This piece is presented by Prairie Family Business Association.
Brothers Bryan and Keith Miller learned organizational leadership at a young age.
Their father was the academic vice president — akin to the chief operations officer — of a small college in their Nebraska hometown, where he and his wife worked for 51 years. Every immediate family member, several aunts and uncles, as well as many cousins and grandchildren all have worked at the college over the years.
Bryan earned a master’s and a doctorate degree in human development and family studies, and worked in senior management positions in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. In 1998, Bryan began his business consulting in Ames, Iowa, while teaching in a graduate program on topics such as working with larger organizations and family businesses.
Keith earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on management and a master’s degree in organizational behavior. His professional life is anchored in 21 years as a commissioned officer in the Air Force, working in various locations and a broad spectrum of leadership situations.
Bryan incorporated Nebraska-based Human Systems Consulting in 2006, and Keith joined the firm in 2014. Bryan’s wife, Amy, and four of their six children have worked with HSC.
The brothers will help host a social Sept. 7 in Omaha through Prairie Family Business Association for family business owners and the advisers who serve them.
Here’s a closer look at their business and how they’re using their association membership to advance it.
Tell us about Human Systems Consulting. What kinds of services do you offer?
Bryan: Our primary services have been in the areas of organizational behavior and leadership. Through an intensive interview process, we help leaders figure out and find solutions to challenges that are primarily “people problems” — helping leaders gain “discretionary effort” from teams, leading to sustained effort and success. Our effectiveness is in the use of sound research methods to gain actionable data, but probably the best outcomes we achieve are when leaders tell us that they are “sleeping better” and “don’t dread coming into work anymore.”
Our very first consulting contract in 1998 was with a brother and sister running a large international business. My colleague and I utilized focus groups to develop action plans to improve employee satisfaction, which had worsened after an industrial accident. We worked with a subset of the 3,000 employees across nine plants.We followed this up with another contract with the company in 2002 to measure the progress that had been made. Since that time, we have worked with a number of organizations across the Midwest.