Waterstone Human Capital Launches Culture Institute
February 22, 2021 – As organizations begin to look at the matter of if, when and how they will transition back to traditional workplaces, leaders are fielding a number of questions: What will the office look like? Will it be safe? Will it ever be the same again? Can we have a high-performance culture with so many people working remotely? The impact of these changes on corporate culture cannot be overlooked. As a response, Waterstone Human Capital has launched the Waterstone Culture Institute in an effort to support leaders who want to drive organizational performance through culture change.
“There has never been a greater need for organizations to focus on building the skills and knowledge of their leaders and their teams, and on further aligning those to their organizations,” said CEO Marty Parker. “We’re excited to have leadership development and culture transformation expert Nicole Bendaly at the helm of the Waterstone Culture Institute, offering a suite of culture measurement, change, transformation, and learning and development tools that are proven to drive personal and professional growth and performance.” Waterstone noted that more and more, organizations are looking to expand the culture transformation, learning and development options available to their leaders and their teams, especially around topics like sustaining culture and driving performance.
“Leaders today recognize that culture drives performance, but many aren’t sure how to define their needs or to optimize their culture to drive results,” said Nicole Bendaly, executive director of the Waterstone Culture Institute. “We help leaders gain the clarity, tools and proven best-practices that are essential to achieving a culture that can drive their organization’s performance. At the Waterstone Culture Institute, leaders gain everything they need to put culture at the center of strategy to drive high performance within their organizations.”
With the launch of the Waterstone Culture Institute, Waterstone will look to leverage its resources and expertise to help organizations to build high performance cultures. The Waterstone Culture Institute’s programming is based on data collected through the Canada’s top corporate cultures and most admired CEO programs, Waterstone’s work with clients from across North America, and ongoing study into culture as competitive advantage.
The Waterstone Culture Institute offers three interconnected services, each built around research-based practices that drive high performance teams, leaders, and cultures:
- A suite of leadership and team development programs, including the flagship Building High Performance Teams and Cultures program.
- Waterstone ENGAGE, a culture measurement and engagement program that provides data and insights essential to strengthening culture, and culture advisory and coaching services to support building and actioning a plan for culture change.
- Waterstone’s Culturepreneur Operating System, a culture curation and transformation process that helps organizations build and sustain high performance cultures.
Canadian Executive Search Market Recovery Expected by Second Half of 2021
The impact of COVID-19 across Canada forced businesses to make some quick adjustments last year. “We transitioned easily to a virtual model as our team members were already supporting searches across Canada and the U.S. via video interviews and video client-progress meetings,” said Marty Parker, president and CEO of Waterstone Human Capital. “Like many search firms, our work was drastically impacted between March and June, with many engagements being put on hold or cancelled. But business slowly resumed in the summer and has been recovering ever since.”
Forecasting the executive search business can be a difficult undertaking, said Mr. Parker, who expects a “slow but solid” recovery period lasting until late this year or early in 2022. Powering the comeback, he said, is the rising need for e-commerce and digital marketing professionals, people and culture leaders, GMs, and chief technology officers. “Manufacturing, healthcare, consumer goods and consumer durables are clearly driving this economy forward,” he added. Read more now in this special issue of ESR!
Developing Culture
“Our programs are quantifiable, sustainable and action oriented – but with the flexibility to provide custom solutions based on the needs of individual organizations,” said Ms. Bendaly. “When leaders and teams are aligned and committed to the development of a clearly defined culture, and when they have the right set of behaviors, tools, and strategies to build that culture, the organization will see significant improvement in performance across all levels.”
Related: Five Things to Consider When Creating a Company Culture
With over 20 years of experience, Ms. Bendaly focuses her work on understanding the factors critical to high performance teams and leaders. She is a Forbes contributor, host of the podcast, “Leading on Purpose,” and co-author of two books: Improving Healthcare Team Performance: The 7 Requirements for Excellence in Patient Care and Winner Instinct. Ms. Bendaly’s work in affecting culture change has also been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada, and The Journal of Interprofessional Practice.
Transforming Corporate Culture and Driving Performance in the New Workplace
Returning to the office in the wake of the pandemic will pose a lot of tough questions for businesses everywhere. Ultimately, it will be organizational culture that drives competitive advantage and performance. A new report by Waterstone Human Capital offers five drivers of culture transformation to help optimize performance. Let’s take a closer look.
Waterstone Human Capital is an executive search firm specializing in recruiting for fit and a cultural talent management organization which provides leadership development, succession planning, cultural assessment and cultural alignment consulting for entrepreneurial-minded, high-growth organizations across North America.
Mr. Parker, who founded Waterstone in 2003, has provided expert commentary on the impact and importance of corporate culture and human capital for CNBC, the National Post, Canadian Business and Profit, and has appeared on Canada AM, BNN and CP24.
Related: Why Total Well-Being is the Biggest Culture Shift to Happen in Decades
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
