What is the most effective way to align individuals with a strategic business plan, inspire better performance and make the change stick?
TEN had worked with the regulatory affairs division of a pharmaceutical company to design and deliver a global change programme to turn its strategic business plan into reality and secure multimillion-pound savings. One year on, the leadership team believed more could be done to align individuals around the strategy so they asked TEN to undertake a review.
"We discovered that some line managers did not understand how the strategy related to what they had to do in their day-to-day roles and this was inhibiting performance."
The company had several aims: to analyse what was getting in the way of delivering the strategic business plan; to discover whether there were further opportunities to get fitter and perform better; and to identify actions that would make operations more effective and efficient.
We investigated what might be impacting performance using focus groups, interviews with senior stakeholders and a staff survey based on our seven levers model of organisational effectiveness.
We found that the division was delivering as good a service or better than two years before, despite having 20 per cent fewer staff. But we also discovered that some line managers did not understand how the strategy related to what they had to do in their day-to-day roles and this was inhibiting performance.
The leadership team ran a series of engagement events to capture the hearts and minds of line managers and bring the strategy to life. These have significantly raised levels of engagement and ownership; employees now see what needs to be done and how it.