What was the business challenge?

The client has been recognised for its pioneering and top-quality products and services, and operational excellence as a leading automobile manufacturer.

However, it realised that the world was changing, both globally and locally, in several important ways and therefore it became important for the organisation to understand the implications of these changes and to plan a way forward that would build on its proud track record of success.

The client partnered with Laetoli to scope the possibilities and design a plan for the change effort that was to take place in the organisation. From the scoping effort, it became clear that the changes required were transformational as it necessitated a radical shift from one stage of being to another, so significant that it required a shift of culture, behaviour and mindset to implement successfully and sustain over time. It required a shift in awareness that completely altered how the organisation viewed the world, its customers, its work, and itself.

Overview of the scope of Laetoli’s involvement

The transformation process was driven through several key change enablement initiatives, namely:

• Facilitated strategy process to review and redevelop a comprehensive corporate strategy
• Facilitated culture and values process to unpack, align and re-institutionalise their values
• Large-scale interactive change workshop to align leaders, managers and employees around the revised corporate strategy and roll out/ integrate the values
• Capacity building for HR practitioners to enable and lead the change
• Leadership development to lead and guide the successful implementation of the change and to integrate the values into a leadership competency model
• Employee Satisfaction Survey to determine employee perceptions of various elements of organisational effectiveness, including the management of change
• Established, equipped and guided a change agent network that took full responsibility for designing programmes to institutionalise the values

How did we address this business challenge?

Forming part of the intricate change process, the organisation realised that enduring success comes about through a change process that requires a shared vision of the people – people with energy, commitment, and a sense of ownership of the new reality. For this reason, the approach to change adopted was ‘Change through Engagement’, a facilitative approach whereby everyone’s contribution was made in planning the company’s future.
The process commenced with a series of facilitated meetings with fifty of the top leaders. Over several months, they engaged in an in-depth discussion about their future and the changes they needed to make to successfully meet the challenges ahead.

These leadership sessions led to a revised corporate strategy, accompanied by a new set of values and a desired company culture. During this process, the leadership team further identified the strategic capabilities and leadership and follower competencies required to implement the new corporate strategy.

The next step was to engage the broader leadership team through a large-scale Leadership Alignment Event. The purpose of this event was to develop and align all leaders behind the newly revised corporate strategy, to understand the business reasons for change, and to provide the leadership team with the opportunity to debate and agree on the values identified in the initial leadership strategy sessions. The Leadership Alignment Large Scale Event further allowed leaders to identify the behaviours necessary to support the values.

A Design Team was assembled to plan the Leadership Alignment Large-Scale Event, which involved 150 leaders. This Design Team was a representative microcosm of the organisation, ensuring that all voices within the organisation would be heard and involved in planning the change effort.

To design the Leadership Alignment Large Scale Event, the design team planned and managed the content and process, developing the event’s agenda. They also assisted with the logistics and facilitation demands, ensuring the process was seamless so that the participants could focus on the event’s content.

During the Leadership Alignment Large-Scale Event, leaders were presented with the revised corporate strategy. The Corporate strategy outlined the vision and mission for the company. It also identified the key strategic capabilities that needed to be built to drive the corporate strategy and deliver on the vision. Leaders were also presented with a culture map highlighting the identified values and the way in which they would drive the corporate strategy.

The event was participative and engaging. Among the presentations, leaders had the opportunity to engage in lengthy dialogues, which were robust and challenging, but also provided them with the chance to share their views, ideas, and put forward questions and suggestions for changes to the revised corporate strategy and values. The event also allowed leaders to identify the leadership behaviours that would demonstrate the living out of each of the values.

The two-day session ended with personal commitments from the leaders to the transformation process. This event enabled the broader leadership team to collaborate with the Board in co-creating and defining the future strategy, values, and leadership behaviour.

The next step was to engage the entire organisation in the preferred future of the company. The purpose of the Employee Alignment Event was to align employees behind the company’s corporate strategy, identified values and the behaviours to support the values.

More than 700 managers and employees at all levels came together in the Employee Alignment Event. The revised corporate strategy was presented, and the participants were allowed to explore, define and confirm the identified values and behaviours required to deliver on the strategy.

Laetoli’s approach in these sessions entailed a participative training technique using a range of experiential exercises, videos, group discussions, case studies, and role-plays. In this way, participants engaged deeply by examining their own beliefs and exploring their connection to the broader organisational system.

Instead of simply receiving information on an organisation’s strategy or change process, people left the interactive, organisation-wide meetings in the company behaving differently, making different choices about how they work together and where they focus their time and energy.

The process at the company provided employees and leaders with an opportunity to co-create and define their future. It was a process in which all the voices of the people were heard. Together they started to build their future – a future that they were all proud and excited about.

What steps did Laetoli take to ensure sustainability?

The facilitated strategy, culture, and values process, as well as the Large Scale Interactive workshops, were supported by additional change enablement initiatives.

The first included the formation of a Booster/Change Agent Team to ensure the sustainability of the outcomes achieved in the Leadership and Employee Alignment workshops. The purpose of developing Boosters was to enhance the capacity of employees at all levels, enabling them to support the successful implementation and rollout of values, as well as manage any change dynamics that may arise during the values implementation.

The Boosters’ role and responsibility were to assist with the further rollout of the strategy and values in the company’s regional plants. They also provided ongoing support to the communications team in ongoing communication about the transformation, supported the project team in various initiatives and activities to institutionalise the strategy and values process, and offered support to employees in their experiences and reactions to the change.

The second initiative included capacity building for HR practitioners to develop their ability to enable and lead change in their service to line managers during the company’s transformation process. This process equipped HR practitioners with the relevant knowledge, skills, and tools for change enablement.

This development programme enabled HR practitioners to share a common understanding of key concepts and theoretical frameworks, facilitating change within the company. The group further developed insight into approaches, strategies, and tools to support people through their change journeys in the company.

Another initiative was an Employee Satisfaction Survey. This allowed the company to examine employee satisfaction with various dimensions of organisational effectiveness. The results enabled the company to rectify various organisational dynamics that were a cause of employee dissatisfaction as part of the transformation within the company.

A Leadership Awareness Development Programme was also held to help leaders develop insight into their ‘way of being’, enhance self-awareness, and ultimately achieve self-mastery. This level of awareness was essential for leaders to enable successful organisational transformation in the company, as change requires individuals to transform personally and thus if leaders required members of the organisation to transform, they first need to embark on their own personal journey of transformation, self-awareness and self-mastery to model the way forward for the rest of the organisation.

What were the successes of the project?

The company’s transformation process represented a fundamental shift in the way things were done within the organisation. What formed the foundation of the shift and resulted in a successful transformation process were the principles and approach to change, introduced into the company by Laetoli, which guided the change process in the organisation. These include the principles of ‘Engagement’ and the ‘Real Time Strategic Approach’ to change.

These change frameworks were not only effective in the change process, but also in the subsequent implementation. Still, they were also in line with the values the company aimed to introduce into the organisation, as the frameworks and concepts used promoted Empowerment and Inclusion. Instead of simply receiving information on an organisation’s strategy or change process, people in the company were engaged in the various change initiatives. This resulted in people taking ownership in building their future and that of the company.

The organisation worked together to build a new future, concluding with much pride, excitement, and a renewed commitment to the future.