About Us

Our History

Learned Experience and Positive Basic Elements

Our founder, Bob Benninghofen, had a history of 20+ years working with people and technology by developing, implementing and supporting business applications to solve many different and varied needs.  The business technology systems and applications satisfied the requirements of people at all levels of the business, from the sales counter and shop floor, to the executive offices. Hundreds of people, with projects small, intermediate to large ones, spanning thousands to millions of dollars, touched tens of thousand of people and impacted their lives in anticipated and unexpected ways.

Many such projects were successful and a few were not. In fact, even the ones that were successful, sometimes fell short of the overall expectations, either in capability perceived/anticipated and the timeliness of implementation. For the successful projects, a general rule of thumb ended with close to a bull's eye, a little bit late but in at about the 95% range.

This historical introduction explains the nature of mixing humans and technology: human nature can move or stop technology and its benefits or its potential. But it is also says a lot about expectations and communications, both of which are usually very high and very limited, respectively. Bob found after years of working with people and technology, a few things were readily apparent in the business world. Expectations did not surface immediately and unevenly, while communications was an underlying constant which could always stand improvement.

Sound familiar?

Purpose

More importantly, the glue that held people’s attention was the purpose of things, which was little present, often overlooked, and many times only an after-thought.

It was critical that people understood the purpose, and through some or many processes, aligned with it, became enrolled in it, and then finally committed to having it become reality. Those cementing components mentioned were present in only a few projects. You read about later, usually pointed to and learned after your own people had gone away after scratching their heads in frustration with their final result less-than-expected. A  comon statement was "It hit the mark technically but something is missing!".

People

Important also was a champion person who drove things with passion in all efforts. Many times that person was able only because of their personality to create willingness in their people  - to the point where they would follow him/her over cliff’s until they ended on-time, on-budget and expectations met.  Finding, engaging and committing the right people with the right knowledge and skills at the right time, was truly the cornerstone and essence of successful projects.  People were paramount and they are the component that made things happen.

Process

Born from those experiences and that of others, Bob also found an encompassing methodology and best practices were just some of important characteristics ever-present in winning projects and solutions.  An imperative was the commitment of senior management and the continuous enrollment of each member of the team and all stakeholders – the culmination of active participation.

What worked effectively and consistently were 4 major elements:  purpose, people, participation and process. What provided the energy and vitality was choice and commitment fueled by great communications – effective listening and speaking.

All those important elements where known from previous experiences and came together with the creation of Berritt, Inc., in 2001: the company became operational in 2003. The company was established as an educational consulting company with a purpose of educating people and making a difference in their business lives by employing the 4 keys mentioned.

Today the company is known as Choice Awareness Management and delivers both coaching and mentoring services through direct one-on-one coaching and group mentoring along with seminars and workshops. To support that mission, the company is engaged in developing and delivering educational products and services which promote growth and prosperity of the business and their people. Products include methodology and related tools which help people learn.