Case Studies

Please click on any case study link below.

Transportation

• The DC Metro Area Transit Authority does strategic resource allocation: “Sean Brady’s superb facilitation and the rapid prototyping by CoNexus® allowed the Washington, DC Area Metro Transit Authority HR group to gain great insight into its future direction,” said Dr. David J. Koehn, Chief Learning Officer, McDonald Bradley, Inc., lead consultant on the Transit Authority intervention.

Education

• District and school improvement planning: “Sean Brady helped our school’s Shared Decision-making Team create focused goals that directly impact student achievement,” said Nicole Wolfe, Principal, Adams Primary, Whitney Point, NY. “We attribute the positive trend in our student achievement data directly to this process, as staff members are working in a strategic manner towards the same goal. One teacher mentioned, ‘Sean has a simple procedure to help large groups of people, with different interests, make decisions for kids.’ I would highly encourage any school looking to improve their student’s achievement to work with Prism Decision Systems.”
• Facilities planning: “We recently utilized Prism Decision Systems to facilitate our District Facilities Task Force. Although we began this journey with a wide-range of opinions and no agreement for future decisions, the adept guidance of Sean Brady and his deft use of Prism’s Group Decision Support System allowed us to work through numerous options, conduct a cost-benefit analysis, and reach group consensus. It was a magnificent procedure, and I would highly recommend his services to any group looking for an outstanding facilitator,” said Barbara Peters, Superintendent, Elmsford Union Free School District.
• Multi criteria decision support helps team select literacy assessment: “Both teachers and administrators said they could not remember a decision-making process that went as smoothly or that resulted in as great a commitment to the outcome,” said Kim Fontana, Director Staff Development and Research, Ithaca City School District. “One teacher commented, ‘Because I had confidence in the process, I was able to really learn and think through the individual questions rather than feeling as though I had to keep my mind on staking out a position.’”
• Web-based focus groups for the NYS Education Department: Prism recently completed a virtual focus group for the New York State Education Department (NYSED) using the Concept System®, a powerful, Web-enabled idea mapping and rating tool.
• Benchmarking and target-setting for 4000 New York State schools: Use of Frontier analyst® to benchmark in education.
• School improvement planning: “Prism’s facilitation combined with the skilled use of CoNexus® enabled our team to develop a comprehensive Title 1 school-wide plan complete with concrete goals, roles and time table,” said Christopher Arnold, principal at Lockport City School District’s Anna Merritt elementary. “As a result, we realized a 23% increase in our ELA score, the highest increase in our District.”
• K – 12 best practices conference based on Frontier Analyst® benchmarking study: “We designed this conference using a standard benchmarking methodology,” said Broome-Tioga BOCES Deputy Superintendent Brenda Myers, “so we needed to begin answering three key questions during the conference. Who are the benchmark schools? What are their best practices? How do we transfer their best practices to other schools?”
• Resource allocation in K – 12 education: “With the help of Sean Brady and Prism’s group decision systems, we now have a comprehensive plan with high-level agreement on key priorities. This is exactly what we sought in the planning process,” said Dr. Dennis Sweeney, Superintendent, Union-Endicott Schools.
• The CoNexus® decision matrix ensures rational, collegial school improvement planning: “Prism’s decision matrix provided an effective, efficient process that enabled a group with diverse backgrounds to reach consensus on prioritized strategies,” said Meg Grant, Superintendent, Newark Valley Central School District.

Healthcare

• Web-based planning with 150 physicians: Prism uses the Concept System®, an Internet-enabled planning tool, to assist 150 doctors design the ideal compensation model.
• Stakeholder involvement in the Mercy Health System of Philadelphia’s planning process: “Our success depends on the ability of all Mercy Health System colleagues to support the objectives set forth by our strategic plan. The Concept System® provided information from colleague focus groups essential to developing a plan that addresses issues deemed important to the future success of the system by those who contribute to that success,” said Mark T. O’Neil, Jr., CEO of Philadelphia’s Mercy Health System.
• Customer needs assessment for a rural hospital: “The insights we gained from the CoNexus® focus groups forced us to rethink some basic beliefs about our customers’ needs and our performance as a health care provider — and strongly influenced our five-year plan,” said Joanne Borfitz, Vice President, Chenango Memorial Hospital.
• Emergency medical services strategic planning: Use of web-based and face-to-face decision support tools to assist a regional EMS company do its best strategic planning ever.

Finance

• Strategic planning with the Board of GHS Federal Credit Union: GHS Federal Credit Union’s uses Prism’s planning processes annually to accelerate their Board of Directors through a successful one-day strategic planning retreat.
• One-day retreat arms First Heritage Federal Credit Union with new three-year strategies and immediate priorities: “After a one-day retreat with Prism Decision Systems and Sean Brady, our team is armed with a fresh set of three-year strategies and immediate priorities,” said Arthur D. Field, president and CEO, First Heritage Federal Credit Union. “Without Prism’s process and CoNexus®, we would have required three or four full days to complete this work.”

News and entertainment

• Large meeting automation for the Times-Mirror Corporation: “Prism Decision Systems and CoNexus® contributed to the effectiveness of the Times Mirror senior manager off-site. We were able to know within minutes where a large and diverse group was in their thinking and receptivity to each topic. We could then address the issues raised by the CoNexus® polling. I am a great fan of CoNexus®, a very effective tool,” said Kathryn Downing, President, The Los Angeles Times.

Faith

• Multi criteria decision support helps church merger: Prism’s group decision system helps make an intractable decision tractable. The parish councils of two churches that are merging break a two-year impasse and decide which site to close. “Prism’s presence, expertise and decision support tools contributed powerfully to our decision making and our ability to achieve consensus,” said Rev. Tim Taugher.