CFAR's focus areas derive from decades of research and consulting into the particular challenges facing our clients. These areas of focus provide tried and true methods and approaches to solving problems.

Leadership Transitions
Changes in leadership present opportunities for growth and revitalization. CFAR helps organizations use transitions to create value—fostering continuity, coherence and optimism during uncertain times in the life of any organization.

Negotiation
CFAR views negotiation as strategy rather than as a transaction. It develops tailored negotiation strategies based on a particular situations and individual styles to facilitate excellent outcomes and relationships. CFAR offers a wide range of consulting services to address the particular client need and situation, be it hands-on, interactive training in negotiation strategies and tactics, coaching and support for a specific, real-time negotiation, or a new way to think about organizational change.

Telling the Strategy Story
CFAR believes that a successful approach to strategic change holds that strategy is coordinated action, though Managers often don't see the organization's strategy in their work. Performance metrics can paradoxically distract: in place of strategic thinking, managers focus on narrowly defined performance metrics that can disguise the strategic significance of key decisions. As an alternative to planning CFAR's approach uses storytelling, where strategy stories are a compelling way to engage key leaders and managers in the coordinated action that constitutes extraordinary organizational performance.

Campaign Approach to Change
The scarcest resources in today's overloaded organizations are time and attention. For change to happen, leaders need to get people's attention and active help. The "campaign" approach to change cuts through the clutter and mobilizes people around a strategic theme that has resonance and staying power. While formalized efforts can become mired in bureaucracy, campaigns are fluid and opportunistic. By taking advantage of existing structures and events and by using symbolic action as a form of communication, they signal change and motivate — not mandate — forward movement.

IT Strategy
CFAR helps organizations build sustainable, supportable IT strategies through a unique five-component process. The process leads project teams from the beginning phase of strategy development through initial implementation, focusing on the "social contract" that needs to be made between users and providers to ensure successful implementation.