Use Culture

to grow your people and grow your bottom line

About Us

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Grid®

We have been working with people at all levels of organizations in 45 different countries for over 45 years. We help employees and executives to become more productive and creative as well as healthier and more confident. Increased productivity, creativity, health, and confidence are a direct result of the quality of the relationships in an organization and the door to creating quality relationships is to build trust and respect. We accomplish this by providing our clients the impact and experience of learning how to use trust and respect as the basis of their working relationships.

How to build Trust and Respect

Much has been written on how to build trust and respect, however after 45 years we can say the most powerful and effective method is to be more honest, open, and candid in everything you say or do.

The transformational power of courage lies in the feeling it generates.
At first this explanation may seem too simple to be a realistic formula for creating something as valuable and productive as trust and respect, and yet there is a very compelling reason for making this statement.

Using honesty, openness, and candor requires courage which is why it is so often avoided as people try to find an easier and softer way to deliver their message or, even worse, decide to do nothing at all. Fear of hurting someone’s feelings, making matters worse, recrimination, confrontation and conflict are just a few of the many reasons why people hesitate, waver, or postpone. However difficult situations and problems left unattended get worse not better.

The transformational power of courage lies in the feeling it generates. Courage turns a simple moment into a moment of truth. A moment that becomes more real, is immediately felt, and always remembered. Whether the issue being considered is large or small, personal or systemic, fully understood by all involved at the time or perhaps something requiring a few days to fully process, a strong and compelling feeling is created. That feeling is trust and respect.

The initiator, though nervous and uneasy, always feels relieved and a little more confident after finding the courage to address a difficult issue that needed to be addressed. And, if not immediately, then certainly over time the receiver begins to respect the courage that was required in that moment and begins to trust that person for their honesty and openness and candor.

These are the moments when the seeds of trust and respect are sowed and begin to grow. The process is gradual, cumulative, and self initiated not prescriptive or directed.

Trust and respect are never generated from fine sounding words written on a page or broad statements made in a speech – they are a natural outgrowth of courage.
Trust and respect are never generated from fine sounding words written on a page or broad statements made in a speech – they are a natural outgrowth of courage.

All of our workshops, seminars, and interventions are designed to provide our participants with the experience of using more honesty, openness and candor in their discussions and activities. An experience that is felt is much more likely to be integrated and taken back to their workplace for implementation than an intellectual insight taken from a lecture or a book.

As an organization begins to experience more and more moments of truth from the executive suite to the shop floor trust and respect begins to grow.

The Grid Experience

The Difference is in the Learning

Our Seminars

The Leadership Grid® Seminar

Program

3 Days

The Leadership Grid Seminar is a residential program designed to increase leadership effectiveness. Based on Grid Theory developed by Drs. Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton, the seminar is the classic tool for attaining leadership excellence. Grid International Inc. offers this seminar in a public venue as well as within organizations in the US and Canada. Through a large network of associates, seminars are also offered in 30 countries worldwide in 14 languages. The learning in a Grid seminar is experiential and self-convincing. The intellectual component is presented up front in the pre-work and periodically through the session in a few short lecturettes. Participants spend 85% of the time interacting with others and learning by doing.

View Sample Schedule

GridWorks

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Program

2 Days

The GridWorks Seminar provides a learning environment through which individuals can gain a different perspective on how their behavior affects others in the workplace. Specifically, the seminar looks at practicing critique, advocating convictions, making decisions, and resolving conflict in ways that promote progress and synergy.

Maximize Your Resources

Building Spectacular Teams

Program

2-3 days but length varies based on the individual needs of the organization

Building Spectacular Teams strengthens a team’s ability to achieve the highest possible results. Activities examine soundest and actual team culture and develop strategies for identifying and bridging the gap between actual (where the team is now) and what the team itself defines as the soundest possible operation.

The Power of Teams

Building Spectacular Partnerships

Program

2-3 days but length varies based on the individual needs of the organization

Building Spectacular Partnerships (BSP) is designed for different groups of people or divisions within the same company that are meant to be working together but find themselves in conflict or deep discord. This condition can cause all manner of stress and loss of productivity and profitability. BSP provides a process for groups to heal their wounds and to gain a shared understanding of each other as well as to develop practical steps to come together and begin working with cooperation and agreement. We have used this process successfully in a number of highly contentious and long-standing situations such as management vs. union, competing healthcare organizations, branch office vs. head office, and company/supplier relationships. Of equal importance and part of the program offered, follow up sessions are critical in securing a new permanent result. Our research has shown that regular follow up has a significant impact on securing the desired result.

Expect Results

Bruce Carlson

President and CEO of Grid Canada Consulting Inc.
Advisor to the Board of Grid International Inc.

Bruce Carlson was introduced to Grid Theory over 36 years ago, and has been working exclusively in the field of organizational transformation and development, and culture change, since that time.  Bruce was initially a customer of Scientific Methods Inc. (predecessor of Grid International Inc.), and then as a Partner, President and CEO (1997 – 2016), Owner, Chairman, and now Advisor to the Board, Bruce has become a recognized expert in the design and implementation of Grid Culture Development in organization cultures around the world.

Co-Author of:

  • The Power to Change
  • Purpose, Courage, and Power
  • Building Spectacular Teams
  • Gridworks

Other professional relationships:

Bruce is a certified instructor for:

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The Leadership Circle®

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Grid International Inc.

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The DISC Personal Profile System

Bruce has lead Grid implementations and corporate change initiatives in:

CANADA

Canada

USA

USA

MEXICO

Mexico

BRAZIL

Brazil

GREAT BRITAIN

Great Britain

SWEDEN

Sweden

NORWAY

Norway

TURKEY

Turkey

RUSSIA

Russia

LEBANON

Lebanon

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia

INDIA

India

JAPAN

Japan

CHINA

China

THAILAND

Thailand

Australia

Australia

Denmark

Denmark

Indonesia

Indonesia

New Zealand

New Zealand

PHILIPPINES

Philippines

South Africa

South Africa

Vietnam

Vietnam

FINLAND

Finland

Pakistan

Pakistan

KUWAIT

Kuwait

Personal comments

Reflections; after 35 years of working with people.

Very few leaders would dispute the fact that that employees who work in an environment of trust and respect are happier, more productive, and more likely to give their best to their work and career. The logic of the foregoing is obvious and at least intellectually accepted, understood and taught in leadership courses around the world. And yet my own personal experience is that there are no more organizations today that know how to implement this methodology than there were when I began my work 35 years ago. It seems we all know how to talk about it, but we don’t seem to know how to do it. What are we missing?

When I encounter a leader today who truly understands this concept and endeavours to practice it, I find their organizations always share a number of interesting and compelling characteristics:

  •   Their people are highly motivated and engaged.
  •   Their people want to be there.
  •   Their people are solution oriented.
  •   Their people tell him or her what they need to know.
  •   Their people are committed.
  •   Their people are having fun.
  •   Their people can see a future.
  •   Their organizations are highly productive and profitable.

Leaders come in all shapes and sizes with varying degrees of ambition, drive, intellectual capacity, emotional intelligence, talent, ability, experience and vision. However, the leaders who are long term successful at building companies and creating wealth for themselves and others all have one other thing in common.

Trust and respect are the richest currencies in an organization’s life and for 45 years we have been helping companies create their own human capital.
They have the courage to be candid. Their honesty, openness, and candor generates a similar response from their people, and this is the originating source of trust and respect. With astonishing frequency trust and respect begin generating cooperation, creativity, innovation commitment productivity, fun, energy, and enthusiasm. Over the past 3 1/2 decades I have facilitated this transformation many times in many different companies and countries. Being a part of these experiences is the reason I still enjoy my work.

Testimonials

Inge Pettersson, CEO, Perstorp AB (former Neste Oxo), Sweden

“Grid development has had a remarkable impact on our organization. Our efficiency has increased, we handle more issues than a year ago, and managers’ relationships with employees have improved. I am very pleased. Grid will be a foundation for realigning our organization.”

Jim Falconer, Group Sales and Marketing Director, Acatos and Hutcheson Plc., United Kingdom

“The Grid approach works! It gave us a common culture that united a disparate organization, as well as giving us a sound methodology to tackle crucial business problems…Grid can unlock the full potential of each individual and enable teams to achieve the highest levels of synergy.“

Exxon

“Grid OD was responsible for at least several million dollars of controllable cost savings and profit increase at an Exxon plant with 4,000 employees. In addition, Grid delivered a sizable increase in employee productivity during its first year. The Grid Intergroup Conflict Solving process helped one Exxon plant avert a strike and rise from eleventh in the financial performance of the company’s plants to number one.”

Nampak

“Nampak Flexible (South Africa) experienced an exponential profit increase after adopting the Grid Strategy, leading the company to receive the prestigious Chairman Award for the Best Business of the Year 2010.”

Leonard D’Costa, Group President, Corp. Development, Piramal Enterprises Ltd., India

“The Grid…transforms hearts and minds. It is a powerful vehicle that allows honesty without its destructive impacts, thus building commitment to the organisation’s vision, values, and business goals.”

Phillippe Tafelmacher, Managing Director,Tetra Pak South Africa (Pty.) Ltd.

“Grid is much more than a course or a training program–it’s a life changing experience in a way never experienced with any previous effort or initiative. It has enlightened me to the point that I can claim today that I am a better leader, husband, and father.”

Unilever

“The impact of Grid OD on one of two Unilever subsidiaries delivered a 400 percent increase in profitability in one plant.”

Richard Illek, General Manager, Pepsico China Ltd.

“My experience in China and Russia shows me that people everywhere have the same needs and attitudes toward the values of openness, critique, advocacy, and integrity. The Grid is a truly international concept to help people to work toward these values and attain them.”

Jim Tobin, COO, Biogen Inc., USA

“I’m amazed. This was the most useful leadership-development solution I’ve found in 24 years.“

Brian Piwek, President of Overwaitea Food Group, British Columbia, Canada

“…Grid…was like someone had turned on a thousand watt light bulb because for the first time, I could see the whole room. And I could see…all the obstacles.

Then I began to understand the different dynamics and how I was impacting people. That’s why I’ve taken Grid on with such vigor in this company.…we have a tool, a way, and a goal to manage the company culture…”

Ben Edwards, Chairman Emeritus, A.G. Edwards & Sons, USA

“We used the Grid program to develop a model that has been valid for us to this day. We have reviewed it every year thereafter, but we have never changed it. Our business has changed, the times have changed, but the concepts we had were sort of timeless. They have been part of our being ever since. We did Grid and it worked.”

Jan Heiniö, President, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Japan

“In the merger process of Pharmacia and Upjohn in Japan, Grid has been an important step in building the new company and the new business culture. We intend to introduce many more of our employees to this valuable management tool. I am very pleased with the Grid concept, and expect to continue to work with this concept in the company.”

Contact Us

40 Years of Research, Development, & Success.

The Grid approach gives people the power to change by addressing the fundamental values and attitudes that influence behavior. Contact us today to get started!

Phone number:

604-763-8890

Address:

4415 Swaisland Rd,
Kelowna, BC
V1W 2X2
Canada

Email:

gridcanadaconsulting@gmail.com

Skype:

Brucarl

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