Our Work
Critical LINK’s work has been described as engaging. Insightful. Attentive. Polished. Grounded. Dogged. Real.
We pride ourselves on digging beneath the surface to tap into the true capacity of an organization. Our priority is to re-engage individuals and organizations so they can move forward with strength and courage, even in situations where the team’s soul has been long buried or suppressed.
We have worked with community agencies that are too stretched to meet the most pressing needs of their clients. Competing organizations that can no longer afford to work at cross purposes. Organizations that are paralyzed by dysfunction or tension. Leading corporations that must raise the bar as they pursue increasingly complex social or ethical goals.
Our goal is to build the organization’s capacity and foundation for change. Change that is real. Sustainable. Sensible. Meaningful. Enriching.
We do this by building connections between the most important assets of each organization: people, ideas and possibilities.
Connecting ideas and possibilities
What if you took some risks?
What if you asked your clients and customers what they really need?
What if you radically changed the way you delivery our services?
Every organization asks these thought-provoking questions from time to time. But few organizations can break away from their day-to-day business long enough to consider the possibilities in a meaningful and critical way.
Critical LINK specializes in consultation and strategic planning methods that give organizations the tools to ask these difficult questions. Especially organizations that have no time to ponder or navel gaze.
We work behind the scenes, with individuals and small teams, to start the dialogue. To ask the tough questions. To talk about the barriers. To face the challenges. And then to explore the possibilities.
This is not about vision or mission statements. It’s about empowering people to speak candidly and make difficult decisions about the future. It’s about priorities and actions. It’s about building on strengths and shedding parts of the past that aren’t compatible with the future.
Connecting organizations
Let’s face it: not-for-profit organizations often speak a different language than government departments. Private corporations have different structures and expectations than volunteer agencies. Advocacy groups have different priorities than municipalities. And industry associations operate on different timelines than small business owners.
That’s why it’s so difficult to foster change or resolve problems on issues that span multiple sectors, industries, organizations and governments. It’s almost impossible to get everyone in the same room, on the same page, to talk about the challenges and solutions.
Critical LINK is a master at bridging the gaps across sectors and organizations. Over the past 28 years we’ve worked intimately with every sector – private, public, not-for-profit and government – and we know how to talk their respective languages. Our specialty is managing projects that span multiple organizations, priorities, timelines, funding levels and capacities.
Our goal is to bring together the skills, resources, talents, energy and priorities of each organization to form a virtual partnership that can work effectively toward innovation and change. And yes, we’ve even brought together competing agencies to identify collaborative opportunities while still honouring their right and desire to remain competitive.
Connecting people
Most projects and challenges we tackle are facing the same strategic challenge: how to engage and support people as they work toward change.
Our approach? We dare to bring together people who may not always agree. We dare to seat the upper echelons of authority alongside front-line staff. We dare to engage everyone around the boardroom table in building with wooden blocks as a warm-up activity. Whatever it takes to break down communication barriers.
Connecting people means creating a safe environment for everyone to speak out. It means demanding that other people listen. And it usually means awkward pauses and difficult dialogue.
The process is most effective it is anchored with careful planning, expert facilitation, intense follow-up, and tremendous respect for all the participants. Critical LINK is committed to imposing the utmost in standards and integrity for even the most challenging scenarios.
Connecting the dots
We use a range of management consulting tools and strategies to pull everything, and everyone, together into workable, sustainable solutions. Our projects often start with a rigorous needs assessment, followed by various qualitative research applications (interviews, focus groups, consultation, gathering facts).
Change strategies are developed with a careful eye on both the human and operational capacity to support change. Delivery may involve group facilitation, developing new processes & services, strategic planning, team building, executive coaching, or a review of organizational structures. Implementation strategies may require training, development, education, role/scope evaluations, financial changes, or even a change in organizational philosophy.
Throughout the project, clients can count on insightful leadership, impeccable project management, and the highest level of professional integrity and ethics. Timely and thorough communication is always a top priority. And evaluation of outcomes is a critical benchmark of success.