Case Study: MFCVT

The Client: MFCVT -Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture 

The Problem:

“We can’t work together.”

Having just gone through a difficult budget process, the leadership of the organization and their departments had become,“warring factions”.  Each department had taken the position that their work was what mattered, and the other departments were hogging resources. The cost of this was that at every step, leaders were running interference in others’ territory.  Effectiveness in client service was reduced and no new initiatives were moving forward. 

The Objective:

We were hired by the Executive Director to simply, get people working together again.

The Approach:

We set out to get a feel for the point of view of each of the organizational leaders and each of the people they identified as influential team members.  We interviewed them all, and identified all their concerns and the issues that were in the way.  We then designed a one-week program based on the idea that if the commitment is big enough people will do whatever it takes.

We brought together the key leaders in the organization for what identified as a leadership development program.  Participation was 100%.  At the start of the program, the members of the leadership team chose to sit as far apart as physically possible, avoiding even looking at one another.  We introduced foundational concepts necessary to leadership and established the ground rules for effective teamwork.  Then we began looking at what could be possible for the future of the organization. 

This visionary Think Tank process yielded two significant outcomes.  The participants recognized that the best possible outcomes required working in partnership across disciplines and they developed a vision for the future of the organization that inspired all of them and created projects to move this vision forward.

We then set up coaching calls with the individuals who took on leadership of the new projects and worked with them for 3 months.

The Results:

Within 2 weeks the members of the leadership team rearranged the office to dismantle separations, improve communication and facilitate teamwork.  They revisited the budget and reallocated some of the existing funding to make sure all domains were taken care of and set up a team to initiate new fundraising efforts.  They set out a path to realize the new vision.  As an organization, they made a shift from a group of individuals fighting to protect their individual domains, to a team, focused on having the maximum possible impact in the world.  Even 15 years later, the projects we set in motion are rolling along and the impact is expanding. 

“What a pleasure.  Our team began working together in new ways even before the training was complete.  We went on to revisit budgets, reorganize objectives and priorities.  We went from fighting over everything to being a truly aligned and effective team in no time at all.” – Simon Carruth, Chief Executive Officer