SOLVEDGROUPS
Organization Development
To get you in the right mindset to move forward and embrace change, Mike Cardus facilitates SOLVEDgroups: discussions designed to help you shake things up and rediscover ideas.
The Solved Method
About the SOLVED Method
SOLVEDgroups
How SOLVEDgroups Can Work For...
When you use SOLVEDgroups with people outside your workplace, you expose yourself to new perspectives. Diversity of thought leads to more resilient and novel ideas. SOLVEDgroups bring together people with different life experiences that allow them to come up with solutions you may not have considered, opening you and your organization to new ways of thinking.
Throughout this series, we’ll be following Alexandra’s journey to see how she used her SOLVEDgroups network to solve the challenge of becoming a new manager to a team used to a more micromanaging, authoritarian style.
SOLVEDgroups help you get comfortable with openly sharing challenges and getting honest feedback. These skills easily translate into your own organization, where you can create a level of trust and support. When your team feels comfortable and that their opinions are valued, it’s that much easier to open up about challenges and successes.
Throughout this series, we’ll be following a team of 12 that used SOLVEDgroups to address low levels of trust among team members and with management.
About Mike
Mike Cardus believes that any team willing to work together and be honest about what needs to change can make progress.
If your organization feels stuck in a cycle of the same problems, if you want to grow or scale your business, if you want to figure out what’s working and what isn’t, if you’re looking to make individual or organizational progress - Mike is prepared to help.
Sometimes, people within an organization become too focused on what’s happening internally and they can feel stuck with the same challenges and problems with nothing ever getting solved. Mike thrives on being the catalyst of disruptive change, allowing for true progress to emerge.
- Feel more confident in your ability to make progress on your goals
- See ways to achieve ideas that have previously seemed impossible
- Understand how solutions you may not have considered could be the ones you need
Kickstart your team
What Other Organizations Have to Say
Mike has worked with several organizations and the SOLVEDmethod has opened their eyes to a new way of facing challenges.Read the reviews below to see what they have to say about their progress.
"We twice brought Mike to our department: once for our annual leadership meeting and again for our quarterly leadership meeting. On both occasions, our directors, coordinators, and supervisors left with the knowledge required to assist them in leading their teams through change with a solution-focused lens. He has tangible skills. He has helped me develop as a leader, honing in on my skills that needed improvement and reinforcing the skills I actively use to be more effective."
- Joyelle Tedeschi, Family and Community Services Department Director at Catholic Charities
"Mike trained my leadership team in solution-focused coaching and helped bend our arc of transformation in a positive direction. His dynamic presentation is engaging and effective. We can’t get enough of this guy!"
- Christopher Spicer, Vice President of Programs at Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York
“I took an Organizational Complexity class from Michael through UB School of Social Work. I have not attended a training or other class that has offered such a benefit since earning my masters in Leadership. Mike’s mastery of knowledge and practical application of the content offers his students an invaluable learning experience. I continue to share what I have learned from Mike with my colleagues and we have all benefited immensely, and continue to do so. I highly recommend you connect with Mike, you will not be disappointed.”
- Kristin C. Rhodes, former Leadership Development Coordinator at Community Services for Every1
SOLVEDgroups FAQ
Are Your Ready for SOLVEDgroups?
WHAT ARE SOLVEDGROUPS?
SOLVEDgroups are peer groups made up of people in non-compete businesses. These groups meet to give an outside perspective to each other’s challenges and offer ideas that can help their peers make progress personally and professionally.HOW DOES THE DISCUSSION WORK?
Mike will facilitate a discussion where SOLVEDgroup members learn, challenge, and talk about ideas. Members will bring their challenges and roadblocks to their peers, who will ask questions, give suggestions, and celebrate progress.WILL I RECEIVE TANGIBLE MATERIALS?
Yes! Every month, SOLVEDgroup members will receive content and research tailored specifically to their SOLVEDgroup discussions. Mike will also send you bonus materials with more ideas and content designed to support your progress.WHAT DO SOLVEDGROUPS PROVIDE ME?
SOLVEDgroups provide an opportunity for business and personal development via two main avenues. First, they provide you access to resources. Whether those resources are people, skills, knowledge, methods, or materials, they are tools that will help you grow as an individual and as a professional. Second, SOLVEDgroups provide you with a community of peers who can help you put those resources into action and adapt them to your needs.HOW ARE SOLVEDGROUPS STRUCTURED?
SOLVEDgroups meet using Zoom from 8am to 10am on the second Thursday of each month. You will be in a group of up to 15 peers in non-compete businesses. Each SOLVEDgroup participant will also have monthly 1-on-1 coaching sessions with Mike. These sessions will last 45-90 minutes and are your opportunity to deep dive into your challenges, gain clarity, ask questions, and test out your solution ideas.WHY ARE SOLVEDGROUPS THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOU?
- A strong network of like-minded peers will support your growth, keep you focused, and help you make progress professionally.
- Monthly group sessions provide you with a consistent structure through which to examine your challenges and ideas.
- Hearing the perspectives of other leaders will help you learn from their successes and mistakes.
- Receiving a monthly stream of content, research, and tools will build a framework to support your success.
- Individual coaching sessions with Mike every month give you the chance to use his knowledge and experience to address your specific needs and come up with actionable solutions.
WHAT IS THE INVESTMENT?
SOLVEDgroups are $300/month OR invest $3000 for a full year (a $3600 value).The inspiration behind SOLVED
Is a belief in people knowing themselves and understanding that change is expected and inevitable.
Teams
Networks
- S: Situation - Understanding the situation
- O: Observation - Moving out of your siloed thinking through observation feedback
- L: Level - Assessing your current level of progress
- V: Validation - Identifying what is working to validate your success
- E: Exception - Finding your exceptions
- D: Decision & Direction - Deciding the direction you go from here
The discussions are unique to each situation, but all follow the same rough outline. SOLVED is an acronym for a process of solution-finding using specific questions to drive the discussion. Each SOLVED letter stands for a different category of questions and way of thinking about your problem.
Throughout these group discussions, Mike helps individuals and organizations quickly find what they would like to have happen, identify what skills they may already have, and identify a small progress step.
The goal of SOLVEDgroups is to make progress in a way individuals or teams see as useful.
The investment for SOLVEDgroups is $300/month OR $3000 when you sign up for a full year. That’s two months of coaching absolutely free!
Managers
Managers can use SOLVEDgroups to learn how to make employees’ concerns heard and accepted. With a solution-focused approach, employer and employee are on the same team working to make things better. Reframing their concerns as solution statements will point to actions that you as the employer can take to make a difference and improve the situation.
Throughout this series, we’ll take a look at a healthcare organization that used SOLVEDgroups to work through poor communication and a rift between old and new managers.
Below, you can download a case study about Brandon, an individual who used the SOLVEDmethod to break out of the rut he felt his career was in.
We all feel stuck sometimes, and SOLVED is the small push or support you need to regain momentum. Joining SOLVEDgroups gives you the tools to look inward and see what is working well and how much you’ve already achieved. Then, you can determine what to do more and less of to continue propelling yourself forward.
Individuals
Mike can help you and your team
“I attended the University at Buffalo Solution-Focused Leadership class Michael taught this fall. It was truly excellent, packed with content, hands on experience, discussion, and learning fun. I recommend anyone who wishes to expand their knowledge of Solution Focused coaching and leadership to take this class. I looked forward to each class, the discussions, new content, ideas, and methods. Throughout the class and after I’ve felt motivated and excited to practice a refined method of coaching with my newfound knowledge and skills in Solution-Focused leadership. Thanks!”
- Komani Lundquist, CEO & Co-Owner of Via Evaluation
“It is not often that I use the word expert, but I can find no better way to describe Michael. Having attended several of his presentations and receiving on-on-one training from him personally, I feel that my leadership skills have grown tremendously. He brings a level of fun and excitement to his team building activities and seminars, engaging even the hard-to-reach members of the team. His one-on-one executive training helped me deal with some difficult management issues I was having at the time. He provided me with the lessons I needed to take appropriate actions and strengthen my team. I highly recommend his services to anyone looking to create a leadership development program or an executive coach. His programs had a huge ROI for my company.”
- Clark Dever, Digital Marketing & Entrepreneurship Consultant
Mike offers business and personal development training in the form of SOLVEDgroups where, once a month, he will lead you and a group of up to 15 peers in non-compete businesses through the SOLVEDmethod. Each SOLVEDgroup meets monthly for two hours over Zoom. In addition, each participant will get monthly 1-on-1 coaching and consulting meetings with Mike. These calls can last from 45 to 90 minutes and are a great chance for you to work more closely with Mike, gain clarity around your way forward, ask Mike for research and ideas, and test out your ideas and scenarios for how to solve your current challenges.
Mike can help you and your team
Are you ready to make progress? I’m proud to say I’m not your average consultant. I’m more like your partner, who’s invested in the success of your business and leadership development goals.
Video Resources
SOLVEDcards to solve problems & make progress
SOLVEDcards for personal and team progress. Questions are #SOLVEDcards the images are from points of you.
