmental scans, building market intelligence, and putting together economic development opportunity reports and strategic recommendations are services we've provided to our clients for years. And because we're innately curious folks who love to figure out why things are the way they are, it's always interesting work!
We'd love to help you grow.
Bringing together the pieces of the puzzle that you need to make an informed decision is key to the growth of any organization or business. We're happy to help you ask the right questions and dig out the information that's relevant to your unique situation.
And we can help you build your plan for growth and work it together where that makes sense.