Sadiq experiences a shift in team dynamics

Situation/Task: Sadiq was part of an area management team for an engineering company. The multi-national enterprise had offices across the Middle East but each region, run by an area manager, operated as a separate business unit. Despite the best efforts of the Managing Director of the Middle East, each region, run by a country manager, was siloed. Communication and sharing best practice was limited and this resulted in duplication of effort, blame and misunderstanding. Action: A leadership development programme was used to develop the cohesiveness of the team as well as to develop the country managers as individuals. As part of this programme, several support activities were introduced including;

• Purposeful endeavour focus to help the country managers contribute to, and understand, the shared purpose of the organisation.

• Communities of practice to develop cross-functional exchange of best practice and to work on problems that all areas had a common interest in resolving.

• Learning buddies to develop an interdependency between area country managers and keep them accountable for their personal learning and development commitments.

• Day in the life where individuals spent time with other country managers to understand them and their areas with a view of increasing team spirit and a sense of beloning.

Result: The participants reported an increased level of networking, not just at country manager level but throughout the regions. ‘One organisation’ thinking in the management team, and mechanisms being included in personal development plans (PDPs) throughout the Middle East were also developed. Several hundred thousand dollars of improvements in productivity were recorded in six months. Some communities of practice resulted in opening up future streams of revenue generation and this had a strategic impact upon the organisation as a whole.