Organizational alignment for renewable energy

Renewable energy development

The client organization:

• The company is a leading US-based renewable energy developer, with one of the largest portfolios of large-scale wind and solar projects in North America – primarily wind and solar energy (5.9 gigawatts of developed projects and 2.8 gigawatts of installed capacity)
• The Western region (with whom Manifest was contracted) was the biggest and most active group in the company, given tight deadlines to develop projects from greenfield in California, it had the highest pressure to deliver in the company

Why they brought in Manifest:

• Work environment was dysfunctional due to organizational stress, personality conflicts, and culture clashes. Personnel dynamics interfered with the development of renewable energy projects
• Staff had too much work; project efforts were scattered, key roles were undefined
• Managers were uncoordinated in their work and refused to share information internally; it was a highly territorial and uncooperative environment
• Workload fluctuated wildly –> huge variations from week-to-week, and from department-to-department

How Manifest created solutions:

• Guided leadership to find common ground for managers, by clarifying focus & top-level goals –> we ensured that organizational purpose guided every step
• Introduced new meeting structures –> allowed leadership to clarify and communicate key priorities, making it easier for every level of the organization to understand their roles and thereby work more professionally
• Coached leadership on crucial decisions to manage heavily demanding workload, realignment of antagonistic departments, and (eventually) unavoidable lay-offs

What the client says:

• Doug helped us through a very trying time. Our managers and staff were encountering a bow wave of work activity under extremely tight deadlines and had trouble maintaining focus on the key priorities necessary for project development.
• Manifest brought needed structure to our naturally chaotic business, and introduced organizational behavior techniques that kept us focused on what was important. One particularly valuable contribution was a bottoms-up analysis to identify untapped potential among key staff members.
• Doug guided our team during one of the toughest times I’ve had as a leader. He brought a constructive, thoughtful problem-solving approach. He always had his eye on solving problems. He made some very difficult situations work more smoothly than I thought they could.