A Culture Journey at Watkins Wellness: Scaling Support Up and Back Down
Starting with Leadership
When Watkins Wellness reached out, they were looking for leadership development support. They didn’t want new products or solutions that would merely add more language or serve as an add-on to their existing learning.
They wanted a solution that aligned with their leadership goals – one that supported their current initiatives while fostering ongoing growth and development for their leaders throughout their careers.
“I stepped into this role five years ago, and the previous incumbent had a prior relationship with Integris, so she brought them in to work with Watkins,” explained Elise Schoenberger, Talent & Leadership Development Manager at Watkins Wellness.
While there wasn’t a problem with their leadership development program, Watkins Wellness felt there was more they could do to push the organization ahead and reinforce those ideas to a wider group.
We worked with Watkins Wellness on The Leadership Challenge® – workshops, training, and general content. Eventually, their needs changed and evolved as they brought more and more of their leadership work in-house.
“I was transparent with them at one point after we concluded one of our Leadership Challenge series to say, I don’t see us doing another big training cohort around this topic. It’s time to direct our focus on reinforcing these ideas with the organization.”
Changing Needs for a Changing Environment
Watkins Wellness reached a point in their organizational evolution where they were ready to take some different steps in their culture improvement. They knew Integris could continue to provide them the support they needed.
Elise followed up the discussion about the Leadership Challenge® with a plan for what they could keep working on.
“I want to spend my time and attention on implementing Everything DiSC® wider, spreading that awareness, and doing more of the facilitation myself.”
Elise Schoenberger
One major goal was to create a culture around the DiSC language so that the entire organization could work better together. It gave the organization a common language and a way to talk to each other with a structure that was easy to remember, even if only the very basics were remembered.
Directness—saying what needs to be said, when it needs to be said
Innovation—coming up with big ideas that move the team forward
Support—sensing how others are feeling, and connecting with them on a deep level
Carefulness—making sure things are done precisely and to the highest quality
Integris provided support to Elise to bring this work in-house, such as facilitator training, quarterly check-in calls and Mastermind calls (quarterly calls with updates on the latest and greatest available).
As Elise said, “Integris has an interest in serving people, wherever those participants are in their careers, with concepts and tools. Integris has a way of meeting people where they are. And they’re able to get to the bottom of what matters to people and show the connections in and out of a professional context.”
“They’re Able to Get to the Heart of What Matters…”
Five years later, Elise still partners with Integris, learning from their Mastermind Calls, getting updates on all of the available solutions, and getting answers to any questions she has.
“I frequently keep them in mind because they take the extra time and are willing to adapt their solutions to our organizational needs, versus it feeling like it’s always an off-the-shelf type of product or message.”
When asked about the changes she’s seen in Watkins Wellness from working with Integris, Elise said:
“The biggest change that we’ve seen is people realizing they have the tools and techniques to manage up, manage down, manage across the organization – using a common language as a starting point.”
Ready to Transform Your Workplace Culture? Let’s Talk
If you’re looking to make the same kind of major changes at your organization that Watkins Wellness did, let’s talk. Contact us today, and we’ll discuss where you are now and where you want to be.
