When the colour green is mentioned during strategic team meetings at Computershare, everyone knows that signals moving into creative overdrive. Later, the colour red signifies it is decision-making time.

"We're using a new tool to improve the overall communications within our company, one that makes meetings more effective and where real ideas gush," says Sonia Kusleika, manager of human resources and organizational development at Montreal-based Computershare Trust Co. of Canada, a leading financial-services and technology provider to the global securities industry. "It centres on recognizing people's strengths and leveraging those strengths."

Kusleika is referring to the Smart for Life productivity platform developed by Bob Wiele, founder and chief creative officer of One Smart World (OSW).

The program is used to inventory and manage human capital or "brainpower" and refine collaboration and communication by reducing conflict, clarifying objectives and increasing understanding of individual styles.

Photo courtesy of One Smart World
One Smart World founder and chief creative officer Bob Wiele has used his experience to develop his Smart for Life platform.

In Wiele's view, success in business is measured by the effectiveness of day-to-day conversations.

"When conversations break down people become disengaged, performance drops, productivity suffers, innovation ceases. Organizations that learn to optimize their communication effectiveness will create a key competitive advantage," he says.

The company's platform helps people and organizations understand conversation, he says. "We provide them with the tools and techniques for effective and efficient interactions in the workplace."

Recently appointed CEO Chris Besse is commercializing OSW and steering its growth internationally. Currently based in Collingwood, the company plans to move its head office to Toronto in May.

"Today, the company works with organizations across North America, helping them tap the potential of their teams," says Besse.

An estimated $300 billion is lost in the United States every year because of poor productivity, and major corporations are grappling with the challenge of harnessing employees' talents and resources, he adds.

"In our approach, the key to driving productivity isn't in cost-cutting, departmental re-engineering or increased R&D, but rather in a company's abilities to harvest the intellect of their human capital," he says.

Wiele, who has spent 30-plus years examining how people communicate and collaborate, believes that, in any conversation, there are four mental spaces in which people operate: Conversations to generate creative ideas and insights; conversations to understand information, situations, people and the world around them; conversation to make decisions; and those that take action, initiative and accountability.

"People are dynamic," Wiele says. "We all have our own unique operating styles. There are skills we access in our conversations that we enjoy and are really good at, while there are others which we have difficulty with and tend to avoid.

"When people interact, these preferred and suppressed operating styles often clash, causing breakdowns in our dialogue," he says. "These breakdowns have a negative impact on a work environment's effectiveness."

Rob Nihill

Since Wiele launched the company in 2000, OSW has developed the instruments of conversational skills and uses them to shape the positive outcomes of conversations. It also has an online profiling tool that provides immediate feedback on personal strengths, communications style and weaknesses.

Wiele, who has worked for clients such as Shell Canada, CIBC, BC Hydro and IBM, refers to the program as 4D-i - the premise being four colours of high performance.

Each dimension is symbolized by a colour - essentially the colours of a traffic light - where red signifies a decision-making dimension; yellow is understanding; green is creativity; and white is personal spirit or set of core beliefs.

"The beauty of this tool is in the simplicity of its language," says Rob Nihill, president of Toronto-based Performance Associates International, which develops and implements sales-effectiveness programs.

"We use it specifically when training sales teams," he says. "The platform helps structure a conversation so that sales rep and customer are on the same wavelength. It builds trust and a true connection with the customer."

David Gouthro, a management consultant with The Consulting Edge in Vancouver, likes the online feature, as well as the integration of intelligence assessment and the productivity improvement process.

"When a team member in a meeting says 'Let's shift to green,' everyone understands they are now looking for different ways to find solutions to problems," Gouthro says. "Colour coding makes it easily understandable, easy to recall, and injects more enjoyment into doing one's job - that's all important in keeping people happy and results-oriented."

Kusleika says that she has used other personality tests when recruiting new employees and matching the right people for positions.

"Not everyone likes taking these kinds of tests; some are uncomfortable with filling out questionnaires about themselves," she says.

"But when a meeting's conversation turns to colours and shapes, it makes the process fun, and most importantly, improves the team's overall outlook, its sense of control and its level of initiative," she says.

(Jack Kohane can be reached at kohane@businessedge.ca)