A SHARED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR GROWING COMPANIES
The Collaborative Leadership System
Help capable managers solve the right problems—together.
The Collaborative Leadership System gives your management team shared ways to establish priorities, solve problems, make decisions, navigate difficult conversations, and follow through.
Managers learn to carry more of the company’s weight—skillfully, collaboratively, and without everything rolling uphill to senior leaders.
Your managers already know how to solve problems
Most capable managers have developed their own ways of solving problems. Individually, those approaches may work quite well.
The trouble comes when managers have to solve problems together. One may want to understand root causes before discussing solutions; another may jump quickly to action. One may work through a problem methodically while another skips steps. Those differences can slow the work, create friction, or lead the team to solve the wrong problem.
The Collaborative Leadership System begins by giving managers a shared set of practical frameworks for solving problems together. That common foundation helps them work through problems more deliberately—and gives them a shared starting point for how they lead individuals and teams.
What the management team does differently
As shared ways of working take hold, you begin to see changes in the company’s day-to-day work:
Problems are investigated before solutions are proposed
Managers are less likely to spend time and money fixing symptoms or pursuing the wrong solution. Better diagnoses mean fewer false starts, less rework, and better use of the team’s attention.
Delegation matches the person and the situation
People get enough guidance and support to succeed without managers taking the work back. Over time, employees build judgment and managers gain capacity.
Follow-through becomes more reliable
Managers track commitments, catch problems earlier, and renegotiate agreements when circumstances change. Fewer things fall through the cracks, and senior leaders spend less time chasing updates or stepping in after commitments have slipped.
Priorities become clear agreements
People leave conversations knowing who will do what, by when, and what success looks like. That reduces ambiguity, missed handoffs, and the need to revisit the same commitments later.
Difficult conversations happen sooner and more skillfully
Problems surface earlier, before they turn into larger performance or relationship issues. Managers can address them directly without routinely pulling senior leaders into the middle.
Decisions have clear ownership
Decisions move faster, fewer get relitigated or pushed upward, and senior leaders spend less time making decisions their managers can own.
What the Collaborative Leadership System provides
Much of a leader's work comes down to two things: solving problems and helping other people learn to solve problems better. The CLS develops both sets of skills.
Solve problems collabratively
Managers learn practical mental models and frameworks that help them make sense of complex situations, communicate clearly, uncover root causes, make better decisions, and solve problems collaboratively.
Develop capable people
Managers learn to delegate, give feedback, coach, and work effectively with people whose styles differ from their own. They also help others build the judgment and confidence to solve problems themselves.
Build stronger, more productive teams
Managers learn to help groups clarify priorities, work through difficult issues, make decisions collaboratively, and follow through on what they agree to do.
How learning becomes reliable behavior
A workshop can create insight and shared understanding. But new skills become reliable only when managers apply them to real work, get feedback, and practice over time. The CLS is built around four connected and repeatable stages:
1. Align
Russ works with senior leaders to identify the company’s goals, the management challenges that matter most, and a small number of observable changes that would signal progress.
2. Learn
Managers develop shared mental models, frameworks, and skills through highly participatory workshops built around realistic and current challenges.
3. Apply
Between sessions, managers use what they are learning on actual problems, decisions, conversations, and working relationships.
4. Deepen
In small-group Mastery Sessions, managers work through live situations from their jobs, practice using the frameworks, and get focused feedback.
What the engagement looks like
A typical CLS engagement unfolds over six to 18 months, giving managers time to learn, apply the work, and return for focused practice before moving to the next stage.
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6 to 21 participants, depending on the size of the management team and organizational needs
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Three workshops, spaced several weeks or months apart
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Small-group Mastery Sessions between workshops
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Senior-leader alignment at the beginning
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In-person workshops when practical, with Mastery Sessions delivered virtually
“I can now much more readily zoom out from the weeds of an issue and engage in systems-level thinking about potential solutions. This has already begun to improve the quality of our team’s output—my team is clearer on our objectives, and we’re more likely to identify non-obvious root causes of problems.”
–Marie-Claire Conlin
Research Program Manager
Saint Michael’s Hospital
Built on proven work
At the heart of the CLS is the Middle Path curriculum, designed by Chris Holmberg of Middle Path Consulting and used with managers at more than 160 organizations, including technical startups and Fortune 100 companies.
Russ brings more than three decades of experience in organizational development, learning design, facilitation, and coaching, with organizations including Sun Microsystems, Roche/Genentech, SAP, Medtronic, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Hilton Worldwide.
Is the Collaborative Leadership System right for your company?
The CLS is designed for growing companies whose managers are capable and committed—but whose ways of working have not kept pace with the company’s growth.
It may be a strong fit if:
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Too many decisions and difficult problems still roll uphill to senior leaders.
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Managers perform well individually but struggle where their responsibilities intersect.
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Problems are revisited, decisions are reopened, or agreements do not consistently hold.
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You want to strengthen the management team as a whole, rather than provide remedial training for a few struggling managers.
The goal is not to make managers work or lead identically. It is to give them more consistent and reliable ways to solve problems, lead people, and work together.
The CLS Make-It-Right Commitment
I stand behind this work
The CLS asks for a meaningful investment of time, attention, and money. In return, I commit to bringing the preparation, rigor, and attention required to help your management team think, communicate, and solve problems better together.
If your organization meets the participation commitments below and you do not believe the CLS delivered meaningful value, contact me within 60 days of completing the engagement.
I’ll work with you to understand what fell short and provide targeted additional support—such as an additional Mastery Session, a focused workshop module, or coaching—at no additional charge.
What the commitment asks of your organization
The Make-It-Right Commitment assumes a few basics that help the work succeed: • Participants complete the required pre-work before each workshop. • Participants attend each workshop in full, within the program’s attendance guidelines. • Participants take an active part in workshop exercises and discussions. • Participants make a good-faith effort to apply the frameworks between sessions. • Managers and executive sponsors have the requested pre-workshop conversations with their direct reports. • Senior leaders visibly support the work and the changes participants are making.
These are the conditions under which I have seen the CLS produce its strongest results.
Build the management team your company now needs
If you are wondering whether the CLS fits your company, Russ will help you look at what is happening, what may be contributing to it, and whether the CLS is the right response.
Not ready for a conversation?
The Management System Diagnostic can help you identify where friction is consuming senior-leader time—and what deserves attention first.