“Dear Mimi and Randie,

I am writing to express my appreciation for your professional passion and commitment in helping us to envision and embrace positive change through collaboration and ownership. I sense a high degree of enthusiasm from all our guiding team members as well as the team managers who have participated in your workshops. We are eagerly anticipating the beginning of the next phase of our project as we move forward to include all associates.

From our first meeting, I sensed your passion for understanding what makes us tick. You listened to all I had to share about our situation, and you asked excellent questions to probe below the surface. You engaged team members in candid discussions to gain deeper understanding and identify consistent themes. You have been forthright in sharing your insights with me and have incorporated my contextual thoughts to better understand the “why” behind your observations.  Your use of the StrengthsFinder tool has helped us to better understand our own strengths and blind spots while clarifying what we value so much in our colleagues who have different strengths.   StrengthsFinder confirms that we can’t be everything as individuals and must collaborate for winning outcomes.

I know that our division is already working together with a more positive and productive spirit, and I strongly believe that we have only glimpsed the full potential of this movement.   As we bring others into the discussion, we will be building on our positive momentum and envisioning many new possibilities.   I feel that we can make a compelling business case for the benefits of continued work within our division and across the entire organization.    When associates feel understood and valued and also have a respectful understanding of the value of their colleagues, winning collaboration replaces self-interest, and ownership replaces deflection and delay.

I’ll close with a word about how timely it has been to be working with you.   As you know we are facing intense competition in our space, and we are in the midst of opening up a new operations site. Competition is forcing change in our strategic direction and the new operations site will introduce new challenges with regard to collaboration.   It has never been more critical for us to strengthen our collaborative ties and confirm our common ownership of our shared future.   Thank you for all you are doing to assist us in this essential effort.”