INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR CORPORATE & SOCIAL CHANGE

The Challenge:

Our client was a large, metropolitan police force wishing to set the tone and tempo for an innovative leadership development program to empower its officers and to foster collaboration throughout the region.    

The HBC Solution:

HBC delivered the keynote speech on “Leadership in a High Reliability Organization,” focusing on the implicit sacrifice required by personnel serving in this type of occupation.  Sharing best practices from the arena of federal operations, HBC addressed acculturation, retention, morale, and mission achievement topics.

The Result:

With a high impact, three-hour presentation, the members of the host organization and several invited guests had a renewed commitment to collaboration across the region.  Officers commented on how the presentation resonated with them personally, and the clear impression that their leadership cared enough about them and their personal development to bring HBC in to kick off the program.

The Challenge:

When HBC learned in 2013 that the incidence of teenagers manipulated into sex trafficking was on the rise in Northern Virginia, we approached various influential stakeholders in the community to rally their support behind rolling out an awareness and prevention campaign addressing this issue.  We needed to create relevant messages that would receive support from a variety of stakeholders including Fairfax County government offices, police, and public schools, community organizations, and faith-based groups.   

The HBC Solution:

To grab the public’s attention, we crafted a campaign that included several unique elements:  framing the issue in terms of “typical teens” and “teen sex trafficking” rather than the standard term “commercial sexual exploitation of teens”; using a community intervention approach to “just ask” if something looks suspicious; and themes tailored to appeal visually, emotionally, and logically to three separate audiences of typical teens, parents, and the community.  Communication products included branding, a web site, posters, brochures, handouts, a public service announcement, and wrist band campaigns.

The Result:

Within the first year, key stakeholders were on-board, messages were widely disseminated across the community, and, by fall 2014, one perpetrator had been apprehended as a result of the initiative.  We ensured that the content was both authoritative and relevant by including perspective provided by a former sex trafficker and recovering survivors in addition to guidance from professionals in the field.  Link to the website at www.justaskva.org

The Challenge:

A top-ranked waste management and sustainability company in the US approached HBC with a plan to create a senior leadership development program.  The stated goal was to select and train high-potential upper echelon managers to enhance the firm’s position as an industry thought leader in innovation, process improvement, and customer service for decades to come.

The HBC Solution:

HBC used an inductive training approach for adult learners to tailor a series of six seminars spanning 15 months.  Senior managers attend quarterly two-day sessions leveraging best practices from other industries in technological innovation, business collaboration, community partnership, and change management.  Learning is designed to convey these lessons while enhancing personal leadership growth and development.

The Result:

The organization benefitted immediately from the clarification of leadership values and behaviors. Participants were able to take practical, actionable techniques back to their work units with a new framework upon which to base and evaluate their own leadership and management decisions.  With a new common vocabulary which they themselves defined and accepted, they created an instant coaching and feedback community to both solve problems and share best practices.