A series of interventions supporting the establishment of an effective Leadership Group modelling and embedding the requisite culture, behaviours and working practices supporting Strategic Alignment and Organisational Change
Leading the Way; driving strategic alignment through effective Leadership Group modelling of requisite behaviours and working practices
Overview
Behaviour is of strategic importance in that Organisational Culture drives Strategic Capability i.e. if collective behaviours and the ‘way we do things around here’ are not aligned to the organisation’s strategic focus it fundamentally compromises the capacity to deliver and sustain success.
Leadership is Critical; the behaviours, practices and ‘way we do things’ in an organisation is a direct product of the attitudes, beliefs, values and priorities that people hold or deem to prevail. One can’t ‘train’ attitudes and beliefs, one can only help inculcate, instil, inspire and develop those that are wanted – Exemplar Leadership throughout the business is therefore critically important if an organisation wants to re-focus what is required for success.
It is what leaders do, ask for and allow that has the single biggest impact on Organisational Culture and Behaviours.
Behaviour and Culture Change requires persistence and a ‘Tipping Point’; the main challenge in embedding new behaviours and ways of working is that of sustaining impact. This itself requires a two level tipping point:
-That sufficient people model the desired behaviours such that ‘fitting in’ supports people acting in the right (desired) manner
-That individually, people feel equipped and competent to demonstrate the requisite skills and behaviours
The Leading the Way programme is designed to establish a Leadership Group comprising appropriate functional leads and key influencers / leaders within the organisation with the express remit to act as Cultural Architects, modelling and engendering the required Leadership Behaviours supporting the organisation’s strategy.
Programme Outline
Using an Action Learning basis, key elements of the series of interventions and associated activities include:
-Establishing the Leadership Group; determining the Purpose of and Vision for the Leadership Group and how it will function. Identification of key focus areas (behaviours, practices, processes etc) to be addressed to support key strategic drivers. Cross-functional feedback and agreement to performance/practices ‘gaps’ to be addressed. Determining role-model leadership behaviours and set-up of Action Learning sets.
-Measuring Success; identification of key business metrics and targeted outputs by which the success of Leadership Group activities will be assessed.
-Addressing Identified Opportunities; deployment of individual and collective actions to address identified opportunities and addressing current activities not aligned to organisational goals.
-Supporting Effective Behaviours & Ways of Working; Leadership Group members are supported in evaluating the extent to which targeted behaviours and working practices are deployed within their work areas (including structured cross-functional feedback). Development of function ‘Roadmaps’ to align practices and capitalise on differentiating strengths.
-Developing Leadership Capability and Emotional Intelligence; working in coached Action Learning sub-sets, leadership group members are supported in further developing their individual leadership effectiveness. Furthering self-awareness and insight, members undertake the EQi 2.0 Emotional Intelligence 3600 and develop their Emotional Intelligence in leading and collaborating with others.
-Enabling Effective Organisational Learning; whilst readily understood, application of Experiential Learning is often more challenging in practise. Leadership group members will be supported in enabling the organisation to really drive operational performance through effective use of Kolb’s’ Learning Cycle in sustaining improvement gain.
