See how we take organizations from Research2Action.
We provide innovative solutions that go beyond numbers to help you better understand issues within your workforce and build more trust with your employees and stakeholders. We take a collaborative approach when working with our clients by understanding their needs and organization culture. Through our partnership, you and your organization can achieve more operation efficiency and better business performance.
IMPROVING THE USE OF SPACE AND TRAFFIC FLOW
TAKING ACTION TO BUILD A BETTER WORKPLACE
The Challenge
A nonprofit organization that helps revitalize communities across America by providing loans and services to support residential properties development conducted an employee opinion survey. But the management team needed help in making sense of the tremendous amount of employee survey data and prioritizing areas of improvement in light of budget cuts. In addition, the organization wanted to develop employee skills to stay abreast of recent technological changes.
We facilitated an all-day off-site action planning meeting with the senior management team to confirm organization goals, review employee survey data, and prioritize action plans.
The Results
The client achieved buy-in from senior leaders regarding top priorities including creating a formalized performance management program and instituting metrics of performance, among others. In partnership with the client, we identified metrics of success, created a communication plan, and assigned resources to tasks and created a project plan. Through this action planning meeting, senior management was able to take a list of more than 20 items and distill it down to six key areas of focus. This allowed senior management to address the most urgent and fundamental issues first while continuing to build trust with its employees.
LISTENING TO KEY STAKEHOLDERS
The Challenge
A California school district with limited resources and budgets was facing the challenge of improving student performance standards. The Instructional Services and Research departments of the school district were charged with (1) creating user-friendly curriculum-support tools that were aligned to the state’s standards and (2) developing standard assessments that met California standards and kept pace with instructional guides.
How We Helped
We conducted focus groups with principals, teachers, and teacher coaches to gather their feedback on the effectiveness of curriculum-support tools as well as the delivery and execution of standard assessments.
The Results
The Instructional Services and Research departments of the school district received valuable feedback from participants regarding what works well with the curriculum-support tools and assessments, what technology support is needed, and what they would suggest for future improvement. The team at Instructional Services and Research now uses feedback from focus groups to improve teachers’ pacing guides and the process of delivering standard assessments to schools.
IMPROVING THE USE OF SPACE AND TRAFFIC FLOW
The Challenge
A dance studio for young children and adults wanted to improve the use of its waiting areas and address its traffic flow in the studio so they could prevent children from running into two columns in the hallway. The client also wanted to have a better solution for storing and organizing students’ shoes at the front entrance.
How We Helped
We observed the interactions of students, parents, and teachers during the busiest time at the studio. We interviewed a select sample of parents and students to gather their feedback on the waiting areas, safety concerns, noise levels, and suggestions for improvement. We also took photographs of the dance studio and the interactions of students, parents, and teachers during our observations. Using these photographs, we created storyboards of the environment and interactions among students, teachers, and parents.
The Results
We determined a plan for improving traffic flow and redesigned space accommodations by rearranging seats in the waiting areas. The client implemented the suggested changes in the waiting area at the back of the studio. The new space arrangement provides a more defined area for waiting parents and students. In addition, the client painted the columns in the hallway bright red and added padding to columns to improve visibility and safety.
