Cultural Transformation

As a change management consultant and CEO of FountainBlue LLC since January 2005, Linda Holroyd provides Leadership Coaching through one-on-one executive coaching, executive and team facilitation and management, and organizational advisory services which focus on culture and growth.

FountainBlue provides one-on-one coaching as well as team facilitation and management, with an emphasis on strategic scenario-planning, particularly around digital transformation initiatives.

At FountainBlue, our job is to work with our clients to proactively manage change through strategic facilitation, collaborative scenario-planning, as well as results-driven execution practices.


Strategic Consultation: 

1. Evaluate the current situation and desired end state in light of  current market, technology and customer trends. 

2. Empower the leadership team and key stakeholders to define the strategy and vision. 

3. Enlist input and participation from a wide range of stakeholders. 

4. Conduct strategic scenario-planning with the intent of optimizing people, processes and results. 

Scenario Planning: 

5. Integrate strategic goals into operational plans based on a range of scenarios. 

6. Facilitate ongoing conversations to ensure alignment between groups and individuals. 

7. Ensure access to resources and feedback to enable successful implementation. 

8. Encourage and reward strategic problem-solving and decision-making which is collaborative, transparent, and results-oriented. 

Results-Focused Execution: 

9. Create and sustain a growth mindset which embraces failure and invites respectful diversity in thinking, speaking and acting. 

10. Invite the input and perspectives of laggards, outliers, skeptics and under-performers while celebrating the successes of leaders, managers, and collaborators.


A Message from our Linda Holroyd, March 2024:

These first two months of 2024 have flown by…

At the heart of just about every conversation I’ve had this year to date, there’s been a story about CHANGE. The business is changing, the industry is changing, the people are changing – and generally it’s all in combination.

It’s amazing how resourceful and resilient we all are, despite the changes we’re undergoing and so much more change looming. This is not to say that all the changes have been good or bad, just that it’s a LOT of change.

As for FountainBlue, we too are changing.

  • This month’s leadership blog will be the foundation of our ‘Cultural Transformation’ initiative to support organizations and leaders through rapid and unpredictable changes.
  • As a follow-up to the mediation training we completed in January, we are launching a ‘Corporate Mediation’ option, to facilitate conflicts and disagreements and efficiently align to corporate mission, vision and values.
  • As a follow-up to our recent board certification and our recent talk on ‘The VUCA Vectors’, we are launching a board recruitment practice.

If you’re curious about any of our new initiatives or would like to connect for a quick chat about what could be next for you, given the changes you’re experiencing, plus calendar a call with us by visiting https://cal.mixmax.com/fountainblue/15.


A Recipe for Greatness – March 2024 Blog

In my broad and deep travels I have encountered greatness in individuals, in teams and in organizations. This month, I asked myself, “What are the necessary qualities for greatness?” and came up with the list below. 

I’ve divided these qualities into the individual, team and organizational level. 

Every team has individuals with qualities of greatness. The magic of these teams, built from the greatness of their individuals, comes together to create a recipe for greatness within the organization as a whole. 

While prioritization of these qualities may vary as we adapt to changes,  it is my experience that each of these elements are foundational ingredients for greatness. 

Individual Level

  • Humility
    • Knowing yourself and humbly accepting your strengths and weaknesses will help you step into your potential and bring out the best in others around you.
  • Curiosity
    • Embracing the novice mindset no matter your experience level will help you see a more divergent and broader range of possibilities.
  • Openness
    • Being open to new experiences and possibilities supports growth and expansion, bringing positive and constructive energy to yourself and those around you.
  • Kindness
    • Adopting a kind outlook with yourself and others will help everyone be strong enough to adopt qualities of excellence as an individual, as a team, as an organization. 

Team Level 

  • Grace
    • Grace is a mark of humility, openness, kindness and curiosity for the full team.
  • Acceptance
    • Accepting the diverse range of perspectives across the team invites collaboration and synergistic thinking, contributing to sustainable team success.
  • Agility
    • Communicating and pivoting with agility, in concert as a team helps the team to grow, expand, and achieve exceptional results through a wide range of circumstances. 
  • Perseverance
    • Developing endurance to push through challenges and opportunities helps teams create ‘better together’ stories, which in turn, contribute to more success stories.

Organization Level 

  • Purpose
    • Providing clarity on the mission, vision, value and purpose of the organization defines WHY individuals, teams, partners, customers, engage, driving teams and individuals forward with momentum.
  • Drive
    • Managing and leading the organization well motivates and empowers teams and individuals to passionately to deliver on goals and commitments. 

Excellence is a journey, not a destination. But it’s also a North Star – a guiding star worth following.  


Our Cultural Transformation initiatives will drill down into how we can help individuals reach for excellence, how teams can be better together and how an organization can inspire and motivate its teams and leaders to deliver exceptional solutions.

We will work with client companies to create custom qualitative and quantitative measurements on each of the ingredients for excellence, at the individual, team and organizational level. With these measurements, our clients can:

  • more transparently and clearly communicate, collaborate and connect around cultural transformation objectives;
  • more easily document progress and strategize plans for improvement; and
  • more effectively ensure alignment with their mission, vision and core values.

If your organization and team are undergoing change, please sign up for a no-obligation 15-minute call by visiting https://cal.mixmax.com/fountainblue/15


In general, at the team level, we build cohesion and develop trust with an emphasis on candor, honesty and crucial conversation. Our team and leadership consulting services consistently emphasize empowerment and growth at the individual, team and organizational levels. We take pride in working with our client companies to:

  • improve team dynamics and communication
  • facilitate learning and development
  • empower and support individual team members
  • align leaders, managers and divisions and
  • achieve business objectives while developing culture and empowering people at all levels.

Common Objectives and Takeaways for Team Consulting are listed below:

  • Improve culture, participation, retention, and energy from participating individuals and teams, as measured by engagement surveys and metrics.
  • Improve clarity on vision and alignment on goals, as measured by surveys, interviews, and measured results.
  • Improve communication and connection between individuals, teams, leaders, partners, as measured by participating levels and engagement surveys.
  • Increase collaboration between participating individuals, teams, leaders and partners, as indicated by the number of collaborative projects and the number of teams and leaders participating in each of them.

We measure success based on reports on team cohesion, team productivity, and team impact. Reported qualitative and quantitative outcomes include:

Improved Leadership Qualities

  • Greater Clarity and Prioritization
  • Greater Short-Term Focus
  • Larger and Broader Long-Term Focus
  • Renewed Commitment and Confidence

Refined Communication Skills

  • Better Frame Situations Based on Immediacy, Relevance, and Priorities
  • Better Understand and Communicate ‘Your Side of the Net’
  • Better Communicate Status and Ownership
  • Improved Speaking and Communication to Larger and More Diverse Audiences

Management Successes

  • Improved Decision-Making Skills
  • Enhanced Creativity and Innovation with the Team
  • Greater Effectiveness and Better Performance

Relationships and Networks

  • Improved Relationships within and Outside the Team
  • Larger Ecosystem of Partners and Providers
  • Longer-term Relationships with Larger Range of Partners
  • Improved Balance in all Aspects of Life
  • Increased Collaboration Across Teams

What Sets Us Apart:

  • We are agnostic of level, role and industry, supporting everyone from new-hires to C-Suite veterans, in roles across engineering, product, marketing, finance, operations, HR, etc.,
  • Our broad exposure to a wide range of industries, companies, technologies, geographies, etc., help us provide more strategic guidance and a broader perspective, and our network of contacts support business development goals.
  • Our authenticity, integrity and empathy are the hallmarks for each conversation and our decades of experience working with leaders at all levels consistently shines through.
  • Our rates are reasonable – $200/half hour, and our work is guaranteed. If you’re not happy, we’re not happy, and we will make it right.

Process

FountainBlue LLC’s management and process improvement services provide our entrepreneurial and executive clients the business and operational advantage.

Whether the challenge is optimizing process, people and technology or reviewing and vetting existing and new technologies and systems, FountainBlue LLC’s end-to-end process management and integration services, ensure effective, efficient and strategic implementations which align stakeholders and deliver measurable results.

Our Background and Experience

Our process management successes are in the areas of software engineering, systems design and development, H/W-S/W integration, product line management, project development/ management and customer support for corporate and government organizations, with multi-site, multi-vendor and international organizations.

Our specific experience ranges from:

  • Shifting IT departments onto new platforms,
  • Growing teams quickly and exponentially, while improving performance and quality,
  • Merging and integrating corporate systems, software, operations and personnel.

Organizational Transformation

  • Linda was instrumental in advising us with the digital transformation process, integrating technological and process updates while informing and enabling our people.
  • Linda is a master at accepting and managing change, and at guiding us steadily as an organization to the next opportunity, given market and technology trends and customer requirements.

Team Transformation

  • Linda has the amazing ability to frame challenge as an opportunity, and helps us rapidly and energetically shift to what’s next.
  • Linda’s proactive and positive outlook is contagious, bringing great energy to our team.
  • Linda has challenged us to raise the bar, doing well while doing right.

Personal Transformation – see also Coaching testimonials

  • Linda has enabled and inspired me to continue to be a better version of myself.
  • Linda’s wisdom helped me manage my emotions while communicating directly.
  • Linda helped me show up fully as myself.

Optimizing Processes, People and Technology

At FountainBlue, we follow an integrated, four-stage approach to process, people and technology improvement: 1) Assess and Identify, 2) Advise, 3) Act and 4) Assure.

ProcessMethodology

For more information, contact us at info@fountainblue.biz.