Suggestions
Dani Saveker
CEO. Creator of the GLAS Method and framework. Helping individuals, teams, family businesses and organisations to be successful and fulfilled 'deliberately'. Also draw a bit!
Dani Saveker is the creator of visualsynopsis.com and the GLAS Method®, as well as the CEO of The GLAS Group.2 She founded Families in Business (FIB) in 2012, drawing from her experience as the CEO of her own family's manufacturing business.1
Saveker's background includes being the fourth-generation leader of her family's manufacturing company, which unfortunately closed its doors in March 2009 after 106 years of operation due to economic challenges.3 This experience led her to invest in research and discovery, ultimately developing the Global Life Alignment System (GLAS), a framework designed to help entrepreneurs, individuals, and businesses improve their performance and well-being.3
The GLAS Method, which evolved from Saveker's work with family businesses, has expanded beyond its original scope and is now applied in various contexts, including sports teams, wealth management, legal services, and other areas.1 Saveker and her team continue to work with family businesses and other clients under the GLAS brand, offering services such as:
- Alignment, Culture & Dynamics support
- Succession and Transition planning
- Legacy and Charter document development1
Saveker is also known for creating visual synopses and frequently shares insights on leadership, business, and personal development through her LinkedIn posts.457 She emphasizes the importance of kindness in business leadership and advocates for building confidence and clarity in professional settings.56
Highlights
The Glaringly Obvious
One of my favourite thought leaders is Peter Senge, who once said:
“Business and human endeavours are systems…we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”
I was reminded of these wise words last week while doing a jigsaw puzzle. As any good engineer tends to, I have a system. I begin with finding all the straight edges, select the four corners and build the ‘frame’. Then - and only then - I progress to building the picture within it. However, this particular jigsaw wasn’t brand new and while creating the outer ‘frame’ found that two pieces seemed to be missing, resulting in a broken frame. I kept sorting through the various pieces keenly hunting for the magical pieces that would finally connect the frame and allow me to progress. Over the next couple of days I couldn’t find the missing pieces while simultaneously growing in frustration.
I was stuck in my thinking about the missing pieces and hunting in a box of assorted puzzle pieces - determined to find them. My ‘system’ was broken just as the outer frame of the puzzle was. I walked away from the puzzle and weighed up my options. I could a) just continue anyway and enjoy the jigsaw for what it was, b) bin it, or c) get more frustrated trying to find the possibly lost pieces.
Just as I decided to opt for (a) and decided to change my perspective, I spotted something…I looked closer at what I had put together and saw that two pieces didn’t quite fit right. I swapped them round and ‘bingo!’, the frame was complete. I wasn’t missing anything at all, just the ability to look and think differently at what was in front of me.
The ability to step back and see all possibilities, all pieces and how everything needs to work together is a skill we can all too easily neglect. When we take the ‘quick fix’ option and try and solve a problem by overly focusing on an isolated issue, we miss the ‘often glaringly’ obvious answer. If you want to resolve something in a meaningful and sustainable way, pause and consider the whole system before jumping to a short-term solution.

