Transformed Culture Feels Like A Team-Oriented Family
"The Blueberry Council" Case Study
Meet the North American Blueberry Council
The NABC is an organization designed to provide its members with timely, market-relevant information, education, background, and even a voice in legislative and political concerns in the Highbush blueberry industry. Their primary mission is to encourage cooperation among the international blueberry community.
Life Before Sway
Prior to engaging with Sway Leadership, The Blueberry Co. was struggling with toxic and unhealthy company culture inherited from prior leadership. It should be noted that The Blueberry Co. was very, and remains to this day, proactive in creating change. They had tried most everything; they had administered company assessments, restructured jobs in hopes of enabling their employees to perform in their strength, and yet, were still struggling for growth.
Eventually, The Blueberry Co. realized that despite great internal effort, they could not make the reforms necessary for true growth. Yet, they remained open and curious and recognized a need for an outside source to support them. This is where Sway Leadership entered.
Life During Sway
Executive Coaching, Consulting, Team Training
The Blueberry company utilized three of Sway’s offerings including, coaching for their executive staff, consulting, and team trainings for the larger team. Through many conversations, the Blueberry Co. and Sway Leadership discovered there were many misunderstandings and miscommunications perpetuating the ongoing company culture.
“Amidst a leadership overhaul that was creating a tremendous amount of organizational and operational angst while also going through the stressors of a global pandemic, Ashlee’s team development workshop was a Godsend.
Ashlee helped to center our conversation, clear out the noise, focus on our listening, and lead us through a much-needed culture-building process that continues to pay dividends today. The ROI has been immeasurable.”
— Kasey Cronquist
President, North American Blueberry Council
Life After Sway
Culture Shifts To Team-Oriented, Progressive, A Family Committed To Change
Sway Leadership completed surveys in Fall 2020, and 100% of the responses indicated that employees were “not really satisfied” with their job, and that “they do too much, too quickly” or that “everything felt urgent.” After completing 6 months of work with Sway Leadership, the company culture shifted. Collectively, the current assessments told a new story, The Blueberry Co. felt “team orientated” “progressive” and like, “a family.” Today they are still doing the work, but are committed to themselves and to change.
The Blueberry Co. is now experiencing a new company culture of a healthy, family, strength, and impact of their company mission.
Sway offers a neutral entity with the capacity to look into or rather, “under the hood with you.” It is Sway’s great privilege to help illustrate what’s really going on. The idea behind our coaching is that we need to be integrated into a bigger reality that acknowledges both the good things and bad things we bring to work and the way organizational systems are helping or hindering us.