Pair bring thriving business home

Two local women have helped businesses across the country work through conflict and avoid disaster. Now, they’re turning their sights back home. 

The founders of Thrive Inc. Consulting Services have owned the company for over 15 years and have traveled across other states to help businesses such as Microsoft and Nationwide Insurance build smart and healthy team relationships. 

Over the past year, they realized they didn’t need or want to travel as much any more and began reaching out to work with businesses in their own backyard, including Flathead Area Young Professional, and the U.S. Forest Service. 

“When we finally looked around and started getting involved in the community here, we realized how much was really going on,” said CrisMarie Campbell, co-founder of Thrive. “We want to be a part of everything here, and get more involved.” 

Campbell and co-founder Susan Clarke met in Seattle several decades ago when Clarke was helping businesses with team building and conflict resolution. Campbell, who worked for Arthur Andersen at the time, attended a workshop Clarke taught and the two women found they worked well together. 

Thrive works with leaders and business teams stuck in conflict to create “smart and healthy” relationships. 

“A lot of teams ignore whatever the conflict is and try to move on without really dealing with the issue at hand,” Clarke said. “That’s where the business breaks down and can fail.” 

Many times, leaders will find themselves in a moment where they realize that everything is going wrong. While this is completely normal, Thrive teaches leaders to use this moment to build on past failures and communicate with their team about how to best move forward. 

In one of their first coaching jobs as a team, the women helped a large national company that was supposed to be implementing a workflow system to different branches across the country. The company had tried several different systems, as well as different coaches, and nothing seemed to be working. 

Campbell and Clarke sat down with the main leaders at the company and encouraged open communication about any problems, work-related or not. 

Quickly, the women found out the main problem was that two of the leaders despised each other.  

“We asked the rest of the team, ‘Who here knows that these men have a problem with each other?’ and everyone in the room raised their hand,” Clarke said. 

The women encourage the team leaders to discuss what the problem was and how it interfered with their work. 

“And within 20 minutes, they were able to fix things, and move on. They ended up solving their own problems,” she said.

BOTH CAMPBELL and Clarke had very different paths that led them to become consultants. 

Campbell said she has always had a passion for working with human systems and teams. As a member of the U.S. rowing team, she competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and the 1987 World Championships.  

“I learned there was a big difference between having people that were really good and having these people work really well together,” she said. 

During the 1987 championships, the row team was able to work well together and take silver. However, in 1988 at the Olympics, the team lost because the rowers could not communicate. 

“That was my first clue that it’s not the caliber of people you have but the ability for the team to work together,” Campbell said. 

Clarke, on the other hand, learned to force teamwork as part of her own survival. 

When she was 24, Clarke was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. 

“The doctor said, ‘We’ve done everything we can,’ and I asked what we were going to do next,” Clarke said. “I wasn’t going to give up.” 

Instead, she began investigating a variety of different approaches from spirituality to psychology and everything in between. However, doctors and specialists in different fields are notorious for letting their clashing viewpoints come between them. 

“They knew what was going to be able to save me, but they wouldn’t talk to each other,” Clarke said. “So I did what I know how to do. I made smart people talk to each other.” 

Clarke stepped up to a leadership position, and created a health-care team from all areas of medicine to help her survive. 

WHEN WORKING with a business or group of leaders, the Thrive founders sit down with the main leader of the group and ask what they’re trying to accomplish and what barriers are preventing them from reaching it. 

Then, they take the team off-site for several days to break down communication barriers and allow  team members to get to know one another. 

One of their main tactics is based around the ability to be honest with one another. 

“We call it vulnerable-based trust,” Campbell said. “If you can reveal your own self and admit when you made a mistake or something went wrong, you’ll be able to move forward so much quicker and do it better next time.” 

After helping to build that trust, Thrive asks the group to really think about why they’re working for the company, beyond just making money. Employees and leaders are encouraged to think about why the company exists, and what they value, and how they accomplish these things as a team. 

“A lot of conflict comes when people lose sight of that,” Clarke said. “If you know what you value, and know exactly why you’re there, you’re going to be excited to get it done.”

For more information, go online to www.thriveinc.com or call 730-2710. 

Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at bloper@dailyinterlake.com.