TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
CULTURE + PERFORMANCE
CASE STUDY 1
GLOBAL HEALTHCARE BUSINESS
Transformation of Finance Performance & Culture
This team possessed a range of talented, capable and dedicated people who had never been galvanised by a vision or methods to leverage the knowledge and resource of others across the group. In addition, the team were not considered ‘partners’ to the business and were typically reactive to their requests, adding little value beyond the delivery of a report or completing a task.
Supported by a fantastic finance leader bringing a new vision to the table, this team needed a deeper focus on business partnership and execution of critical projects to enable the vision.
A well-considered program journey was developed in partnership with the finance leader, which was broken into two phases.
SOLUTION DESIGN AND DELIVERY
Phase One:
This phase involved the design and implementation of a suitable workshop journey based on the goal for finance, and building skills and focus towards the ‘highest value’ opportunities, which included:building skills and focus towards the ‘highest value’ opportunities, which included:
Stakeholder empathy and business partnering foundation
Robust communication skills for influence and partnering
Modelling and problem solving with visually engaging tools
Self-leadership
To increase ownership of the new vision, the team was put outside of their comfort zone with the development of ‘Mini MBA Projects’ where, the team was challenged (on top of a range of projects they were required to deliver in the finance function) to tackle genuine of business problems. This not only added value to the organisation, but embedded a new business-focused and critical problem solving mindset in the team.
VALUE CREATED FOR THE CLIENT
The team was acknowledged by non-finance business leaders for a genuine change and impact to business units and their performance.
A range of operational problems were unblocked for business units across the company.
The finance team demonstrated creativity and the capacity to tackle problems well outside of the constraints of finance
The ‘culture of partnership’ was enhanced, including an extreme brand change, setting the foundations for future uplift.
CASE STUDY 2
HIGH PROFILE AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY
Transformation of Finance Team Culture including Genuine Business Partnering and Value Creation
Like most progressive organisations, this University has been in a phase of significant change, impacting all areas of the organisation. While the finance team had laid better foundations in areas of process and systems, leaders of the organisation sought stronger and genuine ‘business partnering’ based around consulting in critical decision making by finance and operations, as opposed to a transactional and task focused approach.
Ultimately, this was to improve decision making, collaboration and eventually unlock new value in the path towards achieving the University’s strategic objectives.
SOLUTION DESIGN AND DELIVERY
After a range of briefing and diagnostic sessions with leaders, the goal established was to develop a “Culture of Partnership”, as opposed to simply introducing ‘skills’.
Capturing a shared understanding of the desired vision with finance leaders (initial cohort)
Undertaking of a current state review of survey data from partners (stakeholders)
Development and provision of a stakeholder-centric and value creating ‘behaviours framework’.
Development of a business partnership ‘self-assessment’ tool.
Design and delivery of a 9-month learning journey with highly impactful facilitators.
Inclusion of ‘Action Learning’ for ongoing problem solving and application of new concepts.
Development of a critical project for each program participant to ensure learning was exercised with their stakeholders and value creation was racked and captured.
Introduction of a ‘Business Partnership Planner’ (basic CRM tool).
VALUE CREATED FOR THE CLIENT
Raised Business Partnership measures across all areas engaged, as measured by stakeholders, not in self-assessment.
Finance teams a repositioned with a ‘seat at the table’ in the majority of leadership groups
New and high value projects initiated, developed and delivered by program participants, creating unexpected solutions and value for the organisation.
Embedded a shared language for business partnership, which adopted in leadership and performance discussions and development planning.
Program adopted by COO, CFO and subsequently rolled out to other areas of the business including ICT and HR.
The Finance team were awarded Finance Team of the Year by CPA Australia.
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