• What we do:
  • We address critical business issues by correcting an organization‘s Master System. Read more >

   

• The kinds of problems we solve:
  • We address critical issues — the ones that keep you up at night.
  • There are literally as many critical problems as there are organizations that have them, and yet we have found that every organization we have ever studied processes them in the same basic ways.
  • Many organizations seek “topic experts” who may have the same mindset or assumptions that underlie the organization‘s problems.

   

• Industries we work in.
  • We have worked in every industry, and we have found that though industry issues can be very complex and unique, all organizations make the same basic errors in handling their challenges.
  • For this reason, we believe that it is more important to have resources who are expert in fundamental systems, rather than resources who are industry experts (and who may be stuck in the same incorrect assumptions that got the organization into trouble in the first place).

   

• Our approach: root causes.
  • Many organizations look for consulting firms to implement a solution they have already formed (e.g., “We need to improve our customer service training”).
  • In our experience, somewhere around 95% of consulting projects are started this way.
  • These pre-formed solutions are often based on incorrect assumptions, and weak data or no data, which leads to addressing the wrong causes.

   

• Our approach: collaborative.
  • We undertake all our work in collaboration with our clients.
  • This means that our joint solutions are stronger because they are based on both our client‘s expertise and our expertise.
  • This also means that we teach our clients what we know so they can keep improving on their own.

   

• Our approach: change at any level.
  • Change can begin at the top, but it can also begin in the middle.
  • If you are a mid-level executive with budgetary authority, we may be able to help you become a catalyst for organization-wide change.

   

• Over the years, we have found that there are five characteristics of organizations that set themselves apart in longevity, profitability, and adaptability:

1. If there is a significant problem, they are willing to admit it.
2. If they haven’t been able to solve that problem or solve it completely, they are willing to admit it.
3. If they can‘t solve it, they don‘t give up and downgrade the problem to “just the way ___ (the economy, this industry, business, etc.) is.”
4. They are strong enough to ask for outside help when they need it.
5. They take the time to get acquainted with outsiders who may be able to help most effectively, but whom they may know (and trust) the least.

• We can get acquainted with each other a number of low-risk ways:

1. Come see us in action at a public seminar or industry conference, where we actually demonstrate our different approach. Read more >
2. Engage us in a dialogue about your industry and its generic problems, and let us demonstrate how even our dialogues are uniquely productive and informative.
3. Engage us to present at your organization on a topic of interest, and let us show you our unusually interactive and collaborative approach.
4. Engage us to work with you on a small-scale demonstration project, and let us help you see the issues in a brand new perspective with new insights into unseen causes and solutions. Read more >
5. Invite us to discretely observe any group of your choosing within your organization (executive team, work group, steering committee, etc.); we will show you how we measure the information processing-errors of that group, and how those errors create or maintain the group‘s — and the organization‘s — problems. Read more >

• Zenith was started in 1962 as a research firm to study how groups process information of different kinds.
• We found that every organization made the same fundamental errors in dealing with certain kinds of information — High-Intensity Information (Read more >). This led us to find a new protocol for dealing with this kind of information.
• Over the last 25 years, we have accumulated scientific measurements on over 1200 organizations and over 10,000 individuals. These organizations are of every size, of every type (nonprofit, government, and private sector), in every industry, and in every country.
• We have offices across the country.
• We are a distributed organization: each office is a full peer with each other one. We have no central office or headquarters.

Q: How long does a typical engagement last?

A: Our experience has shown us that there is no “typical” engagement, and no “typical” organization. Each organization has different issues, complexities, and expectations of our work together. Some specialized projects can last as little as a day. Others might last more than a year.

Q: How do you begin your work?

A: See “How we work,” above.

Q: How do you charge? How much do you charge?

A: That depends on the kind of work we do together; some work is easier to do and doesn’t take as long. Because we work on so many kinds of business issues, it’s impossible to tell in advance how long a project will take or what resources it will require.

We have noticed that the topic of fees comes up quickly in some conversations. We have found that this can be a way for an organization to disqualify us in order to avoid looking further at the problems that may need to be solved.

Q: What industries do you specialize in?

A: We are not big fans of industry specialization in consulting — we have seen a number of problems with that model. We focus our knowledge and skill on organization Master Systems, which we discovered 40 years ago, and which we believe control everything an organization does. Every organization has one, and doesn‘t know it. We work in every industry, and we have also worked in every kind of human organization as part of our research: business organizations, government, nonprofits, churches, schools and universities, professional sports teams, and families. This has given us insight that few seem to have, and has shown us, over and over, that the Master System is the most powerful force in all human groupings.

Our firm has had a number of other consulting firms as clients over the years, and we have studied an additional several dozen firms. We have noted a number of interesting patterns in the industry:

• Our data suggests that the that most critical issues in an organization don't have to do with industry issues; they don't even have to do with so-called "topical" issues (such as in “finance,” “business model,” “marketing,” “pricing strategy,” “competitive position,” etc.).
• All the consulting firms that we have studied (including some of the most highly regarded in the business) use the same basic “intervention strategies” as they work with clients, whether they be collaborative consultants or “black box” consultants. Our data shows that these strategies tend to have low absorption and commitment rates with clients.
• The consulting firms we studied have the same underlying dynamics that cause their clients to need to hire them. We have even studied some firms that had deep internal conflicts, bureaucracies, and political turmoil (some of these are not large firms, and some of them are the best-known in the world).

We are certainly “black sheep” in this regard — we do not really share the enthusiasm many firms have about their work or about the profession. We feel there are many unseen, undiscussed problems in the profession, even among the best of us — our own firm's heated and difficult internal work has shown us that. We feel we all have a long way to go.

Q: You say that you can work in any level in an organization. Doesn’t the kind of change you talk about come from the top?

A: We don’t believe so. The common assumption is that senior management controls the organization, and therefore senior management initiates and controls significant change. Our data and our experience simply doesn’t support this — the Master System controls senior management and the organization, not the other way around. We have many examples of client organizations where significant, lasting change actually was initiated in the middle by disrupting the Master System, which in turn opened many windows of change throughout the entire organization.

• Phone us toll free: 877/898.4300
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