About Us

Undertaking strategic or change initiatives.

Established in 2005, Dr. Cyndi Laurin created Guide to Greatness® to help companies experiencing challenges faced when undertaking innovative, strategic initiatives. Oftentimes, companies have high hopes when launching, only to feel like their efforts are derailed when results are not as expected…or as fast as expected. 

Senior leadership tends to respond by spending valuable time and resources IN the business rather than ON the business, creating further challenges and lack of clarity to team members in prioritizing their work to support these initiatives. 

As a result, management tends to further tighten controls and unwittingly kills the natural creativity and innovative spirit of their employees.

Cyndi works to re-establish GREATNESS from a fresh and innovative perspective. She defines GREATNESS as 1) having an extraordinary product or service, 2) treating people impeccably well, and 3) expanding the vision far beyond the boundaries of the organization. 

With a deep understanding of the organizational psyche and what engages teams, she tailors solutions specific to each client’s needs.

Most of today’s business resources rely too heavily on trying to emulate another company’s success.

Books, webinars (and yes, many consultants) tend to focus on what another business did, rather than the undercurrent that drove the right thinking and behaviors that led to their success. Most companies already have the core elements to drive a sustainable competitive advantage, but trying to do things another company did simply isn’t going to get you the same results.

She developed the “Four Pillars of Organizational Greatness” to quickly assess how an organization’s support system impacts engagement and innovation as part of their DNA. 

When working together, these element can either fuel or hinder achieving organizational GREATNESS. As many clients she works with are seeking higher levels of employee engagement, she created two psychology of change models: “The Thinking Wheel” and “AVTAR” to facilitate transformative results. 

One of Cyndi’s personal mantras is “go within or go without.” The models she developed follow this line of thinking and allow collective transformation to occur from the inside out. This process is far more powerful than trying to copy something that worked for someone else.

RESOURCES

Innovative Methods for
Competitive Advantage

Be a Frontline H.E.R.O.

A Parable to Propel
Your Job & Life

Be a Frontline H.E.R.O.

A Parable to Propel Your Job & Life

Released in July 2018 as Cyndi’s first parable-based business story, details the inner workings of engaging employees to provide an optimal customer outcome through improving the manager experience.
One of Amazon.com’s #1 New Release in Business Leadership Training, “Be a Frontline H.E.R.O.” has helped many managers propel their teams. Many managers who operate without a framework tend to parent their team, rather than manage, leaving them vulnerable to the pitfalls of ineffective management. Quick read packed with five easy-to-use and readily applicable tools.

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The Rudolph Factor

Finding the Bright Lights that Drive Innovation in Your Business

The Rudolph Factor

Finding the Bright Lights that Drive Innovation in Your Business

Released in 2009, details the inner workings of GREATNESS at THE BOEING COMPANY’S renowned C-17 PROGRAM’s cultural transformation (two time Baldige recipient).
The Rudolph Factor was one of BusinessWeek.com’s “20 Great Summer Reads” and has been noted in MWorld, Quality Digest and has been featured in over 70 notable national and international publications. Cyndi was granted sole authorized access to chronicle how the people engaged in transforming the C-17 Program. The magic truly is in the people.

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Catch! A Fishmonger’s Guide to Greatness

Stop Floundering and Become More Effective in Your Life and Work

Catch! A Fishmonger’s Guide to Greatness

Stop Floundering and Become More Effective in Your Life and Work

Released in 2005, details the inner workings of GREATNESS at the WORLD FAMOUS PIKE PLACE FISH MARKET.
Over 80,000 copies sold; translated into 17 languages; and winner of the IPPY Book of 2005 in the Business/Career Category. “Catch!” highlights the underlying driving forces causing the Pike Place Fish Market’s crowd-pleasing antics and famously fun work environment.

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What’s a Rudolph,
you ask?

People who tend think “out-of-the-box” have been labeled change agents, intrapreneurs, outliers, square pegs…or simply don’t fit in. Despite many leaders wanting innovation and disruptive thinking from their team members, when it shows up, it tends to be met without open arms. I’ve never understood this phenomenon, having been ostracized myself for bringing exactly the innovative or disruptive thinking a company hired me to do.

It dawned on me one day that my experiences resembled Rudolph, the beloved, red-nosed character we all love and cherish during the holidays. What most do not know is that Rudolph’s challenges, unique talents, and successes parallel many of today’s highly creative thinkers. We’re characters alright with unique perspectives of business (and who can become somewhat of an outcast), yet in the end like Rudolph, use our unique thinking to solve the problem at hand.

Embracing Rudolph Thinkers: Unlocking Your Secret Weapon

Alas, your creative and passionate contributors sometimes do not fit well by nature of their unique, involuntary thinking styles. While we believe everyone has innovative thinking in some area of their lives, a small percentage of us utilize our talents in the business arena. 

Encompassing roughly 10 percent of every organization, our contribution is grossly untapped as a result of prevalent organizational political and reward structures. 

You may not know who the Rudolphs are on your team because many of us  have learned to stay under the radar. We are systems thinkers who connect the dots others often do not see. We are highly engaged in our work and tend to find the joy in it no matter the work at hand if we know we’re making an impact. 

The non-glamorous side of us is that we can be perceived as a threat or a problem because our inquisitive minds tend to ask why we do things the way we do which can rock the boat or upset a culture that is traditionally set in their ways. 

As a result, many of us have colorful career paths as we look for greener pastures where our systems thinking, impact-seeking, and passion for making things better is appreciated.

Leveraging Your Team for
Organizational Greatness

Every company has team members who may have Rudolph-like characteristics, but most lack a system for identifying, nurturing, and leveraging this talent to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

The Four Pillars of Organizational Greatness, along with The Thinking Wheel, AVTAR, and decades of working with a variety of clients in a wide range of industries has given me the right conditions to create a proven system to collect your teams’ greatest ideas and opportunities for growth, and drive these opportunities through the execution phase.

Cyndi (Crother) Laurin, PhD
Founder
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