Case
Learning Experiences Design, Culture Design, Facilitation
LEAP: Leadership Acceleration Program
One small step in knowledge, one giant leap to leadership.
We didn't meet yesterday, we just weren't lucky enough to work together yet
SONAE Capital had been identifying the topic of leadership as one of its priority development areas for a number of years. In 2021, it felt it was time to accelerate the development of people-leaders in the different business units.
Was it love at first sight? Not really. It was a relationship that, based on empathetic listening, clarity of requests and deliveries, commitment, proximity, has matured over time always in the sense of responsibility and autonomy that allow greater degrees of freedom of thought, decision and action.
Challenge, Commitments and Program
SONAE Capital challenged Way Beyond to design a program for the development of the organization's leading people, with a view to:
Develop cross-cutting leadership competencies in people with that kind of responsibility in the organization;
Align with the existing leadership model in the SONAE Group: Lead Better;
Create your own identity, despite the diversity and dispersion of your business;
Consolidate a distinctive culture that aligns with the group's values and principles.
In the expectation of creating and consolidating an own identity that was aligned with a distinctive culture, taking into account the history and particular characteristics of the organization, namely the diversity and dispersion of its businesses, we contributed to the development of:
200
people
5
companies
4
geographies
To this end, we jointly designed the:
Phase #1
From Research to Knowledge
Because we do not give up knowing the reality, expectations, desires and needs of the people we are going to work with, we started by researching and listening to people leaders and people led (Phase #1) to build knowledge from information about:
15 Individual Interviews
Leaders from each of the business areas and 3 members of the Executive Board in order to access individual perspectives on the culture of the organization and their role as leaders.
2 Focus Group
The 17 of 24 planned to provide participants with a space for reflection and conversation about the scope of this project.
1 Climate Survey Analysis
We cross-checked the data from the climate survey with those obtained from the individual interviews and focus groups to find patterns, omissions and coincidences.
Phase #2
Program co-design and co-construction
We knew what people thought about the leadership culture of the organization, how they saw themselves as leaders and what they would like the LEAP programme to be. We were therefore in a position to move forward to build the program. As we always prefer to do this in partnership with our clients, we invited a representative sample of the population to a workshop to co-design and co-construct the program.
Inspired by what they considered to be the worst leadership program in the world, this group reflected on the desired outcomes for the LEAP program. Having considered these outcomes, the design proceeded in a "world café" format to detail on themes and content, formats and methodologies, critical success factors and other aspects deemed relevant.
At the end of this 8h face-to-face session, we still did not have this mascot but we already had the material to shape it.
Phase #3
Implement and Live the Transformation
Once the topics to be worked on had been identified and the formats with the greatest predicted effectiveness and effect validated, and in order to better organize ourselves and share information to the minute with the SONAE Capital project management team, we used a tool that we are big fans of, SessionLab.
Considering the different geographies, we needed to add more partners to the program. We then invited our former and always partner, the European Coaching School to deliver the short and long sessions for non-Portuguese speaking participants.
For each theme, we decided together that there would be two types of sessions: the Short Leaps and Long Jumps.
Online sessions, lasting 1h30, to spark interest, provoke reflection and initiate/endow participants with a common language regarding leadership principles, with participants from all business units.
In order to ensure the greatest possible attendance, for each theme we held 2 sessions, at 2 different times. Because we had people whose official language was not Portuguese, in each theme one of the sessions had simultaneous translation, with the excellent help of Calliope Interpreters, and our alumna, friend and colleague Laurence Corréard.
We started with an Opening Session, of course, which included a masterclass on "Leadership Myths". Then there were 12 sessions, 2 for each of the following themes, between June and July 2022:
Leading Through Culture
Emotions: (Un)Blockers of Action and Relationships
Leader as Coach
Conscious Communication
Expectations and Commitments
Difficult Conversations
The sessions on Emotions did not go as expected. Talking with our clients, because neither they nor we were satisfied, we decided to hold two new sessions on the topic called "Emotions 2.0", already in September.
Short Leaps
A setback? No, a new life!
In December 2022, due to strategic redefinitions at Sonae Capital, we were challenged to rethink the project and the training path, so that the groups of leaders could be grouped by each business unit. With the effort and dedication of the various "people of people" from the different companies, we maintained a mixed project team that coordinated the rest of the program.
As for us, we also had to adjust the way we were in this partnership, keeping our commitment to deliver our work with the best possible quality, knowing that the context was demanding and people were even busier than usual.
We have done everything to ensure that the Long Jumps will start in March 2023.
Workshops aimed at providing participants with specific skills and strategies to apply directly in their leadership.
They took place in a face-to-face format and varied in duration between 4h and 12h, organized by business unit/company.
In all, over 3 months - in Porto, Lisbon, Tróia, Barcelona and Madrid - 16 Long Jumps were held for a total of about 190 people, on three different themes:
Leadership Principles
Conscious Communication and Principles of Effective Feedback
Leading While Coaching
Long Jumps
To conclude, we returned to a familiar format to tackle a new topic
To close the program, at the beginning of June 2023, we gathered again online. 200 people were listening and participating in a conversation facilitated by João Sevilhano, in which we had 2 invited specialists, Manuel Salavessa, child psychiatrist, and Inês Mega, psychotherapist. The topic was, if you haven't guessed, Mental Health.
What people liked, including us
People mostly liked it:
That they felt part of this program and contributed to its design;
The relevance of the topics covered to their daily lives;
The dynamics of the sessions, especially the Long Jumpsin constant journeys between theory, solidly grounded, and practice closely related to the work developed by people;
That they had the opportunity to think about their own realities and contexts and to adapt the learning to their reality;
To be able to share and learn about different realities with colleagues;
The informality and seriousness with which the sessions were held.
On our side, the creation of a real team with our main interlocutors was an essential part of the success of this program. In addition to the usual indicators, a good atmosphere, understanding, flexibility, creative and problem-solving skills were always present in the joint coordination of this partnership.
“O LEAP foi uma das jornadas mais bonitas em que tive o prazer de participar durante o meu percurso profissional. Muito obrigado por serem extraordinários e por conseguirem superar sempre as nossas expectativas. Aprendi muito convosco! Espero que o futuro vos traga coisas boas e que possamos voltar a colaborar em breve.”
This was one of the programs that has given us the most pleasure, enthusiasm and joy in recent times. From the construction of the proposal to the closing and debriefing conversations, namely because of the closeness and trust we felt in the relationship with the management team of this project, the dynamics of the work we created, the candor and capacity of both parties to adapt to changes, the adherence and curiosity of the participants, the feedback. And, at the same time, for the feelings of rigor and lightness, seriousness and humor, close accompaniment and freedom.
Much of this is the responsibility of Nuno Sousa (responsible for the transversal management of the project), Mariana Aguiar and Miguel Tolentino who have always tried to provide us with the best conditions to think and work. Thank you for your trust.
We hope that the future will bring new and good collaborations!