Sylvia Burford

Sylvia has over twenty years of experience designing and implementing critical business improvements and creating environments where people can work effectively. Prior to PeopleResults, she was a leader at Accenture and also worked for the British government. Her talent, skills, and experiences are focused in: designing integrated systems of people and resources to meet the strategy of an organization; organization design; leadership development; employee performance enhancement; customized coaching and training experiences; formal facilitation and group decision making; lean processing and change management aligned with Six Sigma initiatives. She has experience working with both the executive suite and the shop floor.

Experience Overview:
Organization Design: Led a team that designed and implemented: process improvements, a communication plan, core competency modeling, restructuring of the rewards and recognition processes, redesign of marketing and recruiting messages/branding, identifying the voice of the customer, customized customer service training, customized management development skills training and an on-boarding program. This organization has a strong union presence.

Led a team of change management professionals that were critical in the successful integration of two large hospital systems. Scope included: a communication plan and execution, training and one-on-one coaching of all leaders on the change process, crafting executive messages, conducting failure mode and effects analysis, root cause analysis, mistake proofing, identifying and eliminating waste, revision of roles and responsibilities, revision of the performance management system, and the creation of a vision and guiding principles.

Designed, developed, and implemented a performance improvement system for the entire finance team of the Baylor Healthcare System.

Designed and implemented an employee engagement program. Provided executive coaching for the 150 highest level executives in the corporation. The goal was to increase employee engagement at all levels. This client has a strong union presence.

Designed and implemented individual customized training plans for Operational Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents. Using 360 assessments collaborated to develop leadership skill building experiences that included executive coaching, mentoring, self-study, and specialized training.

Mergers, acquisitions, and outsourcing: On several occasions, led the integration of work teams into new organizations and corporate cultures.

Designed and co-facilitated with clients various performance improvement experiences in leadership, interpersonal relations, problem solving, decision making, waste identification and elimination, root cause analysis, mistake proofing, and professional business presentations.

Clients include: Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter/Textron, Texas Instruments, NASA, Neiman Marcus, Accenture, Halliburton, Schlumberger, JCPenney, Deloitte Consulting, PepsiCo, Baylor Healthcare Systems
Formal Education / Associations:
Texas A & M: M.S. ~ Instructional Design
Mississippi State University: B.S. ~ Secondary Education
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland ~ Advanced graduate studies: Organization and Human Performance
Completed all requirements for Lean Six Sigma Black Belt at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Villanova University
Member ISPI and OD Network, Dallas Chapters
Faculty member, University of Texas at Dallas, Executive Leadership Institute