Leadership Case Study Briefs
Provocative and Personal
A best-in-class software development company asked us to design a process to help accelerate the learning curve for their emerging leaders. Working with their internal People Development team, we created a series of learning events that bridge the gap between their current jobs and the evolving leadership needs of the business. This project has become a truly collaborative effort; the People Development team maintains context and connection with the leadership group and we provide a series of custom-designed and facilitated learning events.
The success of this design resulted in Bristlecone becoming a long term strategic partner with the business. To help accelerate the orientation and "on-boarding" process of new leaders, we've developed a high-impact team orientation process for them using a combination of experiential learning and interactive team simulations.
Building Best Practices
A best-in-class manufacturing and marketing organization asked us to "do some leadership training" to help fix a number of quality problems, lagging lead-times, poor delivery follow-through and employee morale problems. After doing an initial survey of the company, it was apparent that training alone would not fix their problems, and we told them so. Instead, we embarked on a series of dialogue sessions with employees to identify what brought out their best at work, and what was getting in their way from doing their best in their current jobs. During these sessions, the manager of the group only listened and took notes; the employees did all the talking. We then did the same with two of the company's key clients, except this time the CEO and key marketing executives did the listening.
We then held a three day retreat with the senior leadership team of the company to review the findings, identify trends and brainstorm solutions. Through this meeting, the participants were able to identify their own best practices. After some intensive activity mapping exercises, they re-assigned themselves to the areas in which they excelled.
Finally we created a management development program that involved a combination of training, mentoring by senior leaders and improved metrics of each manager's results. Over the course of 14 months, employee morale skyrocketed, lead times were reduced by almost half, and deliveries to clients rose to above 90% on-time -- a 45% improvement!
Leadership Case Study
A Case Study on Front Line Engagement:
The Problem:
A large global bio-tech firm came to us and asked us to provide custom leadership training for its supervisors. As we dug into the reason for the request, we were told that their employee satisfaction scores were not as good as they wished, they were surprised at the scores, and that they thought the reason was their supervisors and lead operators needed to be able to manage better.
When asked how the scores linked to front line leadership, they replied that while they had a well-trained and productive work force, they heard lots of complaints about the front line from the Supervisors. Among them, some people were chronically tardy, slacked off, complained and brought morale down. Others complained that some people got away with not following the rules. Still others had personal conflicts that were beginning to affect everyone. The supervisors felt they did not have the skills to deal with the satisfaction issues.
A Deeper Look:
We decided to conduct interviews of the operators, front line leaders, and some of their managers. We found that most people were doing fine, even those with some complaints felt that this was a good place to work and that there was a pervasive behavior of not addressing issues until they became intensified and then punishing the perpetrators. This pattern of dealing with issues was not solving the personnel issues and was sinking morale.
We came to believe this was not just a leadership issue but also a cultural one because we had seen this pattern in other areas of the company. We conducted a Denison Culture Survey and while the scores were good, there was definitely room for improvement in the areas of capability development, empowerment, and coordination and integration.
We also conducted leadership 360 feedback surveys for all managers, supervisors and lead operators. That feedback, while individual, showed some patterns around conflict avoidance, communication skills, and execution of personnel systems and processes.
A Framework for Improvement:
We used a process that addressed the needed changes in multiple ways. The research shows that to create an engaged and accountable culture, everyone must understand the core values, know how to apply them – what behaviors are expected, and then have them reinforced every day by their leaders. To create that, we needed to first gain agreement on the business case for changing the current culture. We then needed to provide the training for traits and skills of leaders in the desired culture and that had to be reinforced by their managers as well as having them reinforce those values, traits and skills for those they supervised.
What We Did:
Presented the Business Case for Change.
We created a process whereby every front line leader – managers, supervisors, and lead operators – came together and heard from their VP what the current way of operating was costing the company and what would be possible if that changed.
Created a Space for Deep Thinking.
The group went through a process whereby they described the ideal culture, behaviors and how that fit into the company values. They also created an agreed upon list of what they would need in order to make the change. Part of that was training.
Training.
After a month break, the front line leaders and their managers came back in two groups and learned how they get into the struggle for compliance and how to create a culture of accountability and responsibility. Our Step Up™ program requires a new way of thinking about leadership and includes many experiential exercises to gain understanding and skill. This session was followed up by two one-day sessions to learn more and gain practice. They also problem solved their real dilemmas.
Coaching.
At the end of the training sessions we conducted a one day coaching course for the managers. We also placed the supervisors and leads into “coaching circles” where they could come once a week and talk out their issues in implementing and get advice. These circles were a Vegas zone (what happens here stays here). The managers were to coach as needed and they each had a member of the Bristlecone staff to coach them after each call for a period of time.
The Results:
· Employee satisfaction scores went 4 times higher than the company who does the survey thought was prudent to shoot for.
· The culture survey improved by an average of 18% over an already very high score
· Qualitative feedback has consistently been that the program was responsible for increased performance, a better workplace, and front line leaders who are more effective and feel they have the skills to do their jobs. The front line reportedly is stepping up to the plate and freeing supervisors to do work that is at a higher level than they were previously able to manage.
· At the 18 month mark, this workforce continues to improve and is still growing in their leadership.
· A new course is planned for new supervisors as the company has grown
