Aligning a newly composed leadership team around strategy and culture
Client
A plastic injection moulding production site, part of an international group
Role
Coach, sounding board and facilitator for the management team
The site faced the assignment of becoming profitable as a low-cost producer with top quality. The management team had just been recomposed and was not yet on the same line. Strategic choices and culture change therefore had to run in parallel, without one holding up the other.
In the short term, the site had to turn financially through a new market segment, an investment in a new packaging line, an adjusted shift system and a sharper product portfolio. In the long term, the organisation called for a culture shift that could carry those choices.
The management team itself was still finding its shape. Everyone was not pointing in the same direction, while the outside world called for speed, unity and direction.
Our role was that of coach and sounding board for the management team, and of facilitator to build consensus around strategic priorities. We mapped the performance and potential of every team member and worked on the way the team itself operated: a shared purpose, a clear direction and a way of collaborating that also became visible inside the organisation.
In parallel we guided strategic and operational decisions via workshops and built an action plan for long-term culture change. A succession plan for the whole organisation and targeted recruitment strengthened the new strategy.
The turning point came when the management team started seeing itself as one team, rather than as individuals with their own domain. Strategic choices were carried together, and the interaction with the rest of the organisation became more consistent and recognisable.
That gave the culture trajectory traction too. The short-term interventions landed better because they fit within a shared story, not as isolated measures.
A leadership team that thinks and chooses together makes change deliverable. Strategic decisions and culture development reinforce each other once the team at the top is truly on the same line.
For this site it meant a workable combination of sharp short-term choices and a patiently built culture trajectory. A form of leadership development that goes hand in hand with business results.
