DRIVING CHANGE
IN UNEXPECTED WAYS
A global consulting firm launched a new account leadership and development initiative that was being met with more confusion and frustration than enthusiasm. The firm sought to understand why the firm’s future leaders were not engaged in the program and why the current leaders were not actively mentoring the next generation of talent. In the current labor market, the ability to attract, retain and develop the next generation of leaders is critical to firm’s success, so getting to the “why” and developing a better “how” was mission-critical.
Peppercomm designed a bespoke Stand Up & Lead program using our proprietary Mixology methodology that leverages implied improv combined with expert facilitation, performance and music to surface problems and co-create solutions in unexpected ways.
We hosted 3 sessions: the first with account leaders alone, the second with partners alone and the third with the two together. In the first two, we asked people to share the good and the not-so-good about the program, and in the third to co-create a more ideal one. Throughout, we brought the conversations to life through improv and live music, which not only turned out to be a great departure from the normal meetings for participants, but also opened up the conversation and people’s minds for
exploration.
“I loved the music! Normally these sessions can be boring – but this was a lot of fun!”
“What an unusual workshop I attended! It was extremely creative to share ideas as a start of our community. Really great to open up in such a relaxed environment.”
“So cool to meet a first group of peers from across Europe in such an original way.”
The sessions surfaced some quick fixes (i.e. creating a time code for the program and a better system for notifying partners that they had been assigned a mentee) and some longer-term strategic shifts.
Armed with the insights gleaned from these sessions and the concepts developed in the co-creative process, Peppercomm developed a toolkit designed to guide the firm through set up and execution. The framework we used for the toolkit – Clarity, Community, Connection – became a lens through which they look at other programs across the firm and the writing style and tone has helped to evolve the internal communications tone and change the way the engage and communicate with internal audiences.
