Recently I was asked the question on a podcast: “What do people get when they work with Civility Partners?
My answer:
“You’ll get direct, honest and empathetic information. We care very much about our mission to create work environments across the globe where people feel respected and valued. That’s very important to all of us, and you will get every ounce of our energy to help you get to that place.”
That’s not a marketing line. That’s who we are.
We’re a small but mighty company that believes deeply in the work we do — helping organizations become more civil, more humane, and ultimately, more successful and profitable because of a positive work culture.
That conversation also got me thinking about other consulting firms we’ve come across doing our work – namely, we’ve crossed paths with Korn Ferry and Ernst & Young (E&Y) recently, two of the most recognized consulting firms in the market.
A client chose us over Korn Ferry to help them with their culture. And as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in a sexual harassment class action law suit, I read through E&Y’s analysis report of the employer’s harassment policy and training program.
In both cases I saw just how different our approach is from these gigantic firms, and decided we need to blog about it!
Inflexible Approach vs. Discovery Approach
A world-renowned destination resort found itself in crisis when a large group of staff went on strike – upon their return the distrust was through the roof. Managers and leaders weren’t so frustrated about the strike itself – it was more about the behavior they witnessed from their line staff while on the picket line. In super simple terms, managers and leaders felt insulted by what they read on the picket signs and saw on social media, making it hard for them to happily jump back into the close working relationships they’d had with the line staff pre-strike.
After receiving a proposal from Korn Ferry to help them address this issue, the resort determined they needed something different. According to them, Korn Ferry’s proposal was too focused on compliance and their plan was too rigorous, in that there was no room for flexibility. Korn Ferry had presented their plan and declared that this plan was what the organization needed.
The resort knew that they needed more flexibility, more empathy, and a different kind of expertise. We shared that while we had a fairly good idea of the types of things we could do to help them rebuild trust and a more positive culture, we really couldn’t offer any clear plan until we’d done some discovery in the form of listening sessions and interviews.
We know there isn’t a compliance-focused approach to resolving conflict, rebuilding faith in each other, and healing relationships – and the resort agreed.
So they chose us, not because Korn Ferry lacks expertise, but because they wanted connection, honesty, and a plan designed specifically for their people and the complexities of their situation.
To date we have held many listening sessions that resulted in several restorative conversations and conflict mediations. We’ve been delivering leadership coaching, and we partnered with the resort to create an action plan to rebuild their culture through better hiring and onboarding practices, equipping line managers to focus on culture just like they do on operations, adjusting the morning huddles to ensure they’re inclusive, and implementing micro-learning programs led by the leadership team. We’ve also helped leaders build a bridge with the union leadership, and they will continue to work together to avoid strikes in the future.
Ultimately, we helped this group operationalize their culture.
Compliance Approach vs. Human Approach
Recently, I was hired as an expert witness for an international airline dealing with a class action lawsuit due to sexual harassment complaints involving pilots and flight attendants during layovers. I was asked by the Plaintiffs’ attorney to comment on the airline’s approach to end the harassment over a 10 year period, including a review of their various training programs, policies, guidelines, reporting options, and more.
One of the items I reviewed in this project was a report by E&Y, who’d been hired by the airline a few years prior to do the same review, just directly for the airline. Unfortunately, the airline did not ask E&Y to dive into their culture, or for advice on how to improve it in order to minimize and end harassment. So, the resulting report and recommendations from E&Y were all about policy, training, anonymous reporting, and compliance.
Had we been approached by the airline to do that review, though, we would’ve said from the get-go that we will review those compliance items AND would NOT take them on as a client unless they’d let us review and make recommendations about their culture, too.
That’s because people don’t avoid harassing others due to the company policy – they avoid harassing others because they care about the people they work with and because the culture leaves no room for that behavior. E&Y had it all wrong, and I was, quite frankly, a little shocked to see that no one at E&Y had suggested the airline go deeper and look at what in the culture was facilitating harassment. By not advising the airline to do so, they really did the airline a disservice.
Each of these experiences revealed something powerful about how different firms approach workplace culture. Every consulting organization brings strengths, but when it comes to the emotional, messy, deeply human work of culture change the approach matters just as much as (perhaps even more so) than the outcome.
Let’s see the difference:
Korn Ferry
Korn Ferry is one of the biggest names in the consulting world. It’s a global powerhouse known for its structured frameworks, leadership assessments, and organizational design strategies. Their model is built for scale and consistency, and when an organization needs systems and structure, Korn Ferry can deliver.
Strengths:
Their strength lies in systems. They help organizations identify patterns, clarify hierarchies, and create frameworks that improve alignment and performance. For leadership development, succession planning, or restructuring, their tools are tried and tested.
Limitations:
In our experience, structure doesn’t equal connection. The resort that chose us needed to repair relationships and restore trust between leaders and employees. They didn’t need a diagnostic survey or a three-ring binder of recommendations. They needed empathy, conversation, and visible care for their exhausted and hurt workforce. When an organization is hurting, people aren’t looking for methodology, they’re looking for meaning.
Lesson Learned:
Structure can’t substitute for sincerity. Culture isn’t fixed by a model; it’s healed with compassion and courage, and a framework to help everyone in the workforce rebuild their relationships.
Ernst & Young (EY)
EY is one of the “Big Four” and synonymous with analytical rigor. Their work is data-driven, compliance-focused, and backed by some of the most sophisticated tools in the industry. They bring precision to every project, ensuring accountability, documentation, and measurable outcomes.
Strengths:
EY excels at analysis. They can dissect complex systems, uncover inefficiencies, and provide insight into how policies and compliance processes can be improved. For financial, legal, or operational issues, that precision is invaluable.
Limitations:
When the problem is human, like harassment, discrimination, or deep-seated mistrust, numbers can only tell part of the story. As an expert witness on that international airline case, I saw firsthand how data-driven approaches can miss the human experience. A review for lack of compliance can identify patterns, but it can’t repair broken trust or create a culture intolerant of harassment.
Lesson Learned:
True culture change requires more than data and compliance. It requires empathy, and a consultant who will point out that harassment is not a compliance issue, but a human one.
Civility Partners
Civility Partners blends data and strategy with humanity. We use data to diagnose workplace culture issues and uncover root causes, but we don’t stop there. We roll up our sleeves and work directly with the people living in the culture every day so that we can empower them to rebuild their culture together as a team.
Strengths:
When organizations bring us in, they get expertise and partnership. Along with that, they get:
- Real relationships with consultants who care deeply about your workforce and their need to feel valued and respected.
- Honest feedback from experts who will tell you the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable, because that’s how growth and change happens.
- Empathy and energy. We care deeply about people and our mission to create civil work environments across the globe, and you’ll feel that in every interaction.
- Tailored solutions. We don’t recycle programs; we build a custom plan in partnership with you that fits your challenges, once we understand them.
- Sustainable transformation. We help clients build systems and habits that make civility the norm, and we can back that claim up with data from our clients.
Limitations:
Some might see us as a smaller and therefore less capable consultant, especially if you work in a giant multi-billion or multi-national company. But, we see it as nimble, authentic, and able to meet people where they are. We have indeed worked with giant companies including Chevron, Embraer, and NASA. We got you, no matter the size.
Lesson Learned:
Culture change doesn’t happen through compliance or structure alone. It happens when people feel seen, heard, and empowered to take ownership of their workplace environment. That’s where real transformation begins.
The Heart of Civility
At the end of the day, what people get when they work with Civility Partners is people.
People who are honest.
People who care.
People who believe that kind accountability is imperative to positive change.
Culture isn’t fixed by process alone. It’s fixed by humans helping humans. That’s what we do best.
If you’d like to start learning more about what we do and how we can help your organization, see this simple flyer for the short version, or peruse our website for more. You can also download our free resource bundle to explore practical tools and insights for building a more positive, civil work environment.
