In October of 2017, the Communications Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory underwent a significant restructuring in which 20% of the division was laid off, more than half of the people in the department were assigned different roles, and a new leadership team was put in place. All of this had a direct impact on both morale and performance.

An environment of distrust was created – people were not connected, fearful of the future, and lost site of the laboratory’s mission.

The leadership team knew it had to do something. In 2018, we began training with Mark Kamin & Associates. These miracle workers came in and transformed apathy and resignation, dissolved in-fighting, and got out of the way what was in the way of being a high-performing division. 

People who admitted they were surviving their jobs and co-workers for decades, not just as a result of the restructuring, began creating new futures for themselves at the lab.  Not only were new initiatives launched with collaboration across functional boundaries, the frequency of Communications being sought after for its strategic expertise increased dramatically.