Multi award winning UK property developer
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With 20% year-on-year growth and aspirations to expand into five geographical areas, there was a pressing need to define the culture, values and leadership required to drive the company from a local to national house builder.
Insight
Building bridges at the start of any culture change project is fundamental. Investing time in meeting and interviewing the Chairman, CEO and senior team gave us a solid understanding of the goals and aspirations of the company, what was important about how it did business, how it wanted to grow, and of course, experience first-hand some of challenges the project could face.
Recognising that the culture and values that underpinned success to date may not be fit for the future, we completed a company-wide BQi culture survey, supported by numerous focus groups. This allowed us to measure and define the current culture in the business, and to identify where staff considered the culture was strong and where change was needed.
The survey, when mapped to our client’s competency framework, also gave us a clear indication of the leadership competencies that needed to be addressed to ensure there was a leadership bench strength across the business as the company moved to a regional structure.
Action
The first task was to identify and train a group of internal change Ambassadors to work us across the project, acting as a conduit between the project team and the wider business. Working with these Ambassadors we then defined the mission, vision and values that the organisation would need as it grew and regionalised. This was supported by the delivery of a communication and implementation plan.
At the same time, working with the senior team we identified core areas of culture that had to be reinforced, and the measurable cultural improvements that needed to be made for the company to navigate its way successfully to becoming a national business.
With the culture strategy developed and the mission, vision and values being implemented, we then developed and delivered a bespoke leadership development programme for the top talent, supported by a bespoke management development programme for the people managers across the business. Both programmes incorporated a series of toolkits and resources developed specifically to help delegates learn and apply this learning in the business.
Results
Over a two-year period, the results have been significant. We have worked in partnership with our clients to:
- Assess their current culture and the culture they will need as they grow allowing them to set a solid cultural foundation for the regionalisation process.
- Develop a clear set of values aligned to both the current and future culture that form the bedrock of everything that happens in the business.
- Develop the skills of a team of in-house culture change consultants to ensure the sustainability and independence of the project.
- Have the ongoing use of a set of toolkits and resources focused on developing emotional intelligence, team performance and effective decision making.
- Develop and roll out a leadership development programme to enable the top talent to succession plan into more senior roles as the company grew. Each delegate had an ‘almost bespoke’ learning journey using a mix of learning interventions with significant focus on delivering ‘value-adding’ business projects.
- Develop and roll out a management development programme to provide middle managers with a standardised set of management skills to increase the company’s overall management capability.
