About VIVIAN CONSULTING GROUP
What We Believe
Equip leaders with the cultural intelligence and leadership capabilities to effectively lead today’s workforce and simultaneously future-proof your organization for tomorrow’s marketplace.
› Any leadership strategy that detracts from your mission is a flawed strategy. Cross-cultural leadership strengthens execution. It removes friction, increases trust, and improves performance.
› Leadership — NOT policy alone — drives strategy.
Management is about policies and procedures (compliance); Leadership is about inspiration, motivation and vision (commitment). Sustainable results requires leadership and management. Cross-cultural leadership provides both.
› Tolerance is insufficient. Respect and trust are essential.
High-performing organizations do not settle for coexistence. They build environments where people can work together productively, even amid differences.
› Every demographic group matters — including majority groups.
Leadership effectiveness depends on engaging all voices and perspectives. Exclusion of any group—intentional or not—undermines results. The goal of cross-cultural leadership is to ensure that ALL voices and demographic groups are heard – including majority groups.
› Cross-cultural competency is a business imperative.
BASIC Diversity is a human relations firm that understands business imperatives. Cultural misalignment shows up as turnover, stalled collaboration, poor decision-making, reputational risk, and lost revenue. These are not abstract concerns—they are balance-sheet issues!
› Demographic realities demand leadership evolution.
Workforce, customer, and market demographic shifts are accelerating. Organizations must shift away from a traditional leadership approach and adapt to a cross-cultural leadership stance in order to compete.
› To change behavior, leaders must influence thinking.
If your strategy to manage behaviors at work is based on people complying with policies (i.e. “We don’t care what you think and feel. All we care about is how you behave while at work.”) it will never succeed. Why? Because we’re not machines. We’re human beings. Compliance (policies and procedures) produces minimal results. Commitment (inspiration, motivation, and vision) produces ownership, accountability, and sustained performance.
The late Dr. C.T. Vivian founded Vivian Consulting Group, Inc. and set the gold standard for cross-cultural leadership consulting. A Baptist minister and civil rights icon, Dr. Vivian was one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest lieutenants during the Civil Rights Movement. He devoted his life to fighting injustice and teaching others how to build bridges across societal divides. As our Chairman, Dr. Vivian shaped our programs with his wisdom, courage, and compassion. His legacy lives on in Vivian Consulting Group’s mission – every time we help a leader overcome bias or an organization become more inclusive, we honor Dr. Vivian’s life work. We continue to be inspired by his example as we carry his vision forward.