A Wave of Change

Although consistently supplying high-level consultancy advice to an ever-demanding and volatile healthcare sector, a health franchise within a leading business process outsourcing (BPO) and professional services consultancy needed assistance with their ambitious growth plans to become the preferred provider of transformational change within the healthcare sector in the UK.

To achieve this, they wanted to create a 'wave of change' in how they built and presented their identity to align with its brand promise: 'Exceptional People Delivering Exceptional Results.' They engaged Open Water asking:

• How do you leave a legacy identity behind?
• How can our consultants find the courage to challenge their clients, sell and deliver change solutions?

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Highlights

• An EQ-centred behavioural development program delivered to leaders and front-line consultants, bringing the organisation's purpose statement to life.
• Consultants experienced positive behaviour change and improvements in performance and collaboration.

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The trigger

The business had recently been transformed as a result of an acquisition. It was finding it challenging to establish a cohesive internal culture and needed help aligning beliefs, values, and future direction. They also needed to shift prevailing negative perceptions of the existing organisational values internally and externally to move their goal forward.

To achieve its ambitious growth plans and fulfil this compelling vision, the organisation needed its front-line consultants to shift their perceptions of the brand and develop new capabilities in customer collaboration to build trusted partner relationships. They would need to present a new believable identity aligned with their "Exceptional People Delivering Exceptional Results" promise.

The organisation began to embed and sustain this new identity and alignment by driving, inspiring, and supporting the initiative through its leadership team. They needed strategies, tools, mindsets, and behaviours to foster:

• Courage
• Commitment
• Clarity
• Connection

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Open Water moment of truth

Before developing the programme, Open Water carried out in-depth diagnostic interviews, which revealed several needs:

• Buy into beliefs and values as a collective.
• Renewed confidence and belief in what they do.
• Cohesion within the organisation's culture.
• Alignment of personal and business values.
• Effective communication.
• Collaboration (with clients and with each other).
• Understand how to build a truly trusted client relationship.
• Communicate vision and purpose in the right way.
• To be perceived as Trusted Advisors.
• Know how to listen to what clients want, be able to challenge them, and deliver value-based solutions.
• Increased recommendations.
• To make a difference.

As a result of the above diagnostics, Open Water customised its Connected Programme to create a two-tier approach to its four-module EQ and mindset development program. They rolled out The Connected Program to front-line consultants, and The Connected Leader to Directors and the Executive Leadership Team.

The Connected Program was designed to help consultants connect better with their clients and establish trust and credibility, allowing customers to view and approach consultants as 'Trusted Advisors.'

Open Water tailored the program to centre around:

• Beliefs and Identity
• Relationship Building
• Empathy and Trust

It included strategies for demonstrating "an interested mindset" and developing questioning techniques focused on clients' real, as opposed to perceived, needs.

"The Connected Leader" program was also founded on the principles of EQ but focused on developing 'Extraordinary Leadership' (Zenger & Folkman 2001) to help the leaders drive and support the wider organisation in the initiative. This tactic would help sustain the impact and behaviour change, creating the "wave of change." Open Water tailored this program to centre around:

• Culture and Change
• Leadership and Identity
• Trust, Coaching, and Influence
• Purpose and Values

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The impact

At the time, Open Water was still developing its impact metrics methodology that would measure the long-term effectiveness of its programs, internally and externally. To measure the impact of these programs, they relied on self-reported impact of new behaviours from the leaders and consultants taking part in the program:

• A better understanding of what drives people and how to engage them.
• An increased awareness of self.
• Improved self-confidence and self-belief.
• Empowerment.
• Positive impact on motivation.
• Increased confidence to effectively influence at all levels.
• Improvements in behaviours, for example, dominant delegates becoming less so while the more reserved delegates were contributing more in meetings.
• More confidence in approaching clients.
• Improved internal interaction.
• More equilibrium within the leadership team.
• More appetite and drive to collaborate.

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