Executive Team Alignment

Challenge

In 2014, a listed infrastructure services company approached us. There was a strong feeling in the team that, despite having defined a clear strategy and completed significant organisational changes, the group vision was not aligned with the individual business unit strategies and the executive team was not working well either as a team or in its leadership function for the group. In order to deliver on the strategy, it was vital that there was a common identity and vision, from the leadership down, to ensure that everyone was working to a common purpose and using a common language to make decisions quickly and effectively.

Approach

The first priority was supporting the leadership team in creating a shared vision and introducing them to the importance of building a common culture. Our support initially involved interviews, a facilitated session with the team, and supporting their annual leadership conference. As many of the challenges in execution in the business stemmed from the leadership team not being aligned, the newly defined vision, using elements of purpose, vision, strategic focus and culture, acted as a powerful catalyst for greater collaboration, shared action and a common language was very positively received across the business.

After a change in the composition of the leadership team in 2015, the CEO re-engaged us, this time with a focus on the leadership team effectiveness – how it made decisions, supported each other, and acted effectively as a leadership group. Working with senior teams such as this, we use our “DIPS” process, representing defined phases of work that have proven effective in creating sustained shifts in team dynamics.

Impact

Through focusing on both behavioural and structural aspects of how the team operated and working intensively to provide a common language amongst the team, the effects were profound -both in how they collaborated together and also how they spent their time. The team has changed from spending 80%+ of its time in meetings ‘managing the business’ (reporting and troubleshooting problems), to spending 20% of their time on these activities and 80% on strategic topics and creating the right culture across the organisation. They have also fundamentally shifted how they behave both when they are together and when they are apart. Through shared language and our continuing support, they now make decisions collectively, actively support each other, and make decisions with a focus on alignment – transforming the execution of their decisions, and their results.