CASE STUDY

EMPOWERMENT TEAM:
A REGION THAT IS EXPERIENCING AN ARREST AND HAS TO BUILD ITS FUTURE

Case Study

People Development

Company

Multinational in analytics and big data sector

Place

Italy

Edited by

Ornella Serrantini
February 2020

CHALLENGE

The top team of the region has the responsibility and the urgency to change gear and define the vision and roadmap that will lead the whole team to a successful future defined as “region 2.0”

ACTION

  • Individual initial interview
  • Individual Assessment
  • Team Assessment
  • Team Empowerment
  • Design Workshop
  • Individual Mini-Coaching

RESULT

The most cohesive, integrated top management team working to build the region’s future. A new mindset that looks to the future, not as a return to a successful past, but as the construction of new scenarios on which to build the “region 2.0”.

THE CHALLENGE: A MORE COHESIVE, INTEGRATED AND FOCUSED SENIOR TEAM TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF THE REGION

The top team of the region has the responsibility and urgency to change gear and define the vision and the roadmap that will lead the whole team to a successful future defined as “region 2.0”.
The empowerment team, on the one hand, aims to reinforce the feeling and the ability to feel collectively responsible for the development and results of the entire region, and, on the other hand, to train a more strategic and shared approach to the future.
Growth is only possible if all the managers and people in the region adopt a more strategic and global approach, which means being able to add an inter-functional perspective to the focus on one’s objectives and role, while overcoming the mere logic of individual KPIs. To do this, they must reinforce the sense of belonging and mutual alliance of each individual top team member, replacing the tactical approach at individual level with a more global and strategic one, which forces each individual to focus on their role responsibilities. They then learn to leave the rationale of immediate results behind, equip themselves with a more strategic outlook and qualify themselves for greater sensitivity and observation of trends and megatrends (regional and global) which will form the basis for possible future scenarios, on which to experiment with goal plans.
A very challenging objective because the team is made up of 12 leaders, of which only 5 are hierarchically linked to the region. All the others have a functional link, each has a different manager, with objectives and visions of their function that could, if interpreted literally and out of context, be in conflict with the regional objectives.

THE ACTION: AN EMPOWERMENT PATH FOR THE WHOLE ORGANISATION

In partnership with the client, the HR business partner and the executive VP who leads the region, decide to work on all members of the leadership team, on two levels:

  • the first aims to work on the identity of the team, on a more authentic alliance and the integration between them;
  • the second aims to define a common vision that is able of intercepting and predicting the evolution of the region.

The path, after the kick off, is divided as follows:

HOGAN assessment, 360 degrees and individual debriefing and initial interview with each participating manager, to create a pact with the person and activate his/her individual development plan.

Team Empowerment, the starting point is the team’s HOGAN report, the team then considers on its bright side, dark side and on the key driving values. Thanks to the exchange of development feedback and field trials, the team members begin to get to know each other and to work together in a different gear, one of a new alliance and cooperation.
The team leaves the laboratory with a more mature relationship and with the first draft of a co-constructed regional vision, which integrates the strategic approaches of the different functions represented.

Design Workshop, this workshop is entirely dedicated to defining the vision, with a focus on potential future evolutions inside and outside the region and on the trends and mega-trends that each team member observes from his/her point of observation. The workshop ends with a first draft of possible scenarios and related action plans. The workshop initiated a process which then became a way of working together for the entire leadership team and consequently for the whole region. During the workshop, in the process consulting part, we help each team member to respect the path of strengthening their leadership.

Short individual coaching course. This path accompanies the individual in grounding his/her vision and the related action plan within his/her own limits.

THE RESULT: GREATER COHESION AND ALLIANCE AND A NEW APPROACH TO THE FUTURE

ON A PERSONAL LEVEL:

The path triggered a self-development process, a more mature approach, a greater awareness of the personal impact on the whole region and the interdependence between functions.

AT THE ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL:

The basis for growing to every perimeter, by sharing a common vision and an approach to the future that takes into account the trends observed and captured in each situation, a shared action plan. The members of the region also appeared more cohesive and aligned, and more authoritative in the eyes of global functions.

THE KEY WORDS FROM THE RESULTS ARE:

  • VISION: from a tactical and short-term approach to a shared strategic approach
  • FUTURE: a look at the possible plausible futures for the region. More scenarios and action plans to try out each scenario.
  • IMPACT: a real change of mindset, capable of integrating both the short-term objectives and the KPIs to which the region has “committed itself” in addition to an approach to the future that opens onto more plausible scenarios.