Client need
- The organisation, a leading independent telecommunications service provider in Asia, has recently seen an increase in pressure coming from a number of external forces. These include Strong competitive forces, a change in market/product strategy and focus, the tightening of the overall external economic environment as well as an IT Industry under tremendous pressure to transform and forcing organisations to migrate from functional & cost-centric supplier to business and revenue centric partner.
- Adding to these macro and market difficulty are a number of internal drivers specific to the organisation: change in the leadership team; new strategic plan set by the leadership team requiring the development of new capabilities (mind-set, behaviours and skills) to address key objectives and priorities; the desire to move away from a traditional telecom organisation towards an innovative, customer centric, competitive and nimble organisation; finally the need to embody the “organisation way of doing business”
- As a result of the above challenges, a “change fatigue” and a lack of stability and trust has emerged also linked to the uncertainties about the future of the organisation.
- To improve the performance and leadership capabilities of the executive team and to deal with the unprecedented levels of change, ambiguity and uncertainty in the telecoms industry, the organisation’s CEO has personally requested that the organisation embark on a culture change initiative starting with a leadership Development Program for the Top 40 leaders of the organisation – i.e. the Exco members (8 individuals) plus the extended leadership team – who would begin to act as catalysts for the organisational transformation.
Solution
After a series of team meetings and conversations with the CEO and HR team, which brought together 3 practitioners from the Accelerance team in Asia, we agreed to a multi-stage development approach consisting of:
- Phase 1 – Awareness :
participants undertook a 360 tool (Life Style Inventory) to provide a platform for self awareness. This tool provided valuable individual and team understanding of the effective and ineffective thinking and behavioural styles which can play a critical role in driving the organistation culture and effectiveness.
- Phase 2 – Acceptance and Action Planning:
After completing the tool, each participant had 1:1 debrief conversations with one of the three coaches involved. We then arranged small group discussions with 4 or 5 participants so that they could all start sharing their LSI results and take aways as well as give each other feedback in a safe environment. These small group discussions were also a great opportunity for them to start discussing the implications of the LSI results at an organisational level.
- Phase 3 – gaining insights on the “actual VS preferred” culture within the organisation
The results showed a discrepancy between the Exco team results and the rest of the senior executives who demonstrate high levels of perfectionism (i.e. Aggressive-Defensive Style of leadership) and constructive behaviour (i.e. Pursuing a standard of excellence) respectively. Furthermore a high conventional behaviour amongst the non-Exco group is an issue considering that the organisation wants to be innovative and provide creative solutions to their customers.
- Phase 4: Development of a one day workshop that brings together all the insights gained from the tools in relation to driving cultural change.
The offsite was an opportunity for the participants to receive their FEBI (Focused Energy Balanced Indicator) report, which they completed prior to attending the workshop, and understand what the tool is about.
The rest of the day was designed around structured discussions on how the group will achieve the desired cultural change and what commitments they all want to make to ensure the future success of the organisation, hence putting the focus more on the impact and change for the organisation.
- Phase 5: Co-creating follow on interventions to support, drive and embed cultural change in the business.
Impact
“The programme provided a common platform for everyone to say ‘here is where we are and here is what I can do to help people do a better job” said the HR director. This platform also allowed the Leadership Team to describe the behaviours expected from the extended leadership team (as well as the rest of the organisation). Furthermore the safe space and climate encouraged people to open up which allowed the team to “iron out” the behaviour and leadership challenges that were making life difficult for them.
Certain members of the extended leadership team used to have frictions with each other which manifested in ideas being opposed, tensions increased, etc. These “disappeared after the intervention”. We deliberately put these individuals (who had peer related issues) together in the group coaching so they could better understand each other’s strengths and style, as well as appreciate each other. The one-to-one debrief sessions opened people’s eyes about their own perception of themselves. Results were validated in the follow-up group coaching sessions which helped people accept the feedback as it was consistent across a variety of sources.
Key stakeholders shared that as a result of the 6 month development journey the “Leadership Team was much more focused and aware of what they were doing”. This came through in the company sale process (the organisation got acquired by a competitor shortly after the programme terminated) whereby the executives were able to navigate through the due diligence procedure as a solid and unified team aiming for a common goal. The capability to work together improved greatly.
According to the CEO, this intervention was “one of the three key contributions that he (with the help of HR) made in his 2 years’ reign” and the most impactful intervention as a standalone initiative.
The participants (i.e. members of the extended leadership team) and the HR team felt that the intervention added value to the way the team operates, and underlined that the 360 degree process was both valuable and thought provoking. The use of the photographic images as part of the group coaching was very well received as it broke the “monotony of just talking” and appealed to the individuals who are more visual. Furthermore it allowed the group to dive deeper [within themselves] and share personal thoughts and challenges they were facing, which demonstrated they level of comfort in the group and their commitment to the process
From our (the provider) perspective, by the end of the workshop and intervention we perceived a strong willingness to develop an open and healthy relationship within the team, as well as a sense that “we are all in this together” which we believe has laid down solid foundations upon which the organisation is going to build its new culture going forward.
