Together, we have over 40 years of experience working in Fortune 500 companies where we’ve been involved in change initiatives. Not only have we experienced corporate change that was directed at us, but we have also executed enterprise-wide corporate change efforts ourselves.

We developed the wHolistic Change℠ approach by learning from the unsuccessful aspects of change that we observed along the way. We fashioned a new approach that we have used to successfully drive changes and exceed expectations: delivering sustainable change in shorter periods of time and with greater-than-expected results.

Michelle Smeby is CEO and Transformation Leader of wHolistic Change, Inc.

Michelle has more than 20 years of experience implementing enterprise solutions at Fortune 100 companies. She is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is Six Sigma Green Belt Certified.

Patty Stolpman is the owner of Cerulean Solutions LLC.

Patty has 30 years of experience delivering and coaching Fortune 500 companies to successfully incorporate change. She is a member of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

Historical Approaches to Change

Historical approaches to organizational change have tended to fall into two categories. 

The first is executive mandate, where leadership of a company decides on a change and directs the employees to conform.

The second category, which is less frequent, is the grass-roots movement, where the employees themselves see a need and come together to advocate for change.

Both of these approaches have their limitations. Executive mandate often achieves corporate compliance—with a human cost. Grass-roots organizing can achieve some degree of change. However, without senior leadership support, the chances are good that the employees will become exhausted and disillusioned. The change won’t get very far.

The wHolistic Change Difference

We offer an alternative approach to driving corporate change: Leaders driving change involve their employees in the process. They consider the impacts of their decisions on the welfare and engagement of their employees during and after the change process. This is why we created wHolistic Change℠. Our focus is on setting up employees, as well as their companies, for success.