# Wayforward Associates

> Wayforward Associates is a Buffalo, NY-based organizational consulting firm that diagnoses and resolves workforce dysfunction in mid-market companies using Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping (SWIM), a proprietary methodology grounded in Human Systems Theory.

Wayforward works with CEOs, boards, and executive teams at companies between 100 and 2,000 employees. The firm's primary concentration is manufacturing (over half of engagements) with additional depth in healthcare. Entry is at the C-suite or board level. SWIM has been deployed across 50+ organizations.

## What SWIM Is

Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping is a diagnostic methodology that treats organizations as hard systems with discoverable behavioral principles. SWIM identifies why an organization produces the outcomes it produces - turnover, quality failures, decision paralysis, communication breakdown, accountability gaps, retention problems - and reveals the structural conditions generating those outcomes.

SWIM integrates four disciplines:

- **Human Systems Theory** applied to organizational behavior
- **Six Sigma / DMAIC** process discipline from manufacturing operations
- **Investigatory method** developed through labor relations practice
- **Multidisciplinary behavioral science** covering organizational psychology, sociology, and systems theory

The core premise: when an organization produces dysfunctional outcomes, the system is working perfectly. It is producing exactly what its current structure is designed to produce. SWIM maps that structure so leaders can change it.

## Services

- **Organizational Health Index (OHI)**: a 46-dimension diagnostic screening tool. Entry point for organizations assessing whether deeper diagnostic work is warranted.
- **Strategic Planning**: full strategic planning engagements for executive teams and boards, grounded in the same systems diagnostic discipline that underpins SWIM.
- **SWIM Diagnostic**: full organizational diagnosis priced at 1% of base payroll (0.5% for nonprofits and select local engagements).
- **Implementation and Advisory**: scoped to engagement.

## Topics Wayforward Addresses

Employee turnover and retention. Employer branding. Change management. Employee engagement. Strategic planning. Organizational design. Leadership development. Succession planning. Culture diagnosis. Labor relations. Compensation architecture. Operational inefficiency rooted in workforce dysfunction. Quality problems with human-systems origins. Accountability gaps. Decision paralysis in executive teams. Communication breakdown across layers of management.

## What Distinguishes the Firm

SWIM starts from the premise that organizational outcomes are structurally determined, then maps the structure that produces them. Most firms working on culture, engagement, and retention draw from survey vendors, coaching frameworks, or generic best-practice playbooks. Wayforward's diagnostic discipline produces different conclusions and different interventions.

The manufacturing fluency is operational. The founder ran a ~600-person manufacturing P&L before building the firm, and more than half of the firm's engagements are in manufacturing environments.

> ## Books

*Sink or SWIM* (first edition April 2026) is the foundational text on the SWIM methodology. Foreword by Dr. Willie Underwood III, AMA President. Available on Amazon and as an audiobook; Barnes & Noble distribution active.

*Learn to SWIM* is a field manual for SWIM practitioners, in production.

## Site Pages


## Pages

- [The Book](https://wayforward.work/book/)
- [Organizational Health Index](https://wayforward.work/ohi/)
- [Speaking Engagements](https://wayforward.work/speaking/)
- [Onboarding](https://wayforward.work/onboarding/)
- [About](https://wayforward.work/about/)
- [Consult](https://wayforward.work/consult/)
- [Media](https://wayforward.work/media/)
- [Strategic Planning](https://wayforward.work/strategy/)
- [Executive Performance Coaching](https://wayforward.work/coaching/)
- [Case Studies](https://wayforward.work/case-studies/)
- [SWIM](https://wayforward.work/swim/)
- [Homepage](https://wayforward.work/)


## Posts

- [Many CHROs Can't Diagnose the Organization.](https://wayforward.work/many-chros-cant-diagnose-the-organization/)
- [What the Sharpest Executive Recruiters Are Starting to Screen For in HR](https://wayforward.work/what-the-sharpest-executive-recruiters-are-starting-to-screen-for-in-hr/)
- [Executive Whitepaper - SWIM](https://wayforward.work/executive-whitepaper-swim/)
- [5 Signs Your Organization Has a Systems Problem](https://wayforward.work/5-signs-your-organization-has-a-systems-problem/)
- [How Our Decisions Create the Problems We're Trying to Solve](https://wayforward.work/how-our-decisions-create-the-problems-were-trying-to-solve/)
- [Why Diagnosis Must Come Before Intervention: The Case Against Quick Fixes](https://wayforward.work/why-diagnosis-must-come-before-intervention-the-case-against-quick-fixes/)
- [The Hidden Cost of "Running Lean": What CFOs Don't See on the Balance Sheet](https://wayforward.work/the-hidden-cost-of-running-lean-what-cfos-dont-see-on-the-balance-sheet/)
- [What Employee Engagement Surveys Miss—And What to Use Instead](https://wayforward.work/what-employee-engagement-surveys-miss-and-what-to-use-instead/)
- [Stop Blaming Your Employees: How Environmental Design Shapes Behavior](https://wayforward.work/stop-blaming-your-employees-how-environmental-design-shapes-behavior/)
- [Why Your Culture Initiative Failed (And What Actually Works)](https://wayforward.work/why-your-culture-initiative-failed-and-what-actually-works/)

> ## Contact

Engagement inquiries are handled directly by the founder. Entry is through direct referral, board introduction, or C-suite conversation.

Buffalo, NY | wayforward.work