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Imagine the French subsidiary of a multinational group: this one is well aware that change is accelerating, and that its industry is particularly affected by digital evolutions. As a result, the management community has two needs, individually and collectively: to become aware of its role and impact, and to develop its posture and practices.
Initially, the sponsor requested a training course in continuity of the sessions usually organized by the company: 20 people per session, 1 session per month. Thanks to the program we finally chose, we were able to significantly increase both the speed and, above all, the impact of this initiative. Here’s how.
Why change the format?
The initial request for a training program evolved significantly for 3 reasons:
– With monthly sessions for 20 people, it would have taken 3 years for all the managers to be impacted. Such a timeframe was not in line with the client’s ambitions, and entailed the risk of having to repeat the program over time. Most of all, such a format would have limited the impact of the training and siloed a rich and powerful community into sub-groups of 20 people.
– Rather than a training course, what we have built is an experience: sessions that enable managers to enrich each other’s practice and progress, to discover other parts of the organization (geography, business, managerial practices) and to practice what contributes to a change in posture.
– Rather than a top-down offer, we co-constructed a program that reflected the culture, practices and progress of the organization and its managers. In this way, we gathered the perceptions of the managers themselves (including the top executives) and adjusted the initiative to their feelings and expectations – and even beyond!
Increase the speed and impact of managerial innovation
Our assessment of the organization’s needs and ambitions led us to prioritize the co-construction and facilitation of three managerial seminars: the entire managerial community was not only reached but involved in the space of 4 months, instead of 30!
The objectives were fine-tuned together to :
– co-construct the changing role of the manager
– identify the challenges of digital transformation
– experiment with collaborative practices
– strengthen the managerial community.
During the seminars, the managers alternated between input from the preparatory work and surveys carried out at the start of the process, questioning to find their own answers in mixed sub-groups (and always meeting in plenary to collect all the input), and some sharing experiments of which they were proud, and which have proved useful in many parts of the organization.
An important benefit for everyone: the management team was involved in the preparation and running of the event, which the managers saw as a message of support for the initiative and their role. And during the conversation and co-construction sequences of the seminars, the executives were managers “like any others”.
The stakeholders feedback
At the end of each seminar and of the process, we were able to take a step back and reflect on what had been experienced and advanced. The main points were as follows:
– the managers ability to astonish themselves, in particular by discovering themselves in ways they’ve never done before
– the awareness and removal of cultural barriers to transformation
– new-found confidence that the cohesion of managers is up to the challenges of their transformation
– the acquisition, whatever the subsequent action, of resources which belongs to them and which they can solicit and maintain thereafter
– the ability to turn ideas into reality through action and appropriation of principles which, in a training course, would have been top-down or even disembodied
– the pride of sharing or appropriating operational initiatives developed in-house the shared momentum that gets teams on board.
The path taken by this initiative alone shows the conditions for a managerial initiative to accelerate and have an impact in a transformation: by starting from the reality and expectations of the key players, the program exceeded expectations.
Co-Dynamics likes to listen carefully to your requirements, understand your situation with you and adjust the approach to achieve the defined objectives. There’s nothing like experience to create, consolidate and develop a community!