This week, we’re highlighting CEEK’s newest team member and Transformation Shepherd, Caroline Martinez.
Tell us a little about yourself and what attracted you to CEEK.
During this COVID quarantine, we have a full house. My husband and I are both working from home, our kids are having to adjust to being home, not seeing friends, and routines changing with school being online. Balancing work and home was difficult, and I needed a better work-life balance.
I knew about CEEK because I used to work with Steve Wiley, president of CEEK, when we both worked at a consulting firm many years ago. When he started CEEK and all it stands for, I was so impressed! CEEK truly believes and stands by the fact that people are an organization’s most important asset and believes that a healthy, balanced, inspired and fulfilled person is the most productive and successful employee.
I knew I wanted to join CEEK because of the way they integrate balance with prescribed ‘analog time’ to pursue passions. They offer unlimited vacation and firmly pursue an intentional values-based culture. In everything CEEK does, we absolutely “walk the walk and talk the talk”. Some organizations struggle to align their behaviors with their professed values but CEEK not only lives them, they help clients do the same.
I am excited to be part of the team and help develop and stand up CEEK’s Organizational Change Management and Transformation Strategy.
Can you tell us about what it means to be CEEK’s Chief Transformation Shepherd?
I have supported transformational change in private organizations and for clients as a consultant for more than 20 years. The majority of my career has been spent navigating and tailoring plans and solutions for clients that promote seamless transformation throughout organizations.
Everybody manages change differently and it can be scary for employees and strenuous on an organization to implement drastic changes. As Chief Transformational Shepherd, I will be developing and employing CEEK’s Organizational Change Management and Transformation Strategy.
With a focus on delivery value, outcome, and adoption, I help customers deliver long term results and change through focusing on the change effort as a project with specific, tailored steps to follow that ensure adoption. Building key partnerships, facilitating workshops, and promoting ongoing employee engagement are all part of that strategy to drive adoption of the change. I tackle and solve complex issues, define scope, and translate strategies into defined business objectives all while managing program cost and benefits.
Change management involves a lot of moving parts. I shepherd those parts and make them manageable.
How did you get into the field?
Helping drive change came naturally to me. I began my career working with many divisions at General Electric Financial Services facilitating workshops to streamline operational efficiencies. Working with key stakeholders and division leadership, I took complex problems and broke them down into actionable and measurable workplans to increase revenue and save costs. From there, I have worked with many organizations to help transform processes and systems. I have developed and executed strategic initiatives at Fortune 500 corporations as well as worked on Change Management consulting engagements for smaller firms. I have helped teams transition from analog to digital automation, helped teams who had a lot of resistance to change, worked with teams to help them understand why their change was necessary, the benefits, and what it would take to adopt the new changes, and assisted firms with adjusting to mergers and acquisitions.
What are you working on now?
Since joining CEEK, I have been developing the CEEK Transformation Strategy assets. I have employed these assets with several existing customers. I am also using them to help win new customers. Our Transformation Strategy and Organizational Change Management (OCM) practices are deeply rooted in Prosci’s ADKAR methodology and enhanced by thoughts from Kotter’s OCM practices, and Project Management Institute (PMI), Project Management practices.
In addition to OCM work, I am serving as Client Relationship Manager for several customer engagements/contracts and attaining several coaching and product certifications.
So what’s next for you then?
With CEEK’s intentional, values-based culture for an engaged, inspired workforce, I will be integrating our Transformation Strategy and Organizational Change Management practice to complement our other products and services. Combining the Transformation Strategy with our Workforce Engagement, Culture, and Organizational Performance services, we are well positioned to help customers establish, transform, and grow successful organizations.
