Clarity. Leaders today are asked to make decisions faster than ever often with an abundance of data but little meaningful insight. Uncertainty, unpredictability, and ambiguity are increasingly the norm for leaders as they are asked to answer important questions like: 

• Where are we going over the next 3-5 years? 
• How do we figure out what’s working and what’s not? 
• Where do we start with launching this new, high-priority initiative? 
• How do we bring stakeholders to consensus on our plan to move forward? 

Across the more than 2,000 projects Vivayic has completed for clients, we have helped clients answer these questions hundreds of times. Early on we named these “clarity” projects. They have been some of the most valuable services we offer. For example: 

• A clarity project to help define the core framework for a new curriculum in 2009, gave our client the means to describe the value of their technical assistance approach which led to a 5X expansion of their project work over the next decade. 

• A client approached us in 2015 with the goal of providing a parallel, online option for a certification training program that was only available through in-person training. We helped bring stakeholders to the table and arrive at a solution that provided benefit to the local training providers while bringing an online option online that now serves more than 120,000 people.  

• An education foundation approached us in 2022 to help facilitate a process of getting input to re-imagine the direction and type of programming offered to fulfill its mission.  That foundation is now in the first stages of launching a $10M programmatic shift that will focus its impact in a way to have greater benefit on youth and engage stakeholders.  

• A company with 5 separate learning functions across their 2,000-person organization asked Vivayic to plan and facilitate a series of workshops to arrive a shared set of processes, tools, and frameworks so that these functions could support one another and business partners would have a more consistent learning and development experience.  

Why do clients ask Vivayic to facilitate these clarity projects?

1. Perspective. We have the benefit of working with hundreds of different clients over two decades – we’ve seen and experienced a lot. That experience allows us to bring a different and outside perspective to the situation you face.  
   
   
2. Balance of Excellence and Practicality. Getting stuff done is in our DNA – most of our projects are fixed-fee and deliverable-based. We don’t get paid more by helping you dream up something bigger or by taking longer. We bring innovative ideas and approaches, and then we get focused on helping you find the answer you need.  
   
   
3. Trust. Trust is earned in every interaction and exchange. And trust becomes paramount when you care about the people and the purpose they work to fulfill. We’ve been doing this work for nearly 20 years and expect to do so for many more. That only happens when we earn trust.  

If you are a leader faced with a similar question of “how do I move forward?” here are five suggestions based our experience: 

• Answer the question, “What problem needs to be solved?” Write your first draft and then socialize and iterate that answer until you have agreement with key stakeholders and until you have acute clarity.  

• Understand as much as you can about the people most affected by the problem and potential solutions. Human-centered design isn’t just for product design and marketing, it helps inform the design of organizational decision-making, as well.  

• Select an effective and appropriate method to arrive at a solution. Depending on the problem to be solved, there are a variety of tools or methods that can be utilized to help you and your team arrive at solutions for consideration. The field of organization design offers many useful models and methods. 

• Trust the process. The most difficult part for leaders is to trust that a methodical approach will yield results. Perhaps because popular media has led us to believe there are these “lightning bolt” moments where solutions are identified. Most often, we find the process unearths great ideas already there and present them in a way to have meaningful discernment.  

• Identify metrics that everyone can use as a “north star” for the next steps. As equally important to getting clarity of the problem is to get clarity on how success will be measured. These projects usually lead to new initiatives where teams are assembled to make things happen. Giving your team the solution architecture and a clear set of metrics is a gift that helps ensure leaders get what they want and need.   

If you are interested in a partner on your clarity efforts, reach out for free, no-obligation discovery meeting with one of Vivayic’s senior consultants.