Accelerating new team development in a high growth business

How a fast growing technology business used the principles of Collective Intelligence to enable its new senior leaders to connect and act quickly and effectively as a collective whole to successfully design and roll out a twelve month transformation programme across the business.

The Challenge

A new CTO had been appointed in a fast growing technology organisation and had made a number of changes to the technology leadership team. They now found themselves in a situation where they needed to develop and collaborate quickly as a team, as there was an urgent need to redesign the structure and operating processes of their agile development organisation.

The Solution

Living Systems designed a three month development process to develop the leadership team’s capacity for Collective Intelligence to underpin the rollout of their change programme. We integrated assessments, one-to-one coaching and team development alongside work on the strategy and plan for organisational transformation. We also observed and codified group dynamics and introduced new practices for Collective Intelligence that transformed organisational effectiveness. 

By adopting this approach which focused on team development and business transformation in parallel, we enabled the team to make rapid progress on both fronts. The team told us later that most of the training and development work they had undergone previously had been undertaken in isolation from any real work on the business. Many of them complained of countless team off-sites talking about relationships and communication, with little evidence of it being translated into tangible results or impact. As Living Systems’ approach focuses on developing the team’s awareness and capabilities through discussions around transformation planning, we were able to target the specific mindsets, behaviours and practices that were impeding progress on the business agenda, in real time, as they occurred. 

The Outcome

Within a short period, team members were amazed by their development trajectory, sharing feedback that this was one of the most enjoyable and productive teams they had worked in. As a result of our progress with the leadership team, we were invited to return to partner with the business over the next 12 months on their broader transformation programmes. Over this period, we introduced new approaches for whole system change and developed the capability for Collective Intelligence at all levels of the organisation – enabling effective transformation and transforming the organisational culture at the same time.