Case Study

A ‘leading change’ programme for a global FMCG manufacturer

With an organisation-wide, global change programme starting imminently, the client tasked LeaderSpace with enabling their line managers to lead their teams through the process. We created a 2-day Leading Change Masterclass that could be delivered by their internal Learning and Development professionals across the world.

Objectives

While our client primarily needed to equip line managers to lead teams through the imminent change programme, they also wanted to provide managers with an understanding of how to lead a team through change more generally. Additionally, they wanted to avoid adding new theoretical content, but instead use real live change issues to help translate existing theoretical knowledge of change management principles into the development of practical skills. Furthermore, they asked us to do all of this in a way that could be rolled out globally by internal facilitators.

The approach we took

In order to ascertain stakeholders’ implicit (as well as explicit) needs and expectations for the course, we established a group ‘war room’ and held initial one-on-one interviews. We then formed a small design team comprising one LeaderSpace consultant and two internal Learning and Change Management professionals.The team reviewed all existing leadership and change management training. We then created materials for the new course that would build on participants’ variable existing knowledge of the subject while avoiding duplication of previous training. Next, we prepared a storyboard that was signed off by the key stakeholders.

Further to a dry run with all key internal stakeholders globally, we enabled the internal team to showcase the course at the annual global HR conference, where they gained approval to launch the programme in Jakarta the following quarter.

Our Global HR and Learning Team gave the programme a resounding endorsement, praising its simplicity, relevance and level of challenge. The participants themselves found the programme very powerful: immediate, highly refreshing, thought provoking and practical. They also appreciated the down-to-earth way it helped them examine the complexities of their working environments.
Group Head of Change Management, global FMCG manufacturer

The impact we had

The course was hailed as a refreshing and insightful experience. It was very different to what managers in this organisation were used to, and was seen to stretch participants and the internal facilitators.While it’s too early to evaluate the impact on the business, the stakeholders who commissioned us said that giving the global HR community first-hand experience of the content at their annual conference “went extremely well!” and that the launch was “very successful and a great week.”

In fact, they anticipated such high demand for the course that they asked us to supplement their global facilitation team with our own people.