Cases

Situation

The project sees it as a digital transformation, read ERP implementation. But it is much more than that. Activities will be off-shored, organisational roles will change, disappear and come into existence. Remuneration will change and there is more. The international team had been lauded. The project had finished in time and within budget. Everything worked. A true example.

…. Everything worked? Well yes on the technical side. However… Take up and adherence to the new after almost one year was 0%! The whole team had to be retrained in process and systems. Line managers were on the barricades though. They claimed they had not been informed, they did not know, the set-up was wrong, things did not work as they should.

Then we are asked to support on the people side. By the way, with a very challenging timeframe and very little budget.

Our commitment

Some managers try to shove us off with threats and not so positive Alpha behavior. We stay calm and make an inventory of all their complaints and objections. Then we design a short program in which we address and tackle all their input. The overall manager decides not to act on our appeal to show clear sponsorship and leadership. One or two hard-core negative managers remain hard-core negative. But we have by-passed them in the meantime. Working with ambassadors on co-worker level. Slowly but surely all co-workers are retrained. We propose to secure a more extensive support for the first month.

Effect

Slowly, one by one actors stop resisting the new and instead start to engage in what will be re-launched. Usage of the more extensive support increases. We start to see peers help one another in the new. We witness an uptake in compliance. Strongly complaining managers become more and more isolated.

Situation

With the expiration of the effective date, management believes that the reorganisation has taken place. Everyone is in their place in the new organisation chart. Not a cloud in the sky…or…

Meanwhile on the work floor, 2 groups are fighting each other. The IT team with a history of anarchy-like self-steering wants nothing to do with the drilled Facilities team. “I will not lower myself” is the IT team’s credo. On the other side, the Facility team with a background of being kept on a very short leash and learned helplessness. Fear for IT and the rude IT people go hand in hand with inertia.

The manager, for the record, is sick at home and has realized that leadership is not his thing. Internal customers are increasingly complaining that the service is inadequate. Escalations to enforce their complaints are no exception.

Our commitment

Upon my arrival and the days after I get all the heat from both sides about how unwelcome I am, that I only come to fill my pockets and that I will achieve nothing. The situation calls for rapid improvement. After about a week I understand the situation enough to take steps. Managers and employees are informed about my first impressions and what we are going to tackle.

All corners of situational leadership in combination with a variety of interventions are needed to set a fragile movement in motion. Gradually, the negative forces weaken, and a few positive employees start to collaborate within the team. Intermediate evaluations indicate that things are improving. At the same time, there are things that need to be addressed.

I keep a close eye on things. Let go where possible and support or step up where necessary.

Effect

A year later, the team is functioning at a good level. The complaints have been decimated and the service is much better. There’s plenty left to do. Fortunately, they can now largely do this themselves. After a year and a half, the department is voted the best unit in the Netherlands in its field.

Situation

The international operating organisation signals that a store’s sales and market share are structurally and significantly lagging behind projections and benchmarks. At the same time, the reported mediocre customer satisfaction is deteriorating.

Our commitment

We guide 180 part- and full-time employees from their sales, customer service and restaurant departments through our tailor made “swing with the customer” program for the duration of approximately 6 months.

Effect

During the program and up to 3 years after the program, sales, customer satisfaction and other indicators improve drastically. Based on the results this store, out of some 400, is nominated for “Best store of the world” award. We are asked back to run parts of the program again. After that, parts of our program are copied and rolled out across the organisation.

Situation

The logistic process has been a nightmare for the organisation for years. It is about supplying the European market with products from Asia. Costing vast amounts of money on ‘fault-costs’ and non availability. Year in, year out. A lot has already been tried. Each time without lasting results.

This process involves no fewer than 13 players in 6 different organisations, spread over 5 countries on 2 continents. Conflicting interests, diverse cultures and the lack of adequate follow-up and steering tools add to the complexity.

Our commitment

Our first step is to ensure major stakeholders share the same reality.  The second step is to acquire the commitment of required sponsors. After a fragile commitment has been obtained, we start to add operational executives. Together we co-create a plan. The result is an impressive list of improvement actions. This includes:

• Unifying actors on a set of shared principles
• Redefining the process with changed roles;
• Virtual team training for geographically dispersed players to normalize burned relations;
• Co-creation of a tracking, steering and communication system that can function throughout all involved organisation;
• A multitude of training moments;
• Ad hoc conflict resolution.

Effect

It takes almost a year before improvements become visible. Customers experience a significant better availability whilst the fault-costs almost disappear. The effect on the bottom-line is phenomenal.

Situation

The huge global transformation of this global player is already well advanced. At least from a technical perspective. Process design and build are well underway. People in the receiving units, on the other hand, are largely lost.

The project forgets that success will not only depend on whether all IT systems function as required. Success will also depend on the extent to which those undergoing this transformation are motivated and able to quickly master the new.

Our commitment

We support on the People side of Change. We propose to take a receiver oriented perspective in which participants are activated to contribute and learn fast.

Many are enthusiastic when they hear about it, but nothing much happens. Only after we organize separate sessions with individual stakeholders does movement start.

Effect

It’s a slow process to get the needed people on board, but the movement is there. Participation in more interactive sessions immediately leads to higher engagement and better understanding. Soon a variety of things surface that were previously overlooked.

Situation

The strategic plan predicts a threefold increase in volume. If the team continues to work in the same way, this means 3 times as many people, an extra management layer, 3 times as many errors, inefficiencies instead of economies of scale…

Impossible and way too expensive. The team has to discover other ways of working. Innovation is a necessity while things are going so well.

Our commitment

We design and lead a variety of workshops to identify the topics that need to be addressed. A number of important points emerge from this:

• Roles, tasks and responsibilities need to be reviewed;
• Processes and performance must be made transparent across the extended company by all actors, end-to-end;
• SOP’s need to be adapted and agreed;
• Communication and steering must take place on the basis of improved IT tools;
• The number of external service providers must be drastically reduced.
• A new procurement strategy needs to be defined and implemented.

In a series of other workshops we facilitate the creation of a new procurement strategy.

Situation

Shortly after each other, 3 partners of the company want to sell their share and retire. Individual interests about price and conditions of the shares to be sold, clash. At the same time, the growth plan of the continuing partners is on perceived collision course with the interests of the selling partners.

An external process supervisor has been working for a year to structure and make the deal. When I’m called in, the situation is deadlocked. Some partners only talk to each other through their lawyers.

Our commitment

I develop a game of interests in which ethics, price and timing are the incompatible elements. Each with its own benefits but also ‘price’. The objective is to loosen-up dug-in positions as a first step. The process supervisor and some partners believe that things are going in the wrong direction for them. Their attempt to wipe me off their stage fails. A slightly more robust approach appears to be necessary to get everyone into cooperation mode.

Effect

After two and a half months, the agreement is signed and sealed.

Situation

A distribution center (DC). Competition from nearby benchmarkable other DCs. Our customer is in bad shape. High personnel costs, high error costs and poor service reliability mean that the management is put on notice by their largest customer. Improve now or close the doors. That’s what it comes down to.

Our commitment

Our intake reveals that everything, absolutely everything, is contained in rules. In addition, making mistakes is unacceptable.

As a result, many employees have emotionally disconnected, have become consciously helpless and at best only do what they minimally need to do.

We have developed and started three processes that partly ran simultaneously.

1. Help management to recognize their own part in the situation that has arisen. This is a step towards a willingness to manage the organisation differently and to guide them in this.
2. Training of middle management and shift leaders in contextual leadership. Less control and more room to move for the often very experienced employees.
3. Steering of the informal forces to become more positive and at the same time getting the majority of the employees in a ‘we’ll try-it-one-more-time’ position.

In addition, we have included several external stakeholders to feedback about progress.

Effect

After more than half a year, the result is a better performing DC and more satisfied customers. The large customer announces to stay.

Situation

A production company. The organisation is surprised by a relative sudden drop in order-quantity. To make matters worse, this is leading to a price war. To save the day, management is trying to improve the situation with a whole package of higher requirements, more control, more rules and savings.

It is counterproductive. It is the straw that makes the camel’s back break. The organisation, as it were, splits between management and employees. Team and shift leaders are divided and support the camp of their choice. We were tasked with revitalizing the production team.

Our commitment

In order to get results quickly, we set up 3 themes simultaneously:

1. Coaching of MT members to create awareness and recognition for the effects of their behavior;
2. Conflict resolution between individuals and teams;
3. Coaching of teamleaders to energise their team-members to contribute to improvements.

Effect

MT members fully understand the message and are able to adapt and take a distance. Teamleaders find it harder to leave the years long pattern of suppressing their team members. First effects emerge. To save money the company hires a people oriented operational manager and HR manager.The company decides to further develop under their own steam.

Situation

The team has been together for almost two years and things are going well. Performance exceeds targets and the team is running well. The manager sees more is possible. Not by working harder, but by working better together.

We are asked to design and provide a team building. The aim is to improve collaboration.

Our commitment

We design and guide the team in a combination of ‘exercises’. From light-hearted and fun, slowly to deeper layers. Motives, parent messages, and more are discussed. A touch of theory to explain what we are doing. We also use creative elements and movement exercises. Self-catering is added as a fun element and to help people let down their masks.

Effect

The feedback immediately after the training was overwhelming. Still after months. We are asked to make a flyer so that other teams of the organisation can also benefit from such a tailor-made team building.

Situation

The business to business sales department has to achieve increasingly higher targets. The sales funnel shows a nice picture. Improving on this seems very difficult. What to do is the question.

Our commitment

We advise to serve existing customers better. Larger orders is the motto. In a theory-light but practical-heavy sales training during a period of 6 months, we help salespeople to become more skilled to sell more to existing customers.

Effect

Turnover increases by 13% … and customers feel better served.

Situation

Due to a lack of attention, the team has not kept up with developments and increasing requirements of recent years. The leader who has just been promoted to teamleader from within the team is held accountable for this. He is tasked with raising the level of service provided by the team.

An additional difficulty is that the team has become the bad seed of the organisation. Then the leader turns out to have too little strength to realise the required changes nor can he stand up to skewed inter-team aspects.

Our commitment

We propose to make the leader stronger. In concrete terms, by helping him to implement the desired changes himself. That takes longer but ultimately yields much more than when we implement.

In the beginning, fear dominates and the leader hides. Then, with us in the background, we launch the trajectory “What used to be good enough, must now be better”. Step by step we touch on all kinds of topics.

• does my self-image correspond to the image other people get of me;
• how do I become more robust;
• how do I get more traction as a manager;
• how do I get a better grip on the undesired group dynamics;
• how do I ensure that change takes hold;
• how do I deal with partly older and less motivated employees.

Step by step there is movement. Movement in the leader’s attitude and behavior. This also means movement in the team. Games like pretended participation and helplessness are all over. We guide from behind. Sometimes live, sometimes in role plays, sometimes via Skype.

Effect

Almost a year and a half after the program has ended, I am in the area and walk in unannounced. I meet the leader, several members of the team and the manager of the man I have coached.

I hear from all 3 sides that things are going much better. Within the team, with the leader and with the performance. Also, the team is no longer the punching bag of the organisation.

Situation

The newly merged and multi site department consists of employees from 14 different countries. It buys and operates large-scale logistics services for the European continent. The costs are high and the service is low. This is decreasing group turnover and profit in all European countries.

Our commitment

We conduct an analysis that shows that much of what goes wrong is caused by functional and cultural contradictions within the team and by clumsy communication to stakeholders.

Because the majority of employees travel more than 60% of the time, a tailor-made approach is required. Only after we can clarify the effect of the low performance, do team members start to open up to change. In the specially developed trajectory, we train buyers, operational employees and their leaders on cultural awareness, communication skills and collaboration.

Effect

The collaboration and communication within the team has greatly improved. New insights and stronger skills also lead to better collaboration with stakeholders.

The error costs are falling, the tenders are more successful and the service indicators show values so positive that earlier were considered impossible. Globally, the cost reductions achieved are the second largest contributor to the group-wide profit increase.

Situation

Budget cuts combined with the need for better service made the organisation decide to switch from a functional to a process orientation. Design sessions with employees and consultants were held for a year and a half. Rough and detailed process designs were made and shared. A complete information campaign was set up. Cost nor effort were spared to make the change successful.

Just before going live, the management suspected that things were not quite right. We were called in. Fortunately. When checking the plans, it appeared that the content had been well thought out. However, little or no thought had been given to how all this would be implemented.

There were some plans that were based on the naive idea that if you tell something, the other person is enthusiastic about it, understands it and able to function well. A change-implementation strategy had never been discussed and there was also no coherent action plan. A risk analysis with belonging mitigation plans were also missing. A further exploration provided the necessary insights to design a change plan.

Our commitment

Below are the steps we have taken:

• Co- creation of a change plan;
• Secured a buy-in of the MT members for the entire implementation scheme;
• Leaders were trained how to lead in change;
• Employees engaged in a series of interventions to floor the change and better cooperation within and between teams.

Halfway through the phased approach to better cooperation, 2 sponsors for this program left the organisation. The newly appointed director held the opinion that the operation was going well enough and indicated that he saw other priorities. The program was ended.

Situation

The client indicates that the profit of the organisation is strongly under pressure by persistent cases of theft. This is possible due to a sub-optimal process that is not fully adhered to anyway.

The detailed improved process does not land. During our investigation, several reasons for the non-landing of the new process emerged.

• The manager was not strong enough to enforce the renewed process.
• The rather independently working employees had decided that the old process was better and more pleasant.
• Involved external parties who were also actors in the process had their own logic on which they acted.

Our commitment

The apparent simple problem turned out to be quite complicated. What was needed and where we guided and supported:

• Coaching of managers to make them stronger.
• Tightening up of the new process with fewer but better checks.
• Several values workshops for the employees involved.
• Renegotiation of contracts with external parties.
• Training to employees of the external parties about their role in the process.
• Culture training to 2 external parties.

Effect

After a lot of effort for this at first seemingly simple challenge, the leak was and remained closed.

Situation

The government organisation is an executive organization of 300 people, many of whom are specialists who operate in smaller teams with a great degree of independence. Motivation, commitment and flexibility clearly leave much to be desired. Not to mention the willingness to replace each other in order to provide a better service…while this is the new strategy.

Our commitment

We are asked to do an analysis. After presentation of the findings, we are asked to design a change plan.

Whilst we were reporting on the progress of the analysis, did the MD waver. Negative dominant forces were trying to stifle innovation. The new generation in the team who were in favour of the changes let themselves be dominated by the older generation for lack of support from their leaders and the MD. Several conversations meant to get everything back on track seemed to work but in the end did not. Coaching of the MD was not successful. We announced to stop our efforts.

Then things went on track… and off track again. Our assignor for some kind of reason could not save the day. We definitely decided to stop our engagement. We concluded with a workshop with all involved that resulted in the conclusion that the current state of affairs was in urgent need of change.

Effect

Later we learned that a new MD was appointed and that our analysis was used as basis for the creation of a change plan.