The Moment
This value department store chain is an Australian icon. But a period of unstable leadership and company strategy contributed to the company making significant losses in the years 2012-2016. The Aussie favourite needed a quick financial turnaround (18 months) or faced being closed down.
The Method
Guided by the organisation’s overarching purpose and values, Performance Frontiers co-created and facilitated a training program. The executive leadership team committed to new ways of working by building trusted partnerships and breaking down silos through the creation of cross-fertilised teams.
The content of the program drew elements from Horizontal Leadership, Whole Systems Thinking, Agile, and the notion of a business as an ecosystem in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world.
The spine of the program interlocked six focus areas:
- Anchoring to Our Purpose
- The Mindful Self
- Building and Sustaining Our Relationships
- Creating a Culture of Partnerships
- Leader as Facilitator
- Solutions Focused Thinking
The modules were augmented by pre-and post- workshop advice, and peer-to-peer review delivered through Human Synergistics 360 LifeStyles Inventory (LSI) assessments and their accompanying debriefs. One-on-one coaching supported participants through the process, and small group peer feedback labs deepened the understanding of the impact of individual behaviours.
The Measure
The shift gained momentum with the forging of an interconnected and interdependent ExCo team, who used adaptive challenges to change how they negotiated with each other. And their commitment and belief proved to be contagious. Across two years (2018-2020) and 9 x 9-month cohorts, Voice of Team and Voice of Customer surveys revealed an exponential increase in team productivity and commitment, and improved customer satisfaction. Not only had the organisation begun to find its way again, but it was learning to adapt and thrive in the manner of any healthy, self-sustaining business ecosystem. The result: an immense cultural and financial turnaround which has seen the organisation go from strength to strength in the intervening years.
