Signature Leaders, a global leadership development firm focused on developing top leaders to drive greater impact in their roles and organizations, has been acquired by TiER1 Impact, an employee-owned professional services development company headquartered in Covington, Kentucky.

The partnership brings together two organizations whose cultures and values are closely aligned. Signature Leaders joins TiER1 Impact as an independently operated entity, which will continue to provide Fortune 1000 companies with distinctive development experiences that accelerate high-potential leaders into next-level leadership roles. The acquisition provides Signature with additional complementary offerings for its clients, while adding scale and long-term investment support.

Founded in 2013, Signature Leaders was originally created to fill a critical gap in accelerating women into next-level leadership roles. Bolstered by a strong track record of enabling growth and career acceleration through cross-company, cross-industry cohorts, Signature has since expanded its offerings to include custom leadership programs for leaders of all genders. Today, Signature partners with more than 150 global organizations to grow high-potential leaders and strengthen succession pipelines, with more than 9,000 leaders advancing their careers through a Signature experience.

Graduates of Signature Leaders join a global alumni network of senior leaders, CEOs, board directors, and executives from 63 countries across six continents. Designed for peer-to-peer connection and knowledge exchange, the network enables leaders to learn from one another, deepen relationships, and share collective wisdom in support of stronger leadership impact and healthier, higher-performing organizations.

Signature will partner closely with TiER1 Performance, also a TiER1 Impact company. TiER1 Performance is a 300-plus person transformation consulting firm that supports organizations through complex change, including culture and organizational design, enterprise-wide learning, and frontline leadership development. Known for long-term client partnerships, TiER1 works with organizations to align people, process, and technology, so transformation efforts deliver lasting results.

“From the beginning, we’ve believed leadership is personal and that people are the differentiator,” said Carol Seymour, Founder of Signature Leaders. “Joining TiER1 Impact feels like a natural next chapter. We were intentional in choosing a partner whose values, culture, and long-term mindset align so closely with our own. This partnership allows us to preserve everything our clients value about Signature while providing extended growth offerings to them.”

“From an operational and growth perspective, this partnership strengthens our foundation while staying true to who we are,” said Rob Seymour, President and COO of Signature Leaders. “Together, we can thoughtfully scale our impact, invest in our people and programs, and continue delivering exceptional experiences for the leaders and organizations we serve.”

TiER1 Impact invests in, develops, and grows purpose-driven professional services firms with a long-term outlook. Each TiER1 Impact company plays a distinct role in helping organizations build healthier, more holistically successful businesses.

“Signature Leaders is exactly the kind of organization we look to partner with,” said Greg Harmeyer, CEO of TiER1 Impact. “They are known for excellence, authenticity, and deep care for their clients and communities. We are excited to support Signature’s continued growth while honoring its independence, culture, and leadership approach.”

For Signature Leaders’ clients and partners, the acquisition means continuity in existing programs and relationships, alongside expanded options for support when navigating transformation, culture change, or leadership development at scale.

Frequently Asked Questions

What differentiates Signature Leaders’ approach to leadership development?

Signature Leaders’ programs help leaders understand who they are, how they are experienced by others, and how to lead authentically in increasingly complex environments. This learning is reinforced through a global alumni network of senior leaders, CEOs, board directors, and executives from 63 countries across six continents that is designed for peer-to-peer connection and knowledge exchange.

Will Signature Leaders continue to operate independently?

Yes. Signature Leaders will continue to operate as an independently operating affiliated company within TiER1 Impact, maintaining its brand, team, programs, faculty, and client relationships.

Will clients experience changes in how Signature Leaders partners with them?

No. Clients can expect the same highly effective Signature experiences and relationships, including programs that accelerate high-potential leaders, strengthen leadership succession pipelines, and provide custom leadership development for organizations.

What does this mean for Signature Leaders’ alumni network?

Signature’s global alumni network of more than 9,000 leaders remains a priority. This partnership strengthens Signature’s ability to invest in and grow the community. For alumni leading, contributing to, or navigating transformation initiatives, it expands the support and capabilities available to them and their organizations, when and where it is helpful.

About Signature Leaders

Signature Leaders is a global leadership development firm grounded in the belief that leaders who lead from their unique gifts create trust, belonging, and extraordinary performance. Founded in 2013 to accelerate women into next-level leadership, Signature Leaders has evolved to serve leaders of all genders and now supports more than 9,000 leaders across six continents. Through intentionally designed programs, experienced practitioner faculty, and a global alumni community, Signature helps leaders lead authentically, build trust, and create lasting impact within their organizations.

About TiER1 Impact

TiER1 Impact is an employee-owned, professional services development company headquartered in Covington, Kentucky. Its purpose is to enable healthy, high-performing businesses through the development of purpose-driven, people-centric professional services firms. The TiER1 Impact portfolio of companies includes TiER1 Performance, HSD Metrics, Synthoni AI, and XPLANE Spain.

ERP implementations don’t succeed because of perfect plans or flawless training. They succeed because sponsors lead in a way that gives the organization confidence, clarity, and cover. The most effective sponsors show up differently from the start. They make visible choices that keep the work moving and the organization grounded through the uncertainty of the transformation.

These three actions separate great sponsors from well-intentioned ones.

1. Reduce ambiguity early.

Most sponsors underestimate how much uncertainty exists throughout the organization. They believe people need more information when they actually need orientation.

To reduce ambiguity and uncertainty early, great sponsors:

• Name what’s changing and what’s not
• Make early, transparent calls on priorities, sequencing, and decision rights

These actions help stabilize the environment and prevent teams from burning energy by trying to interpret the change instead of preparing for it.

What this sounds like: “We will stand up the new process. We will adjust performance expectations. And we’ll solve the capacity tradeoffs together.”

2. Give teams access, not just direction.

Teams don’t need more presentations. They need proximity to decision makers.

Great sponsors:

• Create short, recurring touchpoints with key functional and plant leaders
• Respond quickly to escalations
• Remove blockers without making teams re-justify the need for help
• Stay close enough to see risks before they become crises

Access to decision makers reduces swirl. When teams can get answers, they can move forward together faster.

What this sounds like: “If this slows you down, I want to know. Bring it forward early, and I’ll handle the escalation.”

3. Treat resistance as intelligence.

Resistance isn’t always a sign of poor buy-in. It can also be an insightful way to discover where the organization’s operational reality and implementation design are out of sync.

Great sponsors listen for patterns like:

• Where are people worried about the new process?
• What feels unrealistic in the workflow?
• What pain points are emerging as training progresses?
• Where is the legacy system still more efficient?

Use resistance to sharpen decisions and refine the deployment plan, not to judge readiness.

What this sounds like: “If we’re hearing this repeatedly, it’s pointing to something we need to understand. Let’s dig into it.” 

ERP sponsorship is a leadership role, not a status role.

Great sponsors don’t just authorize the implementation; they steward it. They don’t just validate decisions; they align teams to them. They don’t just broadcast the change; they model it before anyone else is ready. When sponsors lead this way, teams feel protected, the project gains momentum, and the business emerges stronger than it started.

ERP programs test the maturity of leadership long before they test the maturity of the technology. Great sponsors know that—and they lead like it.

Learn what a proactive change leadership approach looks like during ERP implementations in this article, or drop us a line in the form below to chat with a TiER1 team member about your goals for your next ERP implementation.  

ERP implementations rarely get derailed by technology. More often, a set of predictable pitfalls quietly compound until the go-live date becomes a moment of intense strain and heightened scrutiny. At this point, leaders want to jump in to diagnose and fix the issues—but it’s too late.

The irony is that these mistakes aren’t dramatic failures. They’re subtle, reasonable assumptions that simply don’t hold up in the transformation process. Here are three common scenarios that leaders must navigate during ERP implementations—and tips for taking a proactive change leadership approach.

1. Prepare your leaders to lead the change.

Leaders sometimes equate alignment with readiness—that because they agree on the system being implemented and the timeline in which it’ll happen, they feel ready to lead the implementation.

• True readiness, however, requires a shared understanding of:
• How ways of working will be disrupted
• Which roles will change most significantly
• Where accountability will shift
• What decisions will need to be made faster, differently, or by different people
• What sacrifices need to be made to meet the go-live date

Without this clarity, leaders may unintentionally send mixed messages, which can cause confusion, resistance, or stalled momentum for their teams.

Proactive approach: Prioritize leadership readiness as the first project deliverable. Ensure leaders have a shared understanding of not only the benefits of implementing the ERP but also the impacts the implementation will have on the organization and its people, roles, and ways of working.

2. Identify the organization’s capacity to absorb the change.

Executives typically grasp the scope of the transformation, but it’s more difficult to understand the pressure that it’ll place on the operational system and the organization’s bandwidth to metabolize the amount of change. Plants must continue to run smoothly and customers still expect consistency, but the employees who make those operations possible are now also tasked with learning new ways of working in support of the new system.

When ambitious timelines collide with exhausted teams, the implementation becomes something people survive rather than embrace.

Proactive approach: Calibrate implementation timelines to organizational capacity, not just the desired go-live date. Underestimating bandwidth is a common pitfall; adjusting for it is effective change leadership.

3. View resistance as a source of insight.

Resistance is almost always viewed as something to overcome. But during ERP implementations, resistance can be a diagnostic insight that tells you exactly where the process, training plan, decision flow, or communication is misaligned with the realities of how your organization operates.

Leaders who see resistance as data accelerate the process by uncovering the real blockers early.

Proactive approach: Treat resistance as an opportunity to uncover what’s not working and why. It’s rarely the loudest voices who reveal the truth; more often, it’s the uncomfortable themes that keep resurfacing.

ERP success is driven by proactive change leadership.

When leaders attune themselves to the right signals—readiness, capacity, and the insights embedded in resistance—the implementation moves faster, adoption is stronger, and the organization becomes more capable, not just more automated.

ERP is a leadership transformation disguised as a systems transformation. Those who understand that distinction set their organizations up for success that sustains long after go live.

Explore the role sponsors play in successful ERP implementations in this article, or drop us a line in the form below to chat with a TiER1 team member about your leadership transformation journey. 

Don’t view this in a critical way, but understand most people were never shown how to work with these tools effectively.

Here’s what we’ve seen consistently at TiER1: Someone opens ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or Claude; types a request; gets a response and thinks, Meh. Impressive tech, but it can’t really do what I do. And then goes back to doing everything manually.

Meanwhile, someone down the hall is using the same tool to produce work that’s indistinguishable from their best thinking. It’s the same technology, but with a completely different result.

The difference in results isn’t talent. It’s setup.

Generative AI predicts what comes next based on what you give it. Therefore, thin input leads to thin output. But when you pour in real context and let AI push back with questions and ideas of its own, something shifts. The output starts to feel like it came from you. Because in a sense, it did. You just had a thinking partner that helped get you there faster.

That’s what our Five-Step Prompting Process does. It’s a workflow for curating context so AI can give what you need more effectively. It’s not a robot doing your job, but more like a synthetic teammate that’s augmenting your thinking.

The Five-Step Prompting Process:

1. End Goal Alignment: Brain dump everything. Goals, constraints, background, and documents. Messy is fine.
2. Active Listening: Have AI tell you what it thinks you’re trying to do. Catch misalignment before it wastes your time.
3. Clarifying Questions: Let AI interview you. It’ll ask questions you didn’t think to ask yourself.
4. Enhancement Ideas: Ask “What would make the output better?”
5. Execute & Validate: Now you have a better result. But you own the output. Verify what matters. “AI said so” is never a valid excuse or reason.

You don’t need to take all five steps for every interaction, but you want these reflexive habits on tap when the stakes are high (like landing a major account or a six-month deliverable) and for work that actually moves the needle.

Want to learn more?

We used step three while writing in this article. It wasn’t high-stakes, but the habit was there.

These Five Steps are part of 25 super user habits we teach at TiER1. They work across platforms (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Grok), roles, and industries. This is how we’re equipping people for the future of work. And, honestly, it’s working better than we expected.

Fill out the form below and someone from our team will contact you.

Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Society for Human Resource Management’s People + Strategy Journal, and was co-authored by Gina Max, senior vice president and chief people officer at Knauf North America.

Organizational transformation and growth are only possible with intentional organizational design. And while this process often involves restructuring, simply creating a new organizational chart is not enough.

An organization operates like a living system, where various interconnected performance levers—roles, systems, processes, culture, leadership, and talent—all work together. Shifting one lever affects the others. For example, if a company shifts its strategy from serving customers based on geography to focusing on product needs, merely adjusting the organization’s structure in isolation will create a misalignment of talent. Structure alone cannot support this shift. All performance levers must be aligned to work together in harmony.

So where should leaders start? Before focusing on the performance levers, the first step is to define the strategy that will drive the organization’s design. From there, it’s critical to assess your organization’s current design and what needs to change to drive the strategy forward.

To set up your organization for sustainable, long-term success, resist the urge to implement a new org chart from the top down. Instead, adopt a value-based approach to organizational design and implementation, as outlined in this seven-step framework.

Step 1: Define a Clear Vision and Strategy

Clarifying your organization’s vision and business strategy is essential to designing a future-state organization. If your leadership team has already defined and aligned on a vision and strategy, you’re ready to move forward. If not, begin by creating a strategy map that defines:

• The shared vision of a future state. What will be different for customers/clients, and what does that mean for the business and employees?
• The strategy. What are the choices, priorities, and trade-offs that leaders make to move the organization toward its vision?

This process of defining the vision and strategy builds alignment among leaders. And when communicated in a compelling way, it will mobilize the entire organization to move forward together.

Whether you’re shaping a functional or enterprise-wide strategy, aligning on a clear business strategy—such as customer-centered growth, operational efficiency, or product innovation—sets the foundation for a new organizational design. It’s important to engage key decision-making leaders from the start to ensure alignment and ownership throughout the process.

Best practice: Clarity drives execution and results. Be as specific as possible when articulating your strategy. Define the measurable changes that will occur and the timelines (e.g., “We will launch three market-disrupting products by 2030”).

Step 2: Assess Your Organization’s Strengths and Gaps

Once you’ve aligned on your business strategy, the next step is to identify the capabilities your organization needs in order to achieve that future-state vision. Start by answering the question: What do we need to do exceptionally well to execute our strategy?

Next, you need to understand the organization’s current strengths and gaps in relation to those future-state capabilities. This requires a deep dive into your current state to assess where you excel and where improvements are needed. Keep in mind that organizations are like living systems, and the strengths and gaps are interconnected across several performance levers, including roles, processes, culture, structure, leadership, and talent.

As your strategy evolves, each of these levers will be affected by the changes you implement. That’s why assessing the current state of each lever is critical for shaping your future-state organization. The output of this assessment will be a report that provides an objective overview of the organization’s strengths and gaps.

Best practice: Share these findings with key stakeholders early on to prepare the organization for change. Make it clear that realigning the organization goes beyond creating a new org chart. It’s about realigning the entire system to support the strategy.

Step 3: Determine Your Design Objectives and Principles

Building your future-state organization model starts with assembling an all-star design team. This team should include leaders who own key parts of the strategy, subject matter experts, and key influencers who will champion the change and rally others.

When selecting members of this team, balance the need for expertise with the power of informal influence. Because the design process can be somewhat messy, ensure that members can hold discussions in confidence and act in the interest of the organization rather than focusing on personal agendas. Make sure to include any key voices whose perspectives would be valuable in shaping the future state.

Bring the design team together for a series of working sessions. Start by determining your design objectives and success measures. To pinpoint these objectives, ask the question: What do we need the organization’s design to enable in our organization? Consider whether the change is primarily focused on driving innovation, strengthening customer relationships, or increasing efficiency.

From these objectives, you can identify the design principles that will guide the design process. These are the essential “musts” and “must nots” for the design. They might include statements like:

• Must promote integration across teams to prevent silos.
• Must improve the recruitment and retention of talent.
• Must build capabilities to meet the needs of the next 10 years.
• Must drive efficiency and enable us to scale.

Best practice: Design principles ensure your organization’s values are reflected and prevent unintended consequences in the design. For that reason, it’s critical to share these principles with key leaders, gather their input, and ensure alignment.

Step 4: Design the Operating Model and Leadership Structure

Organization design, at its core, is about organizing work in a way that makes the most sense for the strategy you’re seeking to achieve. The operating model serves as the blueprint. It should include governance considerations, high-level business process flows, and ongoing business activity groupings required for each design objective (e.g., client/customer relationship functions, technical and expert functions, and operational functions).

For example, an operating model framework can group activities by the type of value needed to optimize innovation, expertise, and customer experience. Here’s how activities might be organized:

Center of Expertise

Objective: Bring technical expertise, knowledge, and consistency to programs and services.

Activities:

• Provide technical expertise.
• Identify and establish best practices.
• Design and build programs and policies.

Outcomes:

• Enhanced service innovation.
• Proactive response to changing needs.

Shared Services

Objective: Minimize involvement and time spent by other functions on transactional activities.

Activities:

• Deliver transactional and process-driven activities.
• Build and continually improve transactional processes.
• Manage efficient delivery of transactional services.

Outcomes:

• Increased efficiency with decreased cost.
• Improved service quality.

Relationship Management

Objective: Provide exceptional customer experiences.

Activities:

• Provide support to customers and users.
• Act as a key contact to customers and broker services from Centers of Expertise and Shared Services.
• Gather input on customer needs from these groups.

Outcomes:

• Stronger customer relationships.
• Improved client satisfaction.

Building the operating model from these activity groupings ensures maximum impact, efficiency, and employee engagement. The groupings look different depending on your business strategy and org design objectives. The design team will lead the process of defining the operating model through collaborative working sessions.

Once the operating model is in place, you’re ready to build the org’s leadership structure. This should be derived directly from the activity groupings. Typically, a small group of leaders from the function or division, along with the HR function, will lead this process. The broader design team is not involved in this step because they typically have a vested interest in the structure itself.

Begin by presenting two to three leadership structure options that meet the design objectives and reflect the activity groupings. Use a facilitated dialogue to identify the pros and cons of each option, and choose the structure that best supports the business strategy.

At this point, communication and change management become critical. Share the leadership structure with the design team to re-engage them in the process. The way you communicate with the design team will set the tone for how the broader organization will be informed.

Best practice: Incorporate change management and communication practices throughout the organization design process. By doing so, you’ll help prevent resistance to change and ensure quicker alignment and support.

Step 5: Develop Future-State Roles

Once the operating model is designed, bring your subject matter experts and design team back together to develop the future-state roles. Start with the high-level business process flows outlined in your operating model. Then, dig deeper to define the work processes, systems, and roles that drive success in the new structure.

Just as the operating model is built around activity groupings, roles should be designed for maximum productivity and job satisfaction. One effective approach is to align activities based on whether they create, protect, or deliver value. For example, in the image below, the values-based role design framework aligns activities to roles based on whether the activities create value (drive innovation and growth), protect business value (ensure quality and stability), or deliver value (execute business functions).

To craft roles using this values-based framework, create a “responsibility matrix” that defines roles according to their place in work processes. Include design team members and other subject matter experts to ensure accuracy and relevance. Resistance to change often comes to the surface during this role design process. For that reason, engage those closest to the work to foster alignment and ownership.

Before finalizing the new organizational structure and changing roles, host working sessions with executive stakeholders to refine roles and ensure they align with the organization’s goals.

Best practice: A well-designed role should focus primarily on one—or two, at most—of the value types. If a role spans all three categories (value creation, protection, and delivery), it likely includes too many competing responsibilities, limiting the person’s effectiveness.

Step 6: Plan for Implementation

Now that the strategy, structure, processes, systems, and roles are defined, shift your focus to determining your organization’s staffing and talent needs. Start by having HR leadership work with team leaders to determine the number of roles and full-time employees needed to support the new structure. Conduct a workload analysis to properly size the organization based on strategic objectives along with the current and anticipated workloads. Additional talent needs will emerge over time, but this initial assessment provides a strong foundation.

Once your staffing needs are clear, plan for how you will select current talent for new roles and identify roles that require new external talent. For some employees, the shift will be minimal, requiring only slight role adjustments. Others may face significant changes that demand new skills and competencies. A thoughtful, values-driven approach to managing these transitions will be essential.

To guide implementation, create a change plan that includes:

• Identifying impacted groups and when they’ll experience change.
• Anticipating employee concerns and key questions.
• Providing structured support, such as role-based learning, job aids, mentoring, and change ambassadors.

After finalizing the sizing plan, talent selection strategy, and transition plan, share them with key leadership for feedback. From there, refine the plan and prepare to move to full implementation.

Best practice: Consider a co-creation approach to building your implementation, transition, and change plans. Involving employees in the process increases engagement and fosters a two-way dialogue that strengthens buy-in.

Step 7: Activate the New Org Design Plan

The difficulty in implementing your new organizational design will vary based on its complexity, but a structured approach ensures a smooth transition. Keep these tips in mind:

• Launch the leadership team first. Establish alignment and shared ownership. Consider a facilitated offsite where leaders can focus without distractions.
• Roll out changes by level. Announce staffing decisions in a cascading manner based on level. Then move quickly to provide necessary support.
• Align key people practices. Adjust learning programs, rewards, performance management, and career development to reinforce the new design.
• Activate the new org design. Support the transition with change management, clear communication, and ongoing operational support.

Best practice: Building ownership and engagement requires setting people up for success. Ensure your systems and processes are in place before asking employees to take on new work or new ways of working.

Case Study: The 7 Steps in Action

When Knauf Insulation North America (KINA) set an ambitious 10-year strategy aimed at doubling revenue, the global company realized it needed new opportunities for product, market, and customer growth—and it needed to rethink its org structure. KINA partnered with TiER1 to create this seven-step process to transform its organizational design to support this goal.

In Step 1, to shift the strategy focus from running the business to growing the business, KINA created a clear 10-year vision, focusing on customer intimacy as the primary competitive driver.

Next, in Step 2, an assessment of KINA’s current capabilities revealed key gaps that needed to be addressed for growth, including these shifts in mindset:

• Away from creating products and toward providing innovative customer solutions.
• Away from cost management and toward pursuing new revenue opportunities.
• Away from risk avoidance and toward new possibilities.
• Away from viewing failure as unacceptable and toward embracing it as a learning opportunity.

Through assessment, we identified gaps in KINA’s business strategy capabilities, plus several new capabilities to support these mindset shifts. We grouped these capabilities into three themes: customer listening, strategy activation, and business diversification. We embedded sustainability in each capability to ensure long-term success.

In Step 3, we engaged a cross-functional team of senior leaders to establish design objectives related to KINA’s four principles (customer centricity, people engagement, sustainability, and profitable growth).

In Step 4, we designed the future-state operating model. Using the values-based alignment framework, we outlined the anticipated activities to be completed in each business activity (manufacturing, sales, etc.).

In Step 5, we designed future-state roles by function. To enable operating units to focus their energy on growth, we decided that KINA’s supporting functions (HR, finance, IT, legal, etc.) would remain centralized but with customization to support growth.

In Step 6, we developed a road map for implementation, outlining required capabilities, structures, roles, and talent needs.

In Step 7, KINA’s CEO announced the new structure to the organization and the reasons for the change.

 

 

 

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news—TiER1 Impact has acquired Change Guides, a respected change management firm based in Cincinnati. This partnership brings together two organizations that are passionate about helping clients navigate and sustain successful change.

Change Guides was founded by industry leaders and authors Kate Nelson and Stacy Aaron. Their vision? To create practical, hands-on strategies that empower change managers to implement people-centered transformation within organizations. Over the years, they’ve built a strong reputation for delivering effective methodologies that work across various industries and organizational sizes.

“TiER1 Performance and Change Guides have long shared the mission of helping clients drive successful change,” shares Kate Nelson, Change Guides’ Co-founder and Partner. “When we considered the next chapter for our tools and methodologies, TiER1 stood out because of the value they place on their clients’ success, as well as the extremely high quality of their work. TiER1 Performance has a reputation in the market that we have long admired. When we consider the needs of our clients and the continuously accelerating rate of change, we believe our combined expertise will amplify the impact we can have in the market.”

TiER1 Impact, the parent company of consulting firm TiER1 Performance, is a professional services and investment entity designed to build on the organization’s successful acquisition history and support greater growth potential for acquired organizations. While Change Guides’ products and courses will continue to be marketed globally, their consulting services will be fully integrated into TiER1 Performance, a firm renowned for its ability to activate strategy and drive change through customized people-focused solutions that support business growth, operational excellence, and the development of an organization’s most valuable asset—its people.

“Great organizations recognize the power of purposeful transformation,” says Katie Frey, President of TiER1 Performance. “Change Guides has developed a robust suite of tools designed to enhance the success and longevity of change initiatives. Their dedication to client relationships and outcomes aligns perfectly with TiER1’s vision, making this partnership a natural fit for delivering even greater value to our clients.”

For clients of both firms, the transition will be seamless. Ongoing projects will continue without interruption, and the talented team from Change Guides will be joining TiER1 Performance. Together, we’ll keep delivering the high-quality, change-focused solutions that our clients rely on.

We’re excited about this next chapter and can’t wait to see the impact we’ll create together!

We’ve acquired two consulting firms—Digital Bridge Partners and Is Inspired—to strengthen our ability to help organizations drive transformation through strategy and technology.

“This marks an exciting new chapter for us,” shares Gina Batali-Brooks, founder of Is Inspired. “Joining forces with TiER1 gives Is Inspired the expanded reach to bring our creative problem-solving to more customers, backed by the resources to explore innovative technologies and solutions—all while becoming part of a business deeply aligned with our culture and values.”

Is Inspired brings deep expertise in aligning infrastructure—people, processes, technology, and data—with strategy to unlock human potential. The aim is to remove friction so people can focus on the meaningful, human side of their work. Having started with a focus on supporting partner ecosystem teams, the firm has expanded its approach to support program management across legal, finance, HR, and professional services.

Digital Bridge Partners has a successful history of empowering technology innovators to unlock their ecosystem growth potential by developing incisive strategies, designing transformative programs, and orchestrating breakthrough outcomes for clients in the high technology industry enabling complex partner and channel strategies.

“We focus on innovations that help ecosystems thrive,” shares Digital Bridge Partners co-founders Allan Adler and Dylan Charles. “Combining our efforts with TiER1 allows us to take these efforts to the next level to benefit our clients.”

“Digital Bridge Partners and Is Inspired bring a combined depth of technology and large-scale program management expertise that is opportune given the evolving transformation needs of our clients,” shares Katie Frey, President of TiER1 Performance. “That expertise, along with their deep commitment to client relationships and an employee-focused culture, make this a great fit for continued value creation for clients and employees in the future.”

Both firms will be fully integrated into TiER1 Performance. All client engagements will continue without disruption as consultants will become a part of TiER1 and continue to deliver the value, results, and people-focused solutions that clients have come to expect. This grows TiER1 by 10 employees who we’re thrilled to welcome to the team.

Learn more about our partner ecosystem capabilities here.

You created the map, but your people have to reach the destination. Will they?

You’ve got a vision for higher performance, and you’ve laid out the steps to success. Your strategy is set; now it’s time for the organization to put it into action. Realistically, this strategy is going to require a lot of people doing something new or different (all strategies do). And that’s where things get sticky—because frankly, the people part is the real challenge.

People are messy, complex, and unpredictable, and getting them to change is hard. How in the world will you control all of this so that everyone is following the plan for success?

Well, honestly, you won’t.

It’s not that strategy activation is impossible; it’s just that it doesn’t happen by exerting control. Rather, it happens when you offer people just the right experiences, at just the right moments, changing their minds in ways that lead to new actions and behaviors. This is the very definition of influence, which of course is the basis of great leadership.

Too often organizations miss the boat here, thinking that strategy activation depends on rolling out new expectations and directing everyone’s compliance. But humans resist being pushed (literally). There’s an instinctive response to dig in our heels and push back.

So what works better?

When we want someone to move through a journey to a specific destination, it’s more effective to shape the path than to shove the person.

In the context of strategy activation, path-shaping or “experience design” means noting how emotions, beliefs, knowledge, and motivations relate to peoples’ choices and actions, and then harnessing that understanding within the context of your unique organization, so you can support your people in adopting new behaviors and habits.

If you think it all sounds pretty deep and requires a high level of emotional intelligence, empathy, and human behavior awareness—well, you’re right. But it’s no more than is required of great leaders every day.

Here are six critical steps of experience design for strategy activation:

1. Define success

Before you do anything else, be clear on the future state you are striving for. Share the metrics for success and the timing, and don’t forget to describe the rewards that await you there.

2. Understand your people

Next, “get into the shoes” of the people who will carry this effort. Define your impacted audiences (often this is by role or function) and then, explore:

• What are their unique challenges, pains, hopes, desires, and motivators?
• Who influences them most?
• How are they already equipped for the envisioned future, and where do they have gaps?
• Create a single persona to represent each impacted audience, and name it, so the “character” becomes more real and human to you (Fran the Frontline Manager, for instance).

3. Assess the landscape they’re about to travel

Keep Fran in mind and take an honest look at the various organizational factors that will influence her performance on the path ahead.

Mark the boundaries: Set some stakes in the ground by acknowledging what’s fixed about Fran’s daily reality at your company. Things like the annual events on the company’s calendar and the appreciated aspects of your culture should be noted, because you can leverage them—even amplify them—as you design the journey ahead.

Shift the boulders: At the same time, be open to identifying the big organizational rocks that could block her progress. Now is the time to make these issues a priority, clearing the way for her to move your strategy forward. Ask yourself:

• From Fran’s perspective, is there an operational structure that will impede her ability to perform tomorrow’s process?
• Does her compensation plan reward the wrong behaviors?
• How might we address these issues?

4. Plot milestone results and needed behaviors

If you haven’t already, break down your big vision into a series of smaller milestones aligned to targeted dates or time spans.

• What are the incremental results needed?
• Then consider, what are the various actions Fran must take to achieve these results over time?

5. Chart their mindset shift

Look at the world through the eyes of Fran and her peers and imagine what would inspire them to take each step noted on the timeline. Reflect on how they will need to:

• Connect emotionally
• Change their beliefs
• Grow their trust
• Increase their understanding
• Amplify their motivation

6. Support their performance

As you work through this process, determine which experiences will be the most impactful and pivotal to Fran. Consider these her “moments that matter” and focus your energy here so you can best support her success.

Ask yourself:

• At these moments, how might we create experiences that will foster the internal journey we’re targeting?
• Do you see a point where it will be critical for people to trust your overall vision? Share the why, how, and what of this effort.
• Is there a time when they should increase their knowledge or skills? Arrange for fun, meaningful learning support.

You’re their guide

Your vision has pointed the organization to a mountain top, and your strategy maps the way. But if you simply yell, “Go,” your people will likely struggle to reach the summit. They’ll climb quicker (with less risk, cost, waste, and drama) if you mark the trail, provide them tools, and air-drop supplies over time.

The trick is knowing just when they’ll need what…which is exactly what you’ll discover when you engage in experience design. That’s why it’s the key to activating your strategy through your people.

If you’d like to connect with our team to learn more about experience design, give us a call at 859-415-1000 or reach out through the form below.

Despite its critical role, culture often feels elusive—difficult to measure, hard to change, but essential to get right. To build a culture that drives performance, leaders must rely on another tool: data. Here’s how to approach culture with a data-driven perspective to make it your organization’s greatest asset.

Across industries, we’ve had the privilege of observing high-performing cultures up close. In these organizations, people are aligned around a shared sense of purpose, bound by values that resonate deeply. They’re places where productivity thrives, not just through structure, but through meaningful social connections and a unified vision.

In contrast, companies with weak or fractured cultures struggle to reach their potential. The lack of cohesion impacts everything, from employee engagement to customer satisfaction, slowing the pace of progress and diminishing results.
It’s clear to most leaders today that culture is the ultimate performance differentiator—and that it lays the foundation for strategy. A company’s culture will either be its biggest asset or its largest liability.

To build an effective culture, an organization must foster a shared sense of purpose and embed values that guide decisions across every level. When leaders anchor their business in these values, they attract and retain talented people, inspire their teams, and create a cohesive environment where accountability drives productivity. When employees see that everyone is held to the same standards and expectations, they’re more motivated to contribute, knowing they’re part of something that values their input and respects their contributions.

However, even with this understanding, changing an organization’s culture remains one of the most complex leadership challenges. Culture is deeply rooted in daily behaviors, beliefs, and unspoken rules. Altering it can create discomfort and resistance. So, how can leaders identify the aspects of culture they need to change, and which levers will yield the results they seek?

Five Actionable Steps to Shape a Culture of High Performance

1. Use Data to Diagnose and Prescribe: Cultural change starts with insight. Leaders need data not just to reflect current realities but to understand exactly where to focus. Data-driven reflection helps track how culture affects the business and provides the foundation for predictive analytics. These tools pinpoint which cultural interventions can most impact performance.

2. Articulate and Reinforce Values: Once data has offered insight, it’s up to leaders to define the core values they want reflected in the culture. Clearly communicating the company’s vision and desired values, and emphasizing how these guide decisions enables employees to live it. The vision should be shared consistently and openly, ensuring values permeate every aspect of the organization.

3. Model Values Through Daily Behaviors: Leaders set the cultural tone through their actions. After assessing data and clarifying values, they should visibly model the behaviors they want to see. This isn’t just about words; it’s about reinforcing culture through concrete actions that employees can see and emulate.

4. Create an Open Dialogue: A meaningful culture demands honest, two-way communication. Leaders should engage regularly with employees to gather feedback and insights on how the values are playing out in daily experiences. This approach fosters trust and ensures the culture remains relevant to all levels of the organization.

5. Track Progress and Celebrate Wins: To drive cultural initiatives forward, leaders should track progress just as they would with revenue or operational goals. Gathering data highlights small wins, builds momentum, and clarifies next steps, showing that transformation is achievable, even incrementally. Recognizing these wins validates employee efforts, fosters a sense of achievement, and reinforces a positive culture, making large-scale changes feel attainable and boosting commitment across the organization.

Changing a company’s culture is never easy, but it is possible with a commitment from leaders and a structured approach. When organizations take the time to nurture a culture that supports their strategy, the results pay dividends across employee engagement, customer loyalty, and business performance.

So, does culture really eat strategy for breakfast? Yes, and the secret to a strong culture lies in a commitment to data-driven insights, clear values, and intentional actions.

Ready to strengthen your company’s culture? The TiER1 team brings data-driven insights to help organizations build cultures that drive success. Let’s explore how our tailored approach can help you elevate your organization. Fill out the form below and someone from TiER1 will get back to you!

What did you learn during the COVID-19 pandemic? For me and the teams I work with, working from home during the pandemic highlighted the value of virtual presentation and facilitation skills.

Many of you may be supporting teams that are afraid of the technology, nervous about showing up on camera, or just not sure where to start. On top of the technical concerns, many also struggle with fundamental group presentation and facilitation skills, especially in the new context of a remote/hybrid workforce. The good news is, with a little bit of prep and coordination, you can remove the fear of presenting virtually and show up looking like a seasoned professional. Here’s a pro tip from recent experience: turn off all distractions. The last thing you need is another alert, notification, or ping to worry about while you are presenting. This includes turning off your phone!

For more tips, tricks, and virtual facilitation best practices, keep reading. You can also check out the recording of Joe’s presentation with fellow TiER1 consultant Beth Cavanaugh at the 2021 eXLearn Virtual Conference on the topic of how to design experiences, not just one-time events.

1. Prep Work

The first step to a successful presentation is knowing the material. Think of it like a song: if you don’t have the lyrics memorized, there is no way you are going to feel comfortable on stage.

I recommend the following “stage-setting” meetings with your team:

“Table Read” – 3 weeks before the event
Meet for 60–90 minutes to create alignment between the training team related to roles, duties, and next steps.

“Technical Rehearsal” – 2 weeks before the event
Meet for 60–90 minutes to test, troubleshoot, practice, and to refine the use of virtual meeting tools.

“Dress Rehearsal” – 1 week before the event
Meet for 60–90 minutes to ensure all aspects of the session runs smoothly and makes a great first impression.

“Backstage Pre-set” – 30 minutes before the event
Meet 30 minutes before the event begins to test the technology and stage PPT files and other virtual tools.

2. Technology Agility

Long before the presentation itself, it’s critical to get comfortable with any technology you plan to use. This includes virtual whiteboards, chat, slides, scripts, etc.

If you are unsure or uncomfortable with the technology, enlist a technical producer to support you. Much like a stage manager for staged productions, the technical producer’s role is to orchestrate and coordinate all the moving pieces, as well as driving clarity around technical constraints alongside event goals and objectives.

Here are some recommendations to address the top three questions I hear from clients:

How might I optimize my computer setup for virtual training & facilitation?

Use two monitors (laptop and a second screen). Use a headset with a microphone.

Practice these tasks:

• Opening the presentation content, going to Presentation mode or view, and sharing your screen.
• Navigating and switching between windows/apps
• Transitioning from Lead Presenter to Co-Presenter

What is the best way to setup for a virtual presentation?

• Maximize your Wi-Fi connection. If available, connect directly to the router with an ethernet cable, and be sure to limit the number of devices connected to the Wi-Fi—including smart TVs, phones, and laptops.
• Close all non-presentation related apps, programs, web browsers, etc.
• Consider how you are going to view your notes as you present. If possible, print your notes.
• Meet with your co-presenter 30 minutes before the session to test your technology and run through your presentation.

What do I do when participants are having technology issues?

Prior to the workshop, make sure performers will have the opportunity to test their technology. Our hope is that most technical issues are resolved prior to the virtual event.

When someone does experience an issue, walk them through the following Troubleshooting Hierarchy:

• Exit the call and re-join.
• If video is still not working, join by phone.
• If audio is still not working, restart computer and re-join.
• As a last resort, if possible, have the technical producer or co-presenter provide 1-on-1 support via phone.

TROUBLESHOOTING HIERARCHY

3. Facilitation Skills

When I talk about facilitation skills, I’m referring to the ability to present content while sensing and interacting with the audience. Much like a dramatic production, part of your role is to set the scene. This includes:

• Asking participants to mute their mics/turn off their cameras when it’s time to begin, and asking folks to follow up on camera/mic.
• Providing low-stakes opportunities early on to encourage participant interaction.
• Teeing up a response by using participant’s names and giving them some lead time.
• Asking direct questions that prompt immediate reactions.
• Modeling how participants should engage through visual and verbal indicators, such as head nods, the chat, raised hands, each other’s names, etc.

4. Authenticity and Enthusiasm

Depending on who you are working with, this topic may be the most scary. You may be supporting an individual who is more an introvert or someone whose natural energy is more relaxed and low key. That is great! What is important is that you show up authentically and know where you can lean in and add more energy.

As the virtual facilitator, it’s important that you model for your audience the engagement practices you would like to see. This includes:

• Interacting in the chat
• Using first names
• Welcoming and approachable tone. In addition to how you speak, this includes the visual indicators and “feedback” that participants can get from you in response to their input, including head nods, raised hands, etc.
• Engaging your audience early and often. As they enter the workshop, call on them by name and say hello. Have a prompt on screen for participants to respond to in the chat. Read out their responses and call on them by name to ask them for more context.
  It’s also important to consider how you are showing up on camera. In addition to being approachable and warm, make sure that you look into the camera and are well lit and able to be heard clearly.

Expert tips for virtual facilitation

The headline here, is that showing up like a seasoned and professional virtual facilitator requires some preparation. Take the time to get together with your team, learn the technology, sharpen your virtual presentation skills and show up in a way that is authentic to who you are. These guidelines can serve as a starting point for you to work with your team to refine and iterate your process for creating a virtual event that reflects your organization’s values and brand.

Want to learn more about turning a previously in-person event into a virtual experience? Reach out to our team at 859-415-1000 or with the Let’s Talk form below. For immediate insights, check out the recording of the presentation Flip the Script: Designing Experiences, Not One-Time Events.