United people achieve great things.
Two paths, one philosophy
Deb spent her career helping organizations define success for their most significant investments. Across industries and continents, the pattern was always the same: talented leaders, strong commitment, significant resources, and yet no shared story of success guiding the investment. She built collaboration platforms, designed facilitation methods rooted in cognitive and behavioral science, and kept coming back to the same truth: when cross-functional leaders define success together, everything is possible.
Dan spent nearly three decades working with higher education institutions, healthcare systems, and government agencies on complex planning and procurement. His work centered on the same challenge from a different angle: getting cross-functional teams to agree on what they actually needed before making major technology commitments. He founded Advantiv Solutions and built DecisionDirector, a platform widely used for collaborative decision-making in complex environments.
They met through mutual colleagues and quickly discovered how closely their philosophies aligned. Both had spent years helping organizations move from siloed perspectives to shared clarity. Both believed that the most important conversation most organizations skip is the one where cross-functional leaders define the Business Value their investment must achieve.
The engagement that changed everything
A large university was investing in an Identity and Access Management initiative. A deeply technical investment that most cross-functional leaders would not typically expect to be involved in from a scoping perspective. When the astute CIO invited senior business leaders to the planning table, several questioned why they were there.
The team started by identifying the broad types of Business Value the initiative could deliver for each department. This is where things got interesting. The leaders could identify some of the value, but they were struggling to see the full picture. They kept circling back to the same types of value, the ones they already knew from their own experience, and missing the rest.
These were smart, experienced leaders with deep knowledge of their functions. But they could not always identify the Business Value they were creating for other departments, or the Business Value other departments were creating for them. That was the moment the lightbulb went on for Deb and Dan.
There was no comprehensive, structured picture of all the Business Value a successful organization creates.
Without it, leaders could only identify what they already knew to look for.
The team eventually worked through the main Business Value impacts and defined the Business Outcomes the initiative could deliver. And that is when everything shifted. Leaders who had walked in questioning their presence became the strongest advocates for the IAM project. They could now see how an IT investment would directly strengthen their own operations, their teams, and the outcomes they were accountable for. Not only did they support the project, they wanted it underway as soon as possible.
If this happened with one investment in one organization, how much Business Value was being left on the table across every significant investment, everywhere?
Two realizations
The leaders were working from their own experience and their own perspective. They could identify the Business Value they already understood. But without a complete picture of all the types of Business Value a successful organization creates, they could only identify what they already knew to look for.
Much of the Business Value an organization creates is not delivered by one function alone. It lives in the connections between functions. Value that Operations creates for Sales. Value that IT enables for HR. No single leader could see it because it did not belong to any one of them. It belonged to the spaces between them.
Business Value Story was born
That realization gave birth to the Business Value Lexicon™, the first comprehensive common language for Business Value. The periodic table of every form of value a successful organization creates.
A complete, sector-specific common language for every form of Business Value a successful organization creates.
A way to translate discovered Business Value into measurable outcomes that execution teams can design against and deliver.
Cognitive, behavioral, and decision science embedded in a purpose-built platform that ensures every voice is heard and bias is reduced.
Deb and Dan are joined by a growing team of Business Value strategists who guide organizations through every stage of Business Value Discovery, and technologists who power the platforms and AI behind it. What unites the team is a shared belief that united people achieve great things.
Questions about Business Value? A specific investment or initiative on your mind? We love good discussion and debate on all things Business Value. Please do connect.
Let's Talk Business ValueThe most important conversation an organization can have is the one that defines success.