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Thunderbolt
Thinking offers a wealth of
skills, techniques, and practical guidance to discover how to turn insights and options
into actions that get results. Here
are how some of our clients have benefited from Thunderbolt Thinking.
Want to
learn more? You can read all
about Thunderbolt Thinking in the book, Thunderbolt Thinking: Electrifying Ideas for
Building an Innovative Workplace. And you can see how real people get real-world
results with our Postcards from Thunderbolt Thinkers and Thunderbolt Library!
Are you building an innovative workplace?
Take our Innovation Survey today!
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| U S West Communications |
| Thunderbolt Thinking was originally brought
in to help the Small Business Group work through product ideation. U S WEST went on to
introduce Thunderbolt Thinking to their Business and Government Services Group,
Carrier Market Unit, Advanced Technologies, and Home Based/Personal Group. Many of the
sessions involved coaching the teams on how to develop new concepts, as well as addressing
specific needs within each unit for operating their business more effectively. Within U S
WEST, Thunderbolt Thinking became a resource for the New Opportunity Development
department. One participant and project initiator commented, "I continue to use the
materials which we produced in our creative sessions. The ideation tools and methods you
taught us have proven themselves quite valuable."You can read more about it...click here to read what
Michelle Mink of U S West Communications does to spice up her presentations!
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| PNCBank Corporation |
| When PNC’s
Corporate Banking division shifted one of its major loan processes from a manual to an
electronic system, a comprehensive online learning program was needed to ensure that users
of the new system could implement the new technology, and to improve their overall
performance and accuracy with the process. Thunderbolt Thinking was brought in to
facilitate an intensive 5-day design program for the online learning system. A
cross-functional team of developers, users, learning experts, managers and
executives—most of whom had never worked together before—was assembled to create
the learning design. The design had to address a diverse
array of learning needs and experience levels, both with the loan process itself and with
technology. In addition,
there were communication and marketing considerations that had to be addressed in order to
promote the new learning system and to ensure that it would be used. The five-day session resulted in a comprehensive
learning design document that outlined the learning objectives and content, thematic
treatment, communication plan, and ambitious deployment plan.The training system was
completed on time, and to date has been highly successful and effective. One of the
clients on the project declared that the facilitation process had enabled them to complete
"1-3 months of work in 5 days." |
| Bristol-Myers
Squibb Australia |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb's commitment to leadership and
Innovation led them to introduce a comprehensive Innovation initiative. The primary goal
of the initiative was to design, develop and implement integrated Innovation enhancements
that continue to position Bristol-Myers Squibb as an organization that provides the
highest-quality health and personal care products. In Phase One of the Sustaining
Innovation initiative, the sessions focused on the development of their Innovation and
Learning Center. During the sessions, the project team developed a vision and goals for
their Center, as well as an organization-wide Innovation process. As they continue the
Sustaining Innovation initiative, they will be well positioned for continued product and
technology leadership. The initiative strategically integrates innovation into every facet
of the organization by developing leaders; enhancing the environment; developing creative
and analytical thinking skills; providing tools to deliver true Innovation; and by
establishing an Innovation Model to integrate Innovation cross-functionally and
cross-culturally. |
| BB&T |
| This North Carolina based bank needed an initiative
that would leverage existing tools and learning technologies with a process that could be
acquired, transferred, and applied. They wanted to build an innovative workplace where
employees could learn and grow, resulting in excellent client relations and profitable
innovations. They also wanted to integrate their long range corporate vision, business
strategies, and values to achieve a high performance culture. Our Strategic Innovation
Process fit with BB&T’s theme, "The Year of the Mind," and our in
depth, hands-on process enabled leaders to focus on transforming the workplace into an
environment that fosters and develops innovation. In an intensive, two-day session we
worked with a team of key stakeholders to create an Innovation Model for BB&T. As
their evaluation feedback indicated, they rated both our approach and quality of content
as above average and outstanding. |
| Ernst & Young |
| Participants of the recent Ernst & Young Annual
Women’s Leadership Conference were introduced to Thunderbolt Thinking in an
interactive session where they developed personal strategies to re-energize their thinking
on a daily basis. The Thunderbolt program focused on helping participants make a
difference in their day-to-day processes, procedures and operations by providing them with
concrete tips and techniques to recharge their work environments and spark new ideas. The
theme of the Conference was "Client Service for Tomorrow," and the audience was
comprised of Ernst & Young Partners and Principals. |
| Inc. Magazine |
| Thunderbolt Thinking: Building an Innovative
Workplace was chosen to be a part of the 17th Annual Inc. 500 Conference as one
of the carefully selected presentations that could provide valuable insight for ensuring
continued success and growth among the Inc. 500. The purpose of the Conference was
to salute the achievement of America's fastest-growing privately held companies, present
and past, who made the Inc. 500 listing. The Conference was built around a two day
program of sessions, receptions, and presentations, designed to provide participants with
new ideas, lively discussions, and opportunities to share thoughts and experiences with
counterparts at other Inc. 500 companies. |
| AT&T (The
Alliance) |
| Thunderbolt Thinking was first introduced at The
Alliance when Pittsburgh Metro Alliance wanted to develop potential strategies to position
the Alliance as a critical resource for AT&T employees’ career growth and
development. Thunderbolt Thinking was next adopted by the New Jersey Alliance for a
similar project. Since then, the national group, the Alliance for Employee Growth and
Development, has relied on the Thunderbolt Thinking training, ideation, and planning
programs on numerous occasions for building creative marketing strategies. This group is
particularly interested in maximizing the input from their individual members, and
building strategies to position the Alliance as a viable resource to enhance personal
development among employees. They continue to use Thunderbolt Thinking, and have found it
to be a valuable, worthwhile experience; in fact, they have already scheduled their next
project. |
| AT&T |
| At an annual meeting of AT&T’s national
General Markets Distribution Group, we conducted an interactive team-building initiative
with the senior Leadership Team. Because of a recent merger of two AT&T divisions, our
session was designed to draw input from each participant, and to facilitate the exchange
of ideas among leaders. We used a unique, interactive exercise, guiding the participants
through an expansive thinking process. In small rotating teams, the participants
collaborated on developing strategies for addressing actual challenges they faced as a
team. The exercise was fast paced and incorporated General Markets Distribution’s
vision and business strategies to achieve world class capabilities in serving the
telemarketing needs of the small business community. Once the group had had ample time to
expand their thinking and develop new ideas, they were given the opportunity to review the
information that had been generated and prioritize the ideas. In a short few hours, this
large national team created several concrete strategies that they were able to take back
to the workplace. |
| ABARTA, Inc. |
| When senior executives at ABARTA wanted to introduce
an initiative to integrate and sustain innovation within every facet of the organization,
they looked to Thunderbolt Thinking Sustaining Innovation. The primary purpose of
the program was to develop a company-wide framework for Innovation that could work in the
diverse array of business and cultures represented in the organization’s various
business units. They needed to ensure that the initiative incorporated their strategic
direction and core values, to actually achieve a high performance culture. To accomplish
this, they held an Executive session focused on building an innovative workplace through a
systematic process that could be customized at many different levels. As a result of the
initiative, the team was able to commit to innovation as a competitive driver within
ABARTA; they developed a clear and concise definition of innovation across ABARTA; and
created an Innovation Model specific to their organization. This initiative will continue
onto Phase Two, when core teams from the business units will focus on implementation. |
| US Steel |
| U.S. Steel has consistently incorporated Thunderbolt
Thinking into their training initiatives. Thunderbolt Thinking was first
introduced in the company’s Leadership 2000 series, designed to provide techniques
for leading to achieve corporate and plant goals, striving for new horizons in the face of
a highly-competitive market, and managing changing employee values. Due to its success, Thunderbolt
Thinking was invited back for U. S. Steel’s Environmental Conference. The
majority of participants reported that they understood how to apply the innovative
thinking concepts to enhance the quality of their thinking on business issues. Since then,
Thunderbolt Thinking has been back at U.S. Steel, and continues to be a resource
for their training initiatives. |
| Honeywell |
| When the Leadership Team of the 1500-employee site
of Honeywell’s Aerospace division received a mandate from corporate to develop annual
site-wide goals and objectives, they called on Thunderbolt Thinking to help them. The
goals and objectives needed to align with both corporate and division direction. In
addition, each member of the site’s Leadership Team was charged with formulating
goals and objectives for his or her department or function. In a fast-paced, rigorous
one-day session, we worked with the Leadership Team to assess the previous year’s
performance and determine priorities. Potential goals were generated and evaluated
according to the site’s criteria and corporate direction. The session resulted in the
development and selection of site goals, and a deployment plan for communicating the goals
to the entire site as well as aligning departmental goals and staff member goals with the
site goals. In addition, two of the
site’s leaders contracted with us to help their departments generate goals and
objectives. Working with a broad and diverse group of managers, engineers and
administrative staff, we helped the site’s Quality function generate a
cross-functional plan that spanned the entire site, and worked with the Human Resources
function to develop priorities and to create a departmental mission statement and
communication plan.
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| Owens Corning |
| Owens-Corning incorporated Thunderbolt Thinking Programs
into their Leadership Development Initiative. Their goal was to help leaders learn to
master specific competencies in order to provide renewed leadership within their
organizations. These competencies included leading for innovation (welcoming new ways to
improve business results), encouraging creativity by building a climate that encourages
the implementation of new ideas, recognizing and fostering non-traditional thinking, and
leading by aligning the organization with change management processes. Thunderbolt
Thinking played an important role in Owens-Corning’s Leadership Development
initiative, providing the managers with usable tools. According to a senior leadership
development consultant the tools provided are "simple, easily transportable, and cost
effective! These tools really work if you let go of your old way of thinking!" Steve
Zirkel of Owens-Corning uses Thunderbolt Thinking
on the job. Click here to find out how!
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| Royal Bank
Financial Group |
| Royal Learning Network has established an aggressive
initiative within their Business Banking University and Area Management University to
provide managers and employees with opportunities for continuous learning. The aim of the
Network is to train employees to be more effective, improve teamwork, and to achieve
performance improvement in the midst of change. Thunderbolt Thinking Training
Programs continue to play a significant role in the Leadership Development curriculum.
Participants of the Thunderbolt Thinking programs have been able to immediately
implement the strategies they learned.Read about Glenn
Blaylock and Marj
Dawson, two Thunderbolt Thinkers at
Royal Bank Financial Group who use Thunderbolt Thinking to make a difference!
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| SmithKline
Beecham Pharma |
| As a multinational manufacturing company in the
pharmaceutical industry, SmithKline actively pursues continuous learning opportunities.
They have decided to feature the Thunderbolt Thinking program as part of their
ongoing offerings. Because the program has generated such positive feedback, it was
recommended to the President of their Consumer Division to help them work through a major
product repositioning/development initiative. Thunderbolt Thinking provided the
techniques they needed to analyze major trends in the marketplace, generate ideas,
formulate an action plan to better position them against their competitors, and
ultimately, move their product back on target. The President reported that the initiative
was one of the most successful he had seen in the company. |
| Teknion Furniture Systems |
| This Toronto-based office furniture manufacturer was
looking for ways to expand its product line and markets. Upon entering into a new product
ideation process, Teknion called upon Thunderbolt Thinking to facilitate a one-day
session. The ultimate goal for the session was to devise breakthrough ideas that would be
implementable over the ensuing 18 months, so it was important for the session to be
structured to maximize both the creative and analytical thinking skills of everyone in the
room. Our session design incorporated a theme—"There’s No Place Like
Home"—which was used to determine the activities for the day. Hands-on
activities alternated with intensive discussions, to ensure that both expansive and
focused outcomes occurred. We guided the participants through a review of key market
trends, and helped them to understand customer needs. In addition, we helped the group
develop a set of key drivers for new product design and development; generate scenarios
for potential future products; select and refine ideas to be developed into 5 – 10
well-defined concepts; and evaluate and prioritize these concepts. The Teknion team left
the session with a solid portfolio of exciting new product concepts, which moved into
refinement and development immediately. |
| American National
Bank |
| American National was first introduced to Thunderbolt
Thinking concepts during a strategy ideation session. At the time, the Bank was in the
midst of a merger and wanted to develop a customer service effort that would ease them
through the transition period. Thunderbolt Thinking helped them move the project
forward, develop ideas on how to break down barriers, and generate strategies to build
trust. This project was so successful that this year they solicited the help of Thunderbolt
Thinking once again, to work through the challenge of redesigning their customer
service delivery process. |
| Schuller
International (Johns Manville) |
| When Schuller International held their annual Health
and Safety Conference they looked to Thunderbolt Thinking to provide tools and
techniques to keep people committed and motivated, to cultivate an attitude of safety, to
be more creative in order to solve the same challenges differently, and to transform fear
into passion. Thunderbolt Thinking was proud to "play an important role in the
most successful conference to date," according to one of the conference planning
coordinators. |
| Canada Life Casualty Insurance
Company |
| As a leading provider of home and automobile
insurance in Canada, this organization faces the daily challenge of staying alert, aware,
and agile in a highly competitive environment. They live in the midst of change. We were
asked to address the senior management team during their annual meeting, focusing our
presentation on ways to welcome, respond to, and be comfortable with change. |
| National Speakers Association |
| The National Speakers Association undertook a
comprehensive strategic planning process to assess its current situation and determine a
direction. Using our fast-paced, intensive ideation process, Thunderbolt Thinking
facilitated NSA’s two-day retreat, guiding a diverse group of Board and staff
members, as well as past presidents of the organization, through a series of rigorous
discussions and exercises that helped them to consider many alternative possibilities for
the organization’s direction, then probe and analyze these possibilities to narrow
down to a succinct organizational focus. Our process focused on implementation of the
organization’s strategic plan. We worked with the leadership to outline a practical
next-step action plan, so that they could immediately begin implementation, and developed
a tracking and monitoring system for NSA to use to ensure ongoing efforts. As a result of
the retreat, NSA was well positioned for success with its strategic planning and growth
efforts.
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| Metropolitan
State College of Denver Alumni Association |
| MSCDAA recently undertook a Strategic Visioning
Initiative with the primary goal of finding a common focus that would jump start the
organization and align its purpose with that of the College and its Foundation. Through a
fast-paced, intensive facilitation process, the Board of Directors defined MSCDAA’s
Core Ideology, including Core Values and Core Purpose. Once this was accomplished, they
were able to move towards generating an Envisioned Future for the Association. They used
this process to help focus their thinking on a specific goal to carry the Association
forward, and then agreed upon a next step action plan that will focus on efficient
operations, ensuring that their visionary work will translate into real outcomes. |
| Wisconsin
League of Financial Institutes (WLFI) |
| When WLFI held their Management Conference they
chose to include Thunderbolt Thinking in their program. Thunderbolt Thinking
was a valuable addition, as they were looking for techniques to help re-energize the way
they work, to understand the concept of strategic thinking to help them "think
outside the box," and to spark fresh perspectives within their organization. The
powerful, interactive Thunderbolt Thinking presentation was described as
"excellent," and "terrific." The CEO went on to say, "Your
presentation and the time we spent with you brought new focus to my life." |
| Big Brothers Big
Sisters of America |
| For the Opening of this national organization’s
Leadership Summit, we provided the keynote presentation. The organization was working to
position itself to double the number of children it served and wanted to provide the
Leadership with an inspiring and informative presentation that would highlight the need
for the breakthrough thinking that would allow them to develop new ways of recruiting and
programming, as well as taking other innovative steps toward growth. After the
presentation, our contact described the presentation as "refreshing and
authentic" and said, "you inspired many to new breakthroughs." |
| Ontario
Pharmacists Association (OPA) |
| OPA has used Thunderbolt Thinking concepts
and techniques on numerous occasions to help work through goal setting, building a
governance structure, aligning the organization with change, and planning for the future.
The strategic planning sessions with OPA have been so successful that they have
recommended Thunderbolt Thinking to two other major organizations in their field:
National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities, and Ontario College of
Pharmacists. Each of these additional organizations has incorporated Thunderbolt
Thinking into their strategic planning processes. |
| American Society of Association
Executives (ASAE) |
| ASAE has used Thunderbolt Thinking in several
of their national conferences including: 72nd Annual Meeting & Exposition ("New
Thinking for the Quality Age"); 73rd Annual Meeting and Exposition; Symposium on
Competitive Marketing; Management & Technology Conferences 1996; and the upcoming ASAE
Chicago 1997. Participants of these programs typically include association executives
representing many different industries. Resulting from the impact of the Thunderbolt
Thinking concepts, several executives who’ve attended have invited Thunderbolt
Thinking to their own associations. Such associations include Power Transmission
Distributors Association, Indiana Realtors Association, and International Sleep Products
Association. |
| Ontario Society for Training
and Development (OSTD) |
| Recently, a Thunderbolt Thinking presentation
was delivered to OSTD at an Executive Breakfast. Participants of the session included
senior level HRD managers, directors, and vice presidents. According to the group’s
evaluations, the session was highly interactive, interesting and informative, engaging,
and effective. One person commented, "I’ll be putting it to use tomorrow
morning!" OSTD has already booked another Thunderbolt Thinking presentation
for later this year. |
| International Society
for Performance Improvement (ISPI) |
| Inspired by an article on Thunderbolt Thinking
called "The Power of Managing Your Thinking," ISPI decided that they were
interested in hearing more. They opted for an interactive presentation geared towards HR
managers and directors in training and development. They specifically wanted to learn
strategies for how to do more with less, and how to make meetings more effective. The
presentation was a great success. Comments included: "Thunderbolt Thinking
delivers a very powerful message, all the while packing more fun into a workshop than
I’ve had in a long, long, time." |
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Thunderbolt Thinking, Inc.
427 River View Executive Park
Trenton, NJ 08611 USA
Tel: (609) 396-7941 Fax: (609) 396-6260 |
E-mail: thunderboltthinking@tecker.com
© 2001 Thunderbolt Thinking, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thunderbolt Thinking® is a
Registered Trademark of Thunderbolt Thinking, Inc. |
