Collaborative Transformation®:
The People Factor

Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, CT Labs is made up of a team of strategic planners and expert facilitators who work closely together to design collaborative transformation (that’s the CT) solutions for clients that increase situational trust and shift cultures towards greater health.

Phil Culhane started developing the CT tools and methodologies in the late 1990s with Christina Marie Comeau while they were employees of a leading Canadian systems integration firm. Both had extensive experience with Information Technology implementation projects, and both knew that most implementations were failures – whether due to time, budget, outcomes or all three. From an undying curiosity around that basic fact, CT Labs was born. They did extensive research, first to confirm the quantity of projects that failed (the Standish Group holds that over 70% of large implementations are failures or “challenged”) and the elements that led to the success or failure of a given project. Their analysis determined that neither the processes nor the technologies were the failure points, but that in fact the greatest determinant of success or failure was the people factor.

Phil continues to move the work forward in a human-centric manner, seeking to improve the overall systemic health of highly complex working environments.

Phil works with stakeholder groups to create strategic alignment around visions and outcomes through complexity-based collaborative engagements. He’s dedicated to helping organisations and systems operate more effectively and efficiently. He designs and facilitates executive single and multi-day retreats, conferences, and events that enable people to reach consensus and develop (achievable and actionable) action plans to move forward on large change initiatives. This work is usually coupled with long-term change management projects to enable whole-system transformation. In an ideal world, the ‘end result’ is the establishment of a collective governance model that guides the organization forward. Basically, he works in complexity to help people who are solving the world’s wicked problems.

Fiona is a dynamic group facilitator and systems analyst for strategic sustainable development. She uses the strength of innovative and focussed facilitation methods and tools combined with high-level planning frameworks to support people in navigating complex issues and understanding current states and future success. She is trained in various participatory and systemic facilitation techniques for workshops, strategic planning initiatives, stakeholder engagement and consultations. She also offers experience in change management and technical writing.

Lise is an entrepreneurial and dynamic management consultant with 16 years of experience bringing together key stakeholders from all levels of government, private sector and non-government organizations nationally and internationally to resolve complex issues, build consensus, engage leadership and build governance. Through a highly collaborative process, Lise has facilitated the development of sound and practical strategic plans, transforming vision to concrete action, building productive teams, and measuring success. As a people-person with a curiosity and desire to enable people to do their best work and organizations to realize their potential, she strives to transfer her knowledge and skills to others to build individual and organizational capability for her clients. Lise is an MBA graduate and has an undergraduate degree in communications and management and public policy with certifications in various facilitation methods.

Bryn is a bilingual strategic business analyst, facilitator, and business transformation architect dedicated to helping businesses and systems operate more effectively and efficiently. Committed to increasing alignment, engagement, and collaboration within organisations, Bryn’s services typically fall into the following buckets: stakeholder engagement, user needs analysis, business process and organizational design, information management, and performance measurement and executive dashboarding. Bryn helps clients identify and develop new service delivery models to help modernize and rationalize their operations, and has extensive experience providing synthesis and analysis on core business issues, particularly for organisations creating new teams and services, undergoing cultural changes, and embarking on significant IMIT and service rationalizations.

CT Labs: Building trust and guiding cultural shifts

Far more than simple “change management”, the CT methodology has been built around the way people think, the way people work, and the need we all have to work effectively in service of a greater good (as far-fetched as that sounds in these jaded times!). The processes and tools and methodology that make up the growing CT toolkit have been built around the way people actually think and actually work, and enable individuals and groups to work together effectively.

CT has been used consistently to build situational trust, to engage stakeholders effectively, to get buy-in that is resistant to the effects of time, and to enable cultures to shift, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, and always towards greater health and more useful outcomes.