Listen to Tim’s interview on the Moore & Les in the Morning Show
In this interview, Tim explains the origins of the name Wrench & Socket and shares how he helps organizations through strategic goal setting, organizational development, and coaching.
Wrench & Socket Founder and CEO Tim Lavery’s was interviewed on local radio station WCTR. Hear as he talks about how his practical, hands-on support helps organizations identify and move forward with change that will have maximum impact.
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Transcript follows
Transcript of Tim Lavery’s radio show interview on the Moore and Les in the Morning WCTR.
Date: Friday, March 28, 2025
Brian Moore: 106.9 WCTR. 3-2-1 Just counting it down there for you. More and Les the Windowfront studio at Riverside Unique.
And I'm certainly glad Les that we've got a busy morning here, a lot of folks in, including Tim Lavery who is the proprietor of Wrench and Socket in Chestertown. And Tim, I got a chance to meet you not long ago when you did the open house through the Chamber of Commerce. And we struck up a conversation, I just thought, “Wow, what he does is so interesting” that I just had to have him come on as a guest. So thank you for your time this morning.
Tim Lavery: Oh, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
Brian Moore: Now tell us a little bit about what Wrench and Socket are all about.
Leslie Sea: Cause I'm thinking the car repair, plumbing, what is Wrench and Socket? I’m very confused.
Brian Moore: Do you sell hardware?
Tim Lavery: Great question and it's one of the benefits of the name is it's a conversation starter.
Leslie Sea: I would think so, absolutely.
Tim Lavery: So it’s Wrench and Socket, Wrench and Socket Organizational Strategy and Effectiveness. What we do, in short, is help leaders of organizations figure out what's the most important thing to do next and why.
And then we say, “How do we help that organization -- and that could be a nonprofit, it could be a for-profit business, really any kind of organization that's doing something -- how do we help that organization be set up to do whatever that thing is.
Leslie Sea: Well, I think especially nonprofits and small businesses, you get this idea, “I want to do for this. And then you'd start doing this and you're like OK where do I go from here?” You don't always know what the structure is, the absolute “rack and pinion” of getting it moving forward.
Brian Moore: And you have to bear in mind, in so doing, am I doing this in the most efficient, cost effective way. And that's really the question.
Tim Lavery: Right 'cause you make an excellent point. You have an idea. You have a passion around something. You have some capabilities. You want to bring it to market. You may have this great set of skills but that's not the same as understanding how to set up and run and focus an organization.
So there’s really 3 pillars to what we do. And the first pillar is Strategy Development and Goal Setting. The number of times I've walked into rooms and said “What are you trying to do here?” and then that's met with about 30 seconds to dead air, because we're very focused on “What's the fire today? What do we need to be putting out today?”
Leslie Sea: I think that's exactly how small business goes. You’re reactionary, not pro-actionary.
Tim Lavery: And you have to be, because that's the space you're in.
Leslie Sea: Correct
Tim Lavery: And so we create the space. And that could be 1/2 day workshop, or it could be a multi-month long term, depending on how deep the organization wants to get to do that work. To say, “What is it that we're here to do. What are we the best doing? How do we focus on that and get that documented in a way that is actionable and measurable. Right? A lot of people hear strategic planning and think, “Oh yeah. We did this. We went through this process. We got a shiny booklet or PowerPoint chart and it's on the shelf over there.”
Brian Moore: Yes, yes. [laughter]
Tim Lavery: And I will say to clients. “If you want a fancy PowerPoint, I'm probably not your guy. But I will give you 2 or 3 pages that are actionable but when we come back in a year you will have done these things.”
Leslie Sea: So that's going to be a relief to your clients 'cause they're like. “Oh, thank God. You're not going to give me another book to put up on my shelf. You're going to give me tools I can use to move my business, organization, whatever forward.”
Tim Lavery: Absolutely and it's going to be appropriate to you. You know I have ways that I work but it's not a template. Right?
Leslie Sea: It's not one fits all.
Tim Lavery: It never is.
Leslie Sea: OK
Tim Lavery: I spent almost 20 years with one of the big consulting firms and I worked primarily with government clients over at APG. And so I lived that life and I loved the work. I loved helping the organizations really figure out “How do we get where we need to go?” And then when you have those lightbulb moments that's like “Oh my gosh we can do this and here's how” -- that's great.
What I didn't love was, in the big consulting world -- and this is why consultants have a bad name -- there is a saying that says, a consultant steals your watch to tell you the time. And there's a little bit of truth to that sometimes.
I could never get people good enough that they could really fly on their own because I had to worry about will I be able to stay in the organization. And [now] that's one of my guiding philosophies in this practice: I want to build your capability while we're working together so the next time you encounter this you can do it.
Leslie Sea: Right. Right.
Tim Lavery: That's my one of my founding principles is really: I don't want to be in a position where I've got to stay with you forever and become part of the furniture. That's not what I want to do.
Leslie Sea: I want to give you wings and let you fly.
Tim Lavery: Bingo. So that's the first pillar. The second pillar is Organization Development, and this is the part of how do we help the organization really be set up to do whatever it needs to do. And that can be structure, it can be process. A biggie is role clarity and decision rights. So many organizations just circle around and around and around. Because we don't know who really owns the decision and what’s my role in that and what am I supposed to do. So we’ll do that. We’ll do team effectiveness work where sometimes the friction in the system is within the team and we need to figure out what's going on there and how do we move that forward.
So again, those engagements sometimes they're really tight in focus. And I come in and we do a thing and then I'm out. There's other times where I will embed with the organization for a while so I can provide that leader advisory over time. And sometimes I'm there driving an initiative because they might not have the capability or capacity to do it themselves.
The final pillar is coaching. I'm a certified coach. I have a real passion around doing that kind of work, mostly individual. I will new group coaching, but a lot of my coaching work is focused on individuals who are in two positions.
The first is they’re at a career milestone. They are at a career moment where they have to figure out, “Where am I going to go next?” And a lot of times the company needs you to go someplace that might not necessarily be where you want to go and that can create a lot of distress for folks in the corporate setting.
Brian Moore: Right, right.
Tim Lavery: So we’ll do work around, “What is it that you want to do? How does that align where you want to go? And when we have folks who are aligned to their work that's when we see them at their most productive and frankly happiest.
Leslie Sea: Yes right since
Tim Lavery: The other moment while I will engage with folks is, sometimes people find themselves in leadership roles that they just have not been prepared for. Many times, organizations put people in a role where they are now leading people and work, and they've done very little actually to help them prepare to do those things, which impacts the outcomes and impacts the team. So I will work with folks in that leadership role to help them build their confidence and their capability as a leader so that they can for themselves do well and also help their teams do well. So those are really the three pillars that Wrench and Socket offers to the market.
Brian Moore: That's fantastic. Now what areas do you cover?
Tim Lavery: Geographically or industry?
Brian Moore: Both actually
Tim Lavery: So I do a surprising amount of work here on the Shore. When I started doing this, I was anticipating I'd be crossing the Bay Bridge for most things. And I do a lot in the DC, Baltimore, Washington area. But I do a fair amount of stuff here on the Shore. And that's an area that I'm continuing to explore because there's a lot of businesses here.
Brian Moore: There are.
Tim Lavery: And to answer the other question around what is the industry, I get that question a lot. I'm pretty agnostic to industry. I'm really focused on what is happening in the organization. Most of the folks I work with, they’re organizations that have some scale. They've been around. They've had some success. But as you said earlier, they've come out of this kind of: “We're growing. Everybody does everything. We just come in and figure it out every day.” And now they're like, “How do we mature this?” And that's what I'll help them do.
So I was out in Saint Louis a couple of months ago working with a national nonprofit for three days…
Brian Moore: You just answered my next question. Yes, you work with nonprofits.
Tim Lavery: Yes. I do a lot of work with nonprofits because a lot of those organizations are at that point where “We've come together around an idea. We've come together around a cause.” And that's great, because having mission is actually one of the most important things for organizational success. What's that shared purpose; what are we here to do. So that's a huge boost but it is [now] “How do we run this in a way that is not chaotic?” And so I was out in Saint Louis a few months ago with the national nonprofit. Like I said, I'm doing some work here on the Shore with both for-profit institutions, there's some state agencies I'm working with, so yeah, I will go wherever.
Leslie Sea: Will you do start-ups? Like something that's just say for instance a nonprofit or small businesses in the startup phase, maybe hasn't gone live or maybe just barely gone live? Will you help in that realm too, to get them going, or do you wait until they're off and running?
Tim Lavery: That would depend on what I'm offering to them. That situation, that might be more of a coaching engagement for that leader to kind of make sure they have that focus.
Leslie Sea: OK right
Tim Lavery: When I'm coming in and working with the full organization, my strengths are really aligned to, they've already got a little bit of scale and they've got some track record.
Leslie Sea: OK right
Tim Lavery: And we're really looking for that how do we make sure this operation to the next level
Brian Moore: You have to see how the machine runs before you can fix it.
Leslie Sea: Right, ok yeah that makes sense.
Tim Lavery: And now you're getting back to “Why is it called Wrench and Socket?”
Leslie Sea: Right circle here yeah.
Tim Lavery: Beautifully done! Two reasons: Number one is what exactly what you just said. I see organizations as systems. And I'm a car guy too. I like to get my hands dirty; I love to work under the hood; I think my wife has lost count of how many cars I own, which is ok. Probably for the better.
Leslie Sea: Things she need not know.
Tim Lavery: You know, ignorance is bliss! But I really see it, to me if we can come in and look at a system and figure out which part of that system is not working optimally. We can tune that up. We can apply the right tools. We can get it to the right place and then that elevates the performance of the whole thing.
So there's a very diagnostic approach that I bring to this work. It’s really, let's figure out what's going sideways here and how do we get that back where needs to be. And do it in a way again that isn't just this guy coming in and he does a bunch of stuff and gives you a PowerPoint and leaves but is really focused on: We're bringing people along as we go. And we're helping them get better at whatever it is they're there to do. So that I leave them in a place where there they're really doing well. And I feel that's good business for both of us.
Brian Moore: Alright Tim, so how do people reach you? Give us your website and your contact numbers.
Tim Lavery: Absolutely. So best place to get to me is through my website. There's a contact box there and that is www.wrenchsocketllc.com. You can find me there. You can also give me a call at (410) 458-7658.
Brian Moore: Alright, well best of luck to you. Thank you for coming. I hope you'll return and come back again.
Tim Lavery: Thank you so much. Happy to do it.