1. Mobilising leaders to engage colleagues
Synopsis
After three years of unrelenting change and reorganisation a new Site Head wanted to re-engage 2500 colleagues improving their motivation, commitment and attitude. Leading Change led the process to gain feedback from employees, facilitated a programme designed to re-engage 2500 people and re-structure the site leadership team around engagement missions.
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more) or download the case study pdf (here)
The Context
- Pfizer’s R&D site at Sandwich is one of the largest R&D sites in Europe. Over 2500 people work on the site which had recently be subject to two years of strategic restructuring covering three different global corporate transformation initiatives
- A charismatic new site head wanted to re-energise site leadership as an executive team that could lead colleagues effectively in a rapidly changing environment. He wanted to ‘put the buzz back into Sandwich’.
Key issues
- Gallup results and anecdotal evidence indicated that colleagues at the site were disengaged, de-motivated and fearful.
- The site leadership team had no clear mission, membership or remit as all the business units represented on the site reported to global lines.
- High profile leadership at local site level was seen as rather unfashionable in the corporate matrix.
The solution
- We conducted extensive focus groups and 1:1 structured interviews to understand perceptions of the site leadership and their effectiveness. Results were briefed to the leadership team.
- We established a new charter for the leadership team defined by business need. This included a role definition for a new chief of staff post to support the site head.
- We helped the leadership team to define a site mission to meet both local and global goals and four strategic objectives required to deliver it. Mission leaders were selected from the site leadership team and accepted accountability for critical outcomes linked to the site mission.
- We helped leaders develop plans to engage the whole site at a series of town hall events, which widened involvement in implementing the site mission.
- We are working with the chief of staff to implement the mission, review performance and outcomes.
The results
- A formal Site Leaders Forum has been established to emphasise effective leadership and engage the top 100 leaders on site.
- Colleagues are engaged and contributing at all levels in critical site initiatives ranging from creating a winning culture to making more effective use of the site facilities.
- A Gallup survey conducted 10 months after programme initiation indicated significantly increased scores on every engagement and cultural measure
- The leadership team is visible and actively promoting new ways of working. Programme effectiveness is due for formal review in Q1 2010. We will re-run focus groups to engage colleagues and understand their perceptions about changes in site leadership effectiveness.
2. Driving performance from ‘compliance’ to ‘excellence’
Synopsis
A US based oncology company wanted to grow their European operations dramatically whilst moving their drug safety function from compliance to best practice. Leading Change helped them to improve the effectiveness of drug safety team and engage the European drug safety network.
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more) or download the case study pdf (here)
The Context
- Our client (a US based oncology company) was growing rapidly with the launch of new products in international markets and an influx of new products from the development pipeline.
- Highly effective drug safety and risk management is central to the company’s philosophy and values so growth necessitated an expansion of drug safety operations.
Key issues
- The company’s product portfolio of highly effective oncology drugs means it has a high profile with Regulatory Agencies. The drug safety function needed to find a way to expand and simultaneously improve the effectiveness of their European drug safety network.
- The drug safety function in Europe comprises a central team based in three locations, representing around six global (US-based) lines. There are an additional 40 staff embedded in local affiliates and dispersed throughout the region.
The solution
- We worked with the team leader to clarify the overarching strategic intent for the functions comprising GDSRM.
- We developed and facilitated a conference in September 2008 in Geneva to launch the European network and engage all affiliates in what the network planned to achieve. The conference incorporated experiential sessions to unite the team and strengthen intra-team relationships.
- As the network expanded we helped the leadership team to develop its mission using 5MAP tools and, in June 2009, we facilitated a further network conference to engage affiliates in a series of work streams designed to deliver drug safety excellence.
The results
- 85% agreed/strongly agreed that the conferences had fully met their objectives (remainder neutral).
- The overall value of the two conferences was rated 4/5 out of 5 by 90% of delegates.
- The number of affiliates directly engaged in the development of the drug safety function has increased.
- The drug safety functional leadership team has greater visibility and impact and now drives the process of learning and continuous improvement.
3. Delivering success in allergy and respiratory R&D
Synopsis
Leading Change helped a major pharmaceutical company to deliver a strategy change in an important therapeutic area and successfully engage 150 colleagues in the new direction.
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more) or download the case study pdf (here)
The Context
- A new therapeutic area (TA) group had formed in mid 2007 joining research, development and commercial teams from Europe and the US.
- While the team had significant potential in terms of people and programmes, the reality was that productivity had been historically low. The TA had an opportunity to deliver faster, more effective results and demonstrate its value to the corporation.
- The TA leadership team wanted to engage and energise an international team of 150 colleagues in their revised strategic direction and priorities.
Key issues
- The revised strategy required a change of direction and focus .
- The TA had a limited track record of successful execution and engagement (measured as relatively low in a recent survey).
- The wider team had never met in one location to exchange ideas and build relationships.
- The solution
- We facilitated the process by which the leadership team reviewed, confirmed and articulated their revised strategy.
- We led and coached a team from the business to design and deliver a two-day interactive conference called ‘Delivering Success’. The objectives were to celebrate recent successes, understand the new strategic direction, engage the team, create a community, and to have some fun.
- The conference combined a busy working and social agenda that included high impact keynotes, interactive workshops, guest speakers who supported innovation and creativity themes and an elective programme of master-classes.
The results
- The meeting was evaluated using an interactive audience voting system - 87% rated the value of the overall conference to be 4 or 5 out of 5.
- "We worked closely with Leading Change to design and run a two-day event for 150 cross functional leaders in our company. Their drive, focus and consistent and reliable delivery, together with high quality materials, resulted in a highly enjoyable and successful meeting that received great feedback from all participants.” Commercial Director
- Anecdotal feedback was that the conference had reached new levels of engagement and the strategy was very clear (although not everyone agreed with the direction and particularly decisions about lower priority activity).
- One of the conference sponsors said: “They worked with us on our TA mission and the 'improved performance' we delivered since is now almost the stuff of fables!” Chief Scientific Officer
