• NEW Consulting Skills Workshop (2 day)

    Many people in staff functions are shifting their roles from tactical implementers to strategic trusted advisors. As a result, they're adding more measurable value to their organizations. Here's the link to more information.

  • Jim’s Reading List

    I'm often asked, "What do you read to stay ahead of the game when there's so much going on?" In response, I've put together a list that blends fundamentals with new thinking. Here's a reading list I recommend you consider.

  • Featured Client

    FedEx Express needed to increase U.S. export volume in one of its largest US operations. By reducing silos between functions and aligning strategic goals and incentives, we helped increase volume by revenues by 23%, all with a 1,447% ROI.

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It’s the people!

Most organizations are underpowered! They aren’t getting the most from their people. The results show it. We prove every day it doesn’t have to be that way. We help leaders:

  • Connect people and teams to goals and strategy
  • Improve business results that people can control—safety, quality, delivery and costs
  • Integrate the cultural and technical aspects of organizational change–including lean six sigma–to sustain improvements
  • Align goals, strategy, processes, people and culture to drive results
  • Re-invent the communication function to add greater measurable value


Watch This Video  We’ve been working with ConAgra Foods since 2006.  This video highlights our partnership with them to improve business results through stronger leaders, increased engagement, aligned organizational systems and processes as well as a performance- based approach to managing communication.  We helped them transform the corporate communication function into a high performance team that truly represents an industry model. They’ve done what every communication department needs to do–shift their focus from generating output to producing hard, measurable outcomes with a positive ROI.

Our results are hard and measurable.

We have

  • Reduced a manufacturer’s OSHA recordables by 82 percent
  • Increased a global shipper’s revenues by 23 percent while generating a 1,660 percent return on investment
  • Reduced damage by 65 percent at a large distribution center
  • Cut waste by 18 percent at an international baking company
  • Decreased cycle time by 74 percent at a building materials company
  • Lowered turnover by 27 percent at a consumer goods company

And on and on….

The Jim Shaffer Group’s focus is on improving work—and results—that people can control.  We help some of the world’s best organizations (and those that want to be among them) get even better.  Learn more…

jim | April 16, 2013

Helping CEOs Add Value

The CEO of a Fortune 200 company had regular town hall meetings with his employees for years. When we conducted focus groups with employees to learn what they thought of the meetings, they liked what the CEO said during the town halls but when the meetings were over employees didn’t know what they were supposed [...]

jim | April 16, 2013

Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement

I’ve read most every book on engagement that’s out there. But if I had to choose only one to read, Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement: The Power and Purpose of Imagination and Free Will in the Workplace by Les Landes would be it. Here’s why. Most books on the subject say the same [...]

jim | February 26, 2013

Leaders Make the Weather

Everything a leader says and does is scrutinized for meaning because being a leader assumes importance as a form of communication, often far beyond what the leader imagines.  People watch what leaders say and don’t say, what they do and don’t do. My dear friend Roger D’Aprix, author of The Credible Corporation, tells a story [...]

jim | January 29, 2013

We Do That

A client recently asked how some companies are able to develop such strong leadership teams.  So, I spent a couple of minutes explaining how companies like IBM, P&G, 3M, PepsiCo, McDonald’s and General Mills clarify their expectations for leaders and then select, assess and develop them based on those expectations. These companies also use the [...]

jim | January 29, 2013

New Best Practice Video

Six years ago, the vice president of communication for ConAgra Foods and one of her bright, young communication team members asked me to help them take a bold step out of their traditional role. They wanted to shift their work from distributing news and information to improving real business results. Specifically, they wanted to help [...]