Decoding & uniting a unicorn
Situation
How to decode and spread the success DNA of one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies while running even faster?
The founders and management team realized that to secure future success while still growing its business rapidly across multiple markets there was a need to define and scale the success DNA of the organization.
The company had grown to 3000 employees, and the pressure on key players in the organization to both deliver on growing promises, onboard people, and stay alive and sound was often an unsolvable equation. High performers joining the company had an equally hard task offloading these key people since they were under high pressure to deliver. The mass of the organization did not know the core purpose of the company and therefore mistook the company for any traditional.
The founder had wanted to do this for some time but, this being too big to fail, had found it to find the right partner. Suddenly, he found the company being 3000 people in great need of support.
The results
Wide alignment and engagement for the organization’s success DNA, robust and ready to take on the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.
- Awareness and engagement for the journey ahead, in the core and width of the organization through an accessible model covering critical aspects of the company’s success DNA – the purpose, culture, and strategy.
- Allyship for the journey through involvement in the process and clear expectations on leaders and employees to contribute to the success through individual and joint ownership.
- Ability to scale the success DNA through a leadership toolkit supporting strategy and culture into action in all parts of the organisation.
- Distributed leadership for the success through awareness and training of leaders throughout the organisation.
- Increased collaboration across functions and markets enabled by uniting people around joint strategic focus areas, culture, and purpose.
The Task
People Heart Business were invited as partner in this situation. A situation with a great need of support yet many conflicting priorities. The task was as often in partnerships jointly defined. To leverage the potential in the organization there was a need to stop running and prioritize defining the success DNA to further scale and professionalize the organization for future success. The task to both define and align around purpose, culture, add strategic focus areas. People Heart Business was equally focused on getting the right things in the fancy power points as building a movement for the success DNA, and therefore the work to a large extent relied on co-creation with the organization.
The solution
- Through a 6 months co-creation project, gather the management team, leaders, and employees in the organization to analyze, discuss, and define critical aspects of the Success DNA.
- Define external trends that will impact the organization going forward and, in this context, contribute to strategic organizational learning and development of relevant direction and expertise.
- Build trust within and between organizational units to better understand and collaborate around strategic priorities.
- Build a framework for “the company way” including purpose, culture, and strategic focus areas while simultaneously strengthening leadership capabilities, and most importantly ownership for the realization of the Success DNA in both senior management and employees out in the organization.
Partner quotes
“We don’t need your support anymore; we have leaders who now can own and take this further”
(key stakeholder)
“I thought the management only were here to make money, but I have realised they are good people who wants to contribute to building a better society, this has hugely impacted my motivation for the company”
(blue collar employee)
“I have realised that there are so many people caring deeply for the success of the company I founded, I am moved by all the engagement and positively surprised by the contribution”
(founder)
“I have realised I need to improve my leadership skills to be able to role model and live the success DNA and not have nice things on a paper but not live up to them”
(senior leader)
“We had not gathered the leadership team once before this initiative. We would not have done such a dedicated and important job without People Heart Business, but now I happy that all the workshops are over and eager to increase the focus on continue building the success.”
(senior leader)
“Before this initiative I was focused on delivering on my priorities. I have gotten a much better companywide understanding and can therefore make better decisions for the company as whole. Sometimes this means slowing down own processes and instead contribute to others.”
(middle manager)