company therapy

A friend of mine contacted me last week. She was having problems with a long term business relationship. She was unsure what she wanted to do. Stay. Leave. Renegotiate. She came to me based on my own recent personal experiences.

It was a year ago this month that Epoch had reached an impasse. We had been in business 19 years. We remained creatively viable. We had just completed our second feature. We were financially prosperous. By all accounts we were viewed as successful. And we were, except our business and relationship was going through inexorable changes.

A series of events led to questioning the long term stability of our partnership. We had different ambitions. Different visions for the company. And, different views of one another. This was building over time and had finally come to the surface. I'll spare the sordid details although that's what you probably want to know. That's for a different posting. Or maybe not. There are limits to my transparency. The point is what we did to resolve our differences.

Initially we tried to hash it out ourselves. This wasn't working. We couldn't evaluate each other or ourselves with any objectivity. The only things we seemed to agree upon is together we created a unique business environment and we were stronger together than apart. We also knew we couldn't resolve our problems by ourselves. We needed help.

We looked to hire an outside consultant. Someone who could conduct a fair evaluation of the company. We talked to only one company, The Lookinglass Consultancy and hired them. The Lookinglass is the married team of Charles Day and Chris Tardio. They gave us a proposal and began a seven week process. During this process, they interviewed the partners multiple times, all key personnel and traveled to all three of our offices. At the end of the seven weeks, we were presented with a document detailing who we were, who we are, and who we can become. It changed our perspective. We agreed to most of their findings and created a new beginning to old relationships. Where Epoch is today is due in large part to the outcome of that process.

I recommended Lookinglass to my friend and to many others over the year. I've come to realize that like therapy what you put into it is what you get back in return. There is no magic formula. As great as Chris and Charles are at analyzing the pieces from a human and business perspective, there are limits. No consultant or shrink can cure your problems. Yes, they can provide a great structure and new perspective but ultimately you need to decide can I make this work. Do I want to make this work. They only reflect what is already inside of your company, they do not create it.

Consultants, like the Lookinglass, provide the compass, the map and the supplies but it is the partnership (or the business) who takes the journey.