Reflection assignment

Feb. 15, 2014

Kristina Petro
JDH Pacific
My teams client was JDH Pacific, a small manufacturing and supply
chain company in Norwalk, CA. JDH has offices in the US and China where
their products are produced. We were asked to assess their culture as a
senior member of the leadership team said, We do not have a culture.
During the contracting phase, we confirmed that we would interview a cross
section of team members in both a large group setting and 2 on 2 with the
same questions to get our finger on the pulse of JDHs culture. We did not
commit to providing recommendations on next steps or implementation.
Harly, a Pepperdine EMBA student, requested our assistance with the project,
however once we arrived on site, we determined that our client was Donald,
the owner and CEO of JDH. Donald, our primary client map, was the person
with whom we finalized the contract.
Our team had a very collaborative and client focused approach to our
engagement. We finalized our list of open ended questions to ensure
consistency before starting our interviews. After our day of interviews, we
worked together to roll up common themes and create our deliverable.
During our presentation, we decided to go into the room and have a
discussion with Donald instead of listing the issues. This allowed us to work
with him instead of potentially putting him on the defensive. It also helped

ensure that he was on board and will hopefully make him more likely to take
the feedback and implement changes in his organization. After our 1:1 with
Donald, he brought his senior leadership team into the room and he led the
discussion with them. He discussed what he felt were the key insights and
next steps on several of our findings. Along with his management team, he
made a commitment to create positive change at JDH.
I brought previous experience in client service and consulting to the
team as well as my attention to detail and helping my team remain on point
and focused. I felt this assignment hugely contributed to my professional
development. Along with my team, we were able to provide real time
feedback to each other in a supportive environment. Im very pleased to be
on a team with two senior leaders on other organizations, as well as people
do not work in my industry. The one thing we will need to continue focusing
on is making sure we are listening/seeing/hearing the data around us and not
putting too much emphasis on completing our tasks.
While this assignment was very much in line with work I did as an
external HR consultant, I still felt there was much to learn about OD and
consulting. Most of this learning came from my colleagues and from Martys
sage advice about matching the clients energy and demeanor as well as
being cognizant of the data that was around us, rather than solely focusing
on the work. Another good learning for me was not holding bias and listening
to all of the data before making assumptions. Even after forming an

assumption, I was challenged to not let that color or bias my thoughts about
the organization or any one individual or team.
Personal Reflection
Wow! What a week! Between learning group formation and paying $40
a day for powdered eggs, Im not sure what was more difficult for me to
stomach. Personally, I feel the anxiety around learning group formation was
silly. I had no trepidation about landing in a group. In the end, everyone
would have a home. Once we got into the circle though, I was concerned
about the amount of time it would take to finish. I came to grad school to
learn and often feel that Im paying a lot of money for others group therapy.
At times, I wonder if I choose the right program and this week I was debating
if I should transfer to a program with a classroom learning format. I heard
that the practicums are more work focused, so I am excited about that. I also
thought about it and figured I landed here for a reason, so I want to see how I
feel after France. This experience mostly left me with zero patience and the
knowledge that some people dont grow up, they just get older.
I felt there was a huge lack of perspective. Our learning groups were
responsible for one three day consulting assignment and then its just a
study group. Theres no reason anyone cant reach to a friend outside of the
group if I they have a question. I feel everyone in the cohort has a unique
skillset and perspective that might be more or less relevant to me at any one
point, and do not intent to reserve my questions for my group. Given that it
was never discussed that one cannot go outside his/her learning group for

questions, I do not understand all of the dramatics. Most of our project

teams are randomly selected, so Im sure I will have to work with challenging
people at some point.
I took the card exercise seriously and after spending a day listening to
several of my classmates make the circle all about them (which I will admit
was more about everyone else allowing it, myself included) I put a huge
focus on not wanting anyone who I felt was high drama. I put that on my
card and read it out loud each time I presented. Our experience in the room
served to help me remove some people on my nice to have list and put
them on the heck no! I didnt expect that I was going to 100% get what I
wanted and I didnt. But to quote the very wise, Heather McCabe, I was
wearing my big girl pants and totally fine with where I landed. My group is a
lot of fun and we had a ton of laughs in our group.
The best learning from this past week was definitely from the
consulting engagement. I really enjoyed interacting with the client. It was a
good change of pace from my internal Learning and Development Project
Manager role at Deloitte and left me excited to go back to external
consulting at some point. I had never worked in the manufacturing industry
before, so that was interesting. The culture and climate were so different to
my experiences in large consulting firms.
The first major difference I noticed was the neighborhood. Many homes
and businesses in Norwalk had bars on the doors and we were hard pressed
to find a place that looked safe for lunch. En route I noticed a few people on

the street who looked like extras in Breaking Bad. Once inside JDH, the
slightly dingy white walls with mismatched furniture and a Koi that had
outgrown his small tank posed a stark contrast to the high tech look of my
San Francisco office. The conference room wasnt clean and the art on the
wall was framed pictures of machine parts.
At this time, I was seriously considering my ability to help this client as
I felt I wasnt going to understand the issues and culture. Then Harly and
Donald walked in the room, we started talking and I realized that people and
systems are the same everywhere. The issues are the same, just the
packaging is different. This was a good lesson to me about checking my
biases at the door and being open to the possibility that even without deep
insight into a particular industry or sector, I can still be of service.
As I stated on the last day, the best gift I received last week was
having Kristyn in my group. While I suspect that she was challenge me the
most if we work together again, I cannot emphasize how much I learned just
listening to her present to the client. I am glad that I got my wish list item
of someone with deep OD experience on the team. I think she will be a huge
asset to my learning. I hope we get to work together again on one of the
practicums as I still have much to learn from her.