MCD Consulting

My services include business coaching and leadership coaching. 

As a business coach,  I work with organisations to help them improve the efficiency and quality of their services/products. I use quality management (LEAN) tools and methods to assist with problem solving, reducing waste, adding value and increasing efficiency. 
As a starting point I help organisational leaders and senior managers to prioritize the strategic areas for improvement. I then work with a Lean project team over an agreed number of weeks, introducing them to Lean tools and techniques and supporting them to achieve measurable results.

In addition to training on Lean management and group facilitation of activities such as process mapping and value-stream mapping, I draw attention to the systemic and cultural patterns of the organisation and support the development of change agendas that address operational and cultural change as well as employee engagement

I offer leadership and executive coaching to support individuals and teams to develop in a way that leads to increased motivation and performance as well as accountability for continuous improvement. All coaching programmes are scoped, measured and evaluated to show return on investment.

Lean | Leadership Development Coach

Jigsaw Better Business

Lean Management Coach. Leadership/Executive Coach.

Anne Sullivan Foundation

INTERNAL POLICY DEVELOPMENT 
_________

Creating, communicating and reviewing all organisational policies.
Inducting and training employees and team leaders in organisational policies and supervision
Auditing the extent to which policies are implemented throughout the organisation

ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC POLICY
____________

Leading the campaign for the recognition of deafblindness in Ireland which involved:

Facilitating and increasing inter-agency collaboration
Building relationships with connections with people who are deafblind around Ireland
Developing and facilitating Advocacy Working Groups
Lobbying members of government and liaising with politicians at local and national level to ensure that deafblindness is recognised and there is a change in public policY to reflect this.
Raising awareness of deafblindness among the public and professional bodies through organisation of awareness events and deafblind awareness training
Management of social media accounts 
Writing articles, submitting work for publication 
Establishing relationships with key people
Participating in research

Policy and Advocacy Lead

Anne Sullivan Centre

Project work was assigned by the CEO, whereby I led and developed processes and systems to improve the quality and efficiency of the service provided by the organisation. This required me to have specific change management skills as I worked with both front-line staff and management on all projects. Role involved provision of regular formal mentoring to front-line social care workers.

Mentor/Project Lead

Business Coach | Leadership Coaching, Lean Management

As owner of MCD Consulting, I provide Lean business consultancy, leadership coaching and training to organizations who are looking for external support with process improvement, people development and strategic planning. 

I have quite a unique skill-set: Lean Management combined with Leadership Development and Organizational Psychology. In other words, I can help with both the process and the people side of  business.

I offer training in LEAN thinking and LEAN tools and I work actively work alongside teams to guide and support them to improve systems, processes and communications internally. 

I provide team training workshops on organizational behaviour related areas including coaching, mentoring, vision/mission/values, organizational culture, strategic planning and performance management. I also deliver team coaching and individual leadership/executive coaching programmes using psychometric assessments and scaling techniques to measure impact.

There is a vast difference between continuous improvement initiatives and continuous improvement cultures‼ 

Of course every business must start somewhere but one-off projects are simply not enough to bring about real lasting change and improvement in organisations. 

Continuous improvement never ends- it is BUILT INTO systems and activities so that it becomes second nature to every employee   

Building a culture that values continuous improvement requires two main resources: 1) a strong internal quality management framework and 2) great leaders at all levels of the organisation who are both people and process oriented....and who communicate effectively with each other to bring about a systemic approach to business process improvement 

The chosen quality management framework can differ....

Agile works for some. Lean works for others. A combination of approaches work for others who combine tools and techniques to create their own unique 'Our Way' approach.

I admit I always recommend incorporating PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) but I  like when a company thinks about, creates, understands and owns their approach.

Oh AND...
Leadership development IS required to support internal leaders to drive a continuous improvement culture.

A good quality management framework goes a long way toward helping leaders shape this culture but leaders NEED training and coaching to shape the culture appropriately. 

💡Here are a few tips I give leadership coaching clients who are tasked with driving business process improvement:

a) Identify the competencies that team members are expected to exhibit consistently in support of continuous improvement. Draw these up together with the team and visualise your team agreement.

b) Involve every employee in continuously identifying improvement opportunities and improving the processes they have ownership of. Check in on a 1:1 basis and ensure everyone's voice is heard in team meetings. 

c) Encourage team members to propose improvement ideas and recognize valuable contributions. Be specific with feedback and let people know the impact they have had. Keep encouraging those who are not as improvement-focused and build their confidence.

d) Ensure all employees understand their roles and how their performance helps the company to move forward. Use swimlane diagrams to represent processes and discuss processes and roles regularly as a team. Encourage cross-training.

e) Create an environment where continuous improvement conversations are the norm rather than the exception. 
....

Any tips yourself?? Leave them in the comments below 🙏

Credit: Heathcote 2017: Creating Baselines Through PDCA Cycle Through Feedback

Catherine McDonald

Owner@MCD Consulting: Lean Leadership & Executive Coach | LinkedIn Top Voice| Lean Solutions Podcast Co-Host| Passionate about understanding organizational behaviour

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