{"id":103,"date":"2014-04-13T05:19:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T00:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/annelitwin.com\/?page_id=103"},"modified":"2019-06-19T02:06:10","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T02:06:10","slug":"case-studies-suellynn-stark","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/case-studies\/case-studies-suellynn-stark\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Studies: Suellynn Stark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<article id=\"post-103\">\n<hr \/>\n<h3>\u201cWith Anne\u2019s help, staff members began to let go of adversarial attitudes. This helped us to get through the difficult task of streamlining operations.\u201d<\/h3>\n\u2014Suellynn Stark, Vice-President<br \/>\nMt. Tom Mental Health Center, Holyoke, Massachusetts\n<hr \/>\n<h6>CLIENT<\/h6>\n<p>Private non-profit mental health center<\/p>\n<h6>SERVICES<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Executive Coaching and Leadership Development\" href=\"https:\/\/annelitwin.com\/executive-coaching-and-leadership-development\/\">Executive coaching and leadership development<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Organization Development (Corporate, Not-for-profit, Entrepreneurial)\" href=\"https:\/\/annelitwin.com\/organization-development\/\">Organizational development<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h6>THE SITUATION<\/h6>\n<p>Ms. Stark had been with the center for several years, but this was a new role for her. She knew the organization needed a major culture shift to move forward, but \u201cI didn\u2019t have the experience to say, \u2018This is how I\u2019ve done it before, this is what will work.\u2019\u201d So she and her superiors sought an organization development consultant with nonprofit experience-one who understood the needs of a community mental health center. They also looked for someone genuinely warm and caring who would work with them collaboratively to establish trust. After interviewing several candidates they chose Anne Litwin.<\/p>\n<h6>THE APPROACH<\/h6>\n<p>To get to the heart of the morale problem, Dr. Litwin conducted small group meetings to let staff members voice their concerns. She learned they felt excluded from decision-making processes directly affecting their jobs, and that unclear roles led to functional overlaps. She examined departmental structure and processes to delve into the causes of the deficit, and recommended strategies for effecting change. And she coached Ms. Stark on how to interact more effectively with both her staff and her superiors. \u201cI would ask Anne, \u2018Am I on target?\u2019 and would always trust her to give me a reality check,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n<h6>THE OUTCOME<\/h6>\n<p>\u201cWith Anne\u2019s help,\u201d notes Ms. Stark, \u201cstaff members became active participants in a collaborative process and began to let go of adversarial attitudes. This helped us to get through the difficult task of streamlining operations. Had we administrators come up with the same result ourselves, it wouldn\u2019t have gone over as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the midst of Dr. Litwin\u2019s work with Mt. Tom Health Center, its parent organization merged with Behavioral Health Network, Inc. (BHN), and the center became a part of BHN. Ms. Stark, who was promoted to Vice-President and now oversees the entire health center, notes, \u201cAnne did a tremendous amount to help me move into this position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So the operation was successful\u2014but did the patient survive? Happily, yes. Ms. Stark reports that, with Dr. Litwin\u2019s help, the budget deficit has shrunk and Mt. Tom Health Center is on the road to recovery.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-103","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103\/revisions\/1842"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}