Case Study · High-Performance Teams
Becoming a Great Place to Work
How to align senior leaders on a culture transformation process?
Context
A company-wide survey became the start of culture change.
Based on the results of a company-wide employee satisfaction survey, the board identified a need for culture change.
After the results were shared, the culture transformation process was kicked off with the top 80 senior leaders of the company.
Audience: 80 associates
Location: Dortmund, Germany
Timing: November 2024
Facilitation setup: three facilitators
The Challenge
Aligning senior leaders on a culture transformation process.
The workshop focused on the following goals:
- Align the essence of their future company culture.
- Identify critical change areas.
- Generate first execution ideas.
Workshop Process
From aspirational culture to first execution ideas.
The team first worked in subgroups, with each team focused on one specific theme. In the second part, all group proposals were consolidated and all team members had the opportunity to vote for their preferred initiatives based on their impact on the culture transformation.
01
New culture
The teams defined the core elements of their aspirational company culture.
02
Change pillars
The teams aligned on key change pillars to achieve a Great Place to Work certification within two years.
03
Execution ideas
The teams generated first ideas to bring the change to life across the company.
Key Output
Three big change initiatives.
The session closed with concrete initiatives and the commitment to implementation from the top 80 senior leaders.
Three big change initiatives
In the last part, three change programmes were aligned.
Senior leader engagement
There was a high level of leadership commitment to drive execution at division level and in local teams.
From Workshop to Execution
The board signed off on the proposed change initiatives.
At the end of the workshop, the board signed off on the three proposed change initiatives and approved the required funding.
Senior leaders could apply for project ownership roles for the aligned change initiatives. Sub-teams were formed to activate several workstreams for each initiative. A governance and review plan was agreed between the board and workstream leaders for thorough progress tracking.
Impact
Culture change became tangible from day one.
Fast and tangible diagnosis
By directly connecting the employee satisfaction survey results with the co-creation session, essential issues could be addressed quickly and tangibly through shared concrete stories and examples.
Change ambassadors
The engagement of the top 80 senior leaders in the first stage of the culture transformation journey made them change ambassadors from day one and had a positive impact on execution during the implementation phase.
Systemic understanding
The mixed-group setup across functions and countries created a deeper understanding of systemic versus functional or people-driven challenges.
Let’s connect
Need to align leaders on culture change?
A high-performance team workshop can help senior leaders translate employee feedback into shared culture priorities, concrete initiatives and committed implementation.