Project DARWIN

Company overview

• Sector: insurance

• Employees: ~1,000

• Revenue: ~£2.5b

Situation

This FTSE 250 firm had gone through a period of consolidation through the pandemic and, emerging in 2022 in a strong capital position, was looking to foster a more confident and execution-focused mindset in their senior leadership team (formed of the Exec and their direct reports, numbering ~45).

Challenge

The CEO had highlighted the following areas for focus:

• Leading and sustaining a culture of high performance within teams

• Leading with influence and impact, taking people on the journey

• Driving change and continuous improvement

• Strategic thinking and capabilities – thinking ‘outside-in’

• Fostering accountability, ‘owning’ problems and execution

Approach

The programme was delivered over four half-days to complement their quarterly strategic off-sites. We designed progressive sessions working around our model emphasising the key areas identified above. Workshops were energetic and interactive: a mix of short concept briefs as well as tabletop and physical exercises to bring ideas to life and 'learn by doing'.

Feedback and review were key throughout, bridging discussion and lessons back to the business. As well as behaviours and ways of working, sessions covered strategic issues and challenges facing the organisation. As the programme was delivered through the year, we adjusted session formats in response to feedback, as well as to tackle the live issues of the day.

Impact

• Improved relationships across the SLT through interactive challenges and tabletop exercises.

• Provided the structure and format for cross-functional teams to work collaboratively on discussing strategic enterprise-wide challenges.

• Developed a bespoke guide for the SLT covering session content and group learnings. This provided a long-term reference and tool to assist SLT members with the application of ideas with their own teams.

• We have delivered a number of sessions to teams further down the organisation to assist in the cascade of the programme content.

Testimonials

"Albany Peak worked with us in an extremely collaborative and flexible way to design and deliver a 12-month programme for our senior leadership team to dial up their capabilities in executing strategy and building high performing teams.

The programme was very engaging, interactive and impactful with very positive feedback from the participants. Many of our leaders have been successfully applying what they’ve learned from the programme with their teams.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to any client looking to develop their leaders and strengthen their strategy execution capabilities. "

SH - Head of Talent, Leadership and Learning

“As presenters their messages were simple and clear (no complex jargon)”

SLT member

“… it was a very good session. A lot of energy in the room and it was pleasing to see the themes around transformation, innovation and energy consistently emerging. This all supports growth…”

SLT member

“A really fun and energising activity to get the SLT working collaboratively and engaging with one another…a lot of good content in [the workshop] and created good discussions”

SLT member

“I thought that the session was excellent, with a good mixture of activity, learning and theory”

SLT member