Upcoming Events

The Culture Playbook: Transforming Organizational Culture to Achieve Complex Business Goals

January 22 | 1 – 4 p.m. | In-Person Workshop

In today’s dynamic business environment, cultural misalignment can be a major barrier to success. Organizations often invest heavily in implementations and transformations, only to find that cultural resistance, poor employee engagement, and a lack of workforce adaptability prevent them from realizing their goals. Misaligned cultures can stifle innovation, slow down decision-making, and lead to high employee turnover - ultimately impacting customer satisfaction, competitiveness, and long-term growth.

The Sterling Advisory Services Culture Playbook Workshop will empower leaders to tackle these challenges head-on. Participants will identify their organization’s culture profile, map out cultural strengths and gaps, and explore targeted strategies to better align culture with strategic objectives. Through hands-on exercises, leaders will develop practical, actionable plans to foster adaptability, enhance employee engagement, and build a customer-focused, results-driven culture—unlocking the full potential of their organization’s transformational investments.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify and Analyze Organizational Culture. Recognize their organization’s culture profile, assess alignment with strategic goals, and uncover cultural strengths and gaps.
  2. Develop Practical Strategies for Culture Change. Explore actionable solutions to bridge cultural gaps and prioritize changes that enhance workforce adaptability, innovation, and engagement.
  3. Develop a Culture Action Plan. Build a tailored plan to address cultural challenges, set measurable goals, and drive impactful changes within their organization.

Dion S. Charles is a seasoned Organizational Change Management professional with 18 years of experience driving organizational transformation. A 2006 graduate of Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Mr. Charles specializes in guiding companies through successful transitions and fostering adaptability and resilience.

Throughout his career, Mr. Charles has collaborated with executives to implement strategic initiatives that enhance growth and operational efficiency. With a deep understanding of change management best practices, he excels in developing and executing strategies that address business transformation's people, process, and technology aspects.

As the founder of Sterling Advisory Services and author of Learning to Manage Organizational Change: A Practical Guide for Project Leaders and Change Professionals, Mr. Charles is committed to helping organizations navigate the complexities of change and thrive in an ever-evolving business landscape.

This is a limited-capacity, in-person only workshop on The Ohio State University campus. The interest form for this workshop is now closed. If you have questions or wish to be added to the waitlist, please contact Wendy Douglass at douglass.162@osu.edu.

Reversing the Mental Health Crisis in the Workplace

February 5 | 12 – 1 p.m. | Zoom Webinar

Saying that our young people are struggling doesn’t begin to scratch the surface, so this talk is given with a strong sense of urgency as we have less than a decade to act before it’s too late. The good news is that businesses are positioned as the key to reversing it, and you’ll walk away empowered and ready to take action!

In this presentation, clincal psychologist Dr. Andrea Mata will discuss:

  • How we got here (youth mental health crisis)
  • What has been done
  • What still needs to be done
  • How every business leader, coworker, boss, and more can take action and make a difference!

Attendees will learn takeaways, including: 

  • 18 years of coddling a youth will only make employers’ jobs 10x more challenging.
  • Creating environments that have high expectations and high support will set anyone up for success. 
  • Anyone and everyone can play a role in turning this youth mental health crisis around. 

Dr. Andrea Mata, statistically, should not be as successful as she is. The daughter of a Mexican immigrant, she grew up in a gang-infested nine-block unincorporated neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. As a result, Dr. Andrea Mata draws on her tough Southside of Chicago upbringing to empower families, businesses, and today’s youth. With degrees from Valparaiso University and Kent State University, she founded BrightSpot Families and collaborated with the Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Toledo. Her ultimate mission is to throat-punch the youth mental health crisis! She is also the author of the best-selling book: "The No. 2 Parenting Book: Practical Tips for the Pooped Out Parent" (available now on Amazon). A married mother of three, Andrea champions a balanced approach to life, prioritizing psychological health and deep, meaningful connections.

Register Here

Don't Skimp on the Hoshin: Strategic Planning for Long-Term Success

March 5 | 12 – 1 p.m. | Zoom Webinar 

Hoshin planning can be an intimidating component of lean to implement. Sure, organizations are quick to start daily stand-ups and embrace structured problem solving to root out waste—but strategic planning requires a commitment to thoroughly think through where they're headed and how to get there. And who has time for that when today's problems must be solved and current customer demand must be met?  

Unfortunately, if an organization doesn't take time to clearly understand its true north and fails to have clearly defined KPIs and accountability reviews, it could be stuck in a world of incremental process improvement initiatives.

This webinar will explore how a small investment in hoshin/strategic planning and thinking through where an organization should be headed can pay tremendous dividends. We'll show it doesn't matter how big or small an organization is and show that it isn't even necessary for the organization’s leadership to be expert or fluent with Hoshin. We will show—with evidence—how implementing hoshin helped Michelle’s business define its true north, refine its strategy, and observe exponential growth in identified KPIs after implementing a hoshin plan and accountability review.    

Takeaways will include:

  • An understanding of the value of hoshin
  • Firm evidence supported with data that hoshin implementation delivered significant (breakthrough) financial improvements
  • A starter kit for asking the right questions for a hoshin session(s)
  • A playbook for reviewing the hoshin plan and reviewing for accountability without an X-matrix (for those who find it confusing or intimidating to follow)
  • An appreciation for when it is okay to modify or re-think a KPI or goal

Jason Risser is a lean practitioner and master black belt who has lived in the process management/Operational Excellence world for three decades, executing continuous improvement initiatives for multiple organizations in different industries (military, logistics, credit card marketing, and insurance) and implementing the Lean Management System for multiple organizations.  He holds degrees from Ohio State and Bluffton College and loves helping teams on their Op-Ex journey.  Jason is active in church ministries, is a member of the American Legion, and passionately volunteers time for organizations benefitting veterans, leading the Military Associate Resource Group in Central Ohio for Nationwide among other opportunities. He lives in Dublin with his wife and daughter and loves to travel in his spare time.   

Michelle Risser is a licensed therapist in private practice and a multi-passionate entrepreneur as a sole proprietor of 2 businesses, including a mental health therapy practice as well as a coaching business. She believes that diversified income streams are the key to more impact and less burnout for mental health professionals. Michelle is passionate about helping therapists step into their expertise as approved CEU providers so they can have more income and more impact! She’s a graduate of Ohio State and the creator of several courses as well as her group mentorship program, The Therapist Educators Academy. Michelle lives with her family in Central Ohio, rows on a rowing team, is a cat lady with no cats, is obsessed with knitting, and still finds time to volunteer for the American Red Cross and play guitar.

Register Here

Building an Intentional OpEx Culture: Bridging People, Process, & Technology

March 5 | 12 – 1 p.m. | Zoom Webinar 

In the pursuit of operational excellence, companies invest significant resources to launch programs that include software deployments, process optimization, and training. Yet leadership teams are often markedly disappointed with the results. Well before drafting the project proposal and timeline, it is crucial to assess and determine whether the company’s current culture realistically supports its strategy and ultimate goals. Decades of OpEx experience have taught Carol Christobek and Chhevi Sharma that people, processes, and technological improvements must be reinforced by and aligned with an INTENTIONAL culture to achieve success.

This webinar will focus on developing an intentional culture capable of continuously adapting and evolving. Carol and Chhevi will describe the concept of Intentional Culture and illustrate the classic “culture quadrant” (Command & Control, Chaotic, Accidental, and Intentional) relative to OpEx initiatives. 

Further, this session will highlight the four Culture facets of the speakers’ OpEx model and discuss how each cultural characteristic fosters a continuously improving organizational culture aligned with the company’s strategy, objectives, and plans. 

Attendees will learn:

  • Why people are at the center of any existing organizational culture
  • Why an intentional culture is critical to sustaining operational and organizational excellence
  • How to recognize their organization’s current culture and place it within the culture quadrant
  • The keys to developing an intentional culture capable of adapting and evolving to support continuous improvement

Carol Christobek (Process Driven Performance) and Chhevi Sharma (The Reflection Group) have a combined 50+ years of experience in operational excellence in a variety of manufacturing and distribution industries. Their expertise spans numerous functions and disciplines, including finance, governance, supply chain, quality, IT, HR, EHS and they have partnered with business teams around the world. After decades in corporate roles, they are now independent consultants who specialize in leading projects to improve operational performance for small to mid-size manufacturing companies.

Register Here

Save the Date

February 19 | Tour - Location to be announced! (In-Person Only; Limited Capacity)

April 8 -10 | COE Summit 2025

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