Case: engaging high level experts

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How a large consulting company engaged high level experts using Synthetron online dialogues.

Situation

A large private sector management consultancy wanted to develop knowledge and expertise around the treatment for depression. They wanted to involve multiple experts in a constructive dialogue.

The experts were dispersed and therefore they had to look for an innovative and efficient way to engage them all together.

Approach

McKinsey & Company commissioned a synthetron session where a high-level panel of more than twenty academics from Harvard, Yale and Oxford discussed issues around the treatment for depression.

Synthetron and the internal pharma project team jointly developed questions about treatment pathways, how to address challenges and how to formulate effective answers to improve care in depression.

The questions were put in front of the participants, after which they were able to react and vote on each others statements. Thereby the experts filtered out what they though was important, and what wasn’t. Everyone was able to give input.

Results

Engaging participants for more than an hour, the moderators collected around 500 statements of substance. Nearly 21% of those achieved a collaborative support. From the instant report at the end of the debate participants learned immediately about their level of consensus on major issues.

McKinsey partner Dr. Jorge Santos da Silva was quick to congratulate the team – not only for careful preparation but also for the momentum achieved in this highly interactive format.
To inform experts around the world about insights from the panel, McKinsey published an in-depth research paper on the topics.

Case: preparing a key global conference

How Synthetron helped the senior management of a multinational corporation to prepare a Top 100 global conference.

“Of course they all understand the strategy.  This conference will be about how we implement it” – what our client said before the discussion.

“We can’t have a conference about strategy implementation now.”  — what our client said after the discussion.

 

Situation

Senior management of a multinational corporation wanted to prepare and improve the agenda for a Top 100 global conference focused on the implementation of a new strategy.

Management wanted to engage their employees to find what they wanted the conference.  In this way, management could prepare in advance and maximize the efficiency of the event.

 

Approach

We set up two Synthetron online dialogues to identify priority actions for the conference. All employees were invited and the discussions were segmented by seniority and geography.

We developed a script together with the client to make sure that the questions would get to the matter quickly. Then we moderated the sessions to make sure that everything ran smoothly and that the client got the input they were looking for.

 

Results

The analysis of the debates was done by Synthetron consultants. It showed that a significant number of the employees were not aware of the strategy.  Of those aware, many did not necessarily support or even understand it.

This early warning from the online brainstorms came as a surprise to senior management.  However, it helped them realise that the first job was to clarify and communicate the strategy and to build alignment.  Only after clear communication and alignment around the strategy could they ask employees to implement it.

The conference was postponed and hundreds of thousands of pounds of travel expenses were saved.  In addition, management avoided disengagement or an unexpected rebellion against the new strategy.   This would not have been possible without the online dialogues.

Case: engaging stakeholders in IT project roll out

How Synthetron helped engage all stakeholders in an IT project roll out process. To facilitate its implementation.

Situation


An multinational oil company needed to launch a major new IT project that required key stakeholders engagement world-wide. They turned to Synthetron to facilitate discussions from pre-launch to post-launch.

Approach


A set of systematic online Synthetron discussions of the new plan were held with different stakeholders. A discussion before the launch and multiple discussions during the implementation process.

Before launch a first session was set up with local management to understand what would make them real change agents. Online Synthetron “change readiness”discussions were held in different countries. The purpose was to understand the in going change position in each country.

All sessions were moderated using the same change readiness script. We measured the position change of the participants between the beginning and the end of the discussion. We used the classical change curve, from resistant to very enthusiast, in our analysis.

During the implementation Synthetron sessions were organized to conduct a series of reviews using different stakeholder segments: management, implementation team, and floor.

Results


The client received a concise report one week after every session. This report was based on a content- and mindset analysis.

The first round of discussion with local management uncovered that, despite the fact that they all faced the same change and came from the same MO, their in going position was very different.

After they understood this the change team was able to engage everyone as change agents with a specific adapted approach.

The reviews with different stakeholder segments increased engagement of participants and gave the PMO and change team clear insight in issues and levers on how to improve and accelerate the roll out.

Case: aligning top managers on change program

How a Multinational aligned the 100 top managers on a strategic change program leveraging Synthetron online dialogues.

 

Situation

The leadership of a multinational decided to investigate the alignment of its top 100 managers with the strategic change program launched 4 months earlier via a cascading communication process.

 

Approach

All 100 managers were invited to join a one hour online, anonymous Synthetron online meeting to respond, discuss and validate their views.

  • How urgent was the change program?
  • How far had the change program been adopted, and translated into action?
  • What were the bottlenecks?

Finally, they were asked to identify how the strategic change could be accelerated and suggest improvements.

 

Results

The outcome was richer and clearer than any classical interview round and generated new and actionable insights.

Case: involving frontline staff to shape the strategy

How a pharmaceutical company involved frontline staff to shape its R&D strategy.

Situation

A pharmaceutical company needed to make more effective use of its R&D budget for a high-selling drug. They wanted to get input to form their strategy from people on the ground since they have a lot of knowledge about the customers’ needs.

However those views were difficult to gather and analyse, often they were distorted by one or two more vocal individuals in focus groups.

They needed a way to give everyone an equal voice, so that they would have information that they could trust and build upon.

Approach

An online brainstorming session using the Synthetron methodoloy was used to engage the people on the ground: the front-line sales representatives of the pharmaceutical company.

Synthetron consultants developed the script together with representatives of the pharmaceutical company. The questions were specifically prepared to meet the needs of this case.

We moderated the sessions to ensure a good experience for the participants and get the right results for the company.

By engaging these experts the session collected wisdom from every corner of the market, which was later processed and prioritised. Everybody was able to voice their opinion on an equal footing.

Results


The result was a clear ranked requirements list for development (these included the drug itself as expected, but also generated valuable and actionable ideas for packaging, communications and distribution).

The salesforce were motivated by their inclusion in the decision-making process and the priority changes identified by them were cheaper and easier to implement than the developments the R&D function had in mind.

The peer review of the ideas during the online Synthetron session took everybody ’s view into account, including those who never speak up at a meeting. Nobody had to wait for their turn to speak, or be embarrassed at expressing a “silly” point of view.

Case: translating values into behaviours

How a financial institution translated its values into do’s and don’ts for branch personnel using Synthetron online dialogues.

Situation


A financial institution wanted to translate a set of global values into meaningful do’s and don’ts for everyone “on the floor” in their retail branch network.

They were looking for a way to involve big groups of employees in the actual development of these values.

Approach


Synthetron took a segmented approach, organising 8 sessions catering to different languages and split by size and by level (the branch director and branch personnel invited around 200 employees for each around).

Participants in the discussion were first asked to share their enthusiasm for the values, in order to understand drivers and hesitations.

Next, the focus lay on the meaning and translation of values in behaviours. In practice this was translated into the questions:what do we stop doing? Start doing? or keep doing?

In the end the participants shared what they can do to make things happen.

Results


All the participants that were invited participated as well. They were very enthusiastic about the possibility to contribute their views. The discussions created an instant buzz on the values within the networks.

Synthetron consultants did the analysis and formed a report. It yielded some surprising insights in terms of: do’s and don’ts, on the deep understanding of current mind-set of the participants, and in the change forces.

The content analysis was the basis to produce a small booklet with do’s and don’ts using participants’ own words. The MindSet (language and motivation) profile was used to adapt the communication style. The roll out plan was based on the analysis of change forces.

The do’s and don’ts were rolled out successfully. They were perceived from the beginning “as ours” and two years later are sticking well.

Case: digging into disappointing employee survey results

How a FMCG crowdsourced solutions using Synthetron online dialogues following disappointing survey results on retention and work life balance.

 

“This exceeded our expectations, and those were high.”

— Senior board member

 

Situation

A multinational consumer goods company board member was surprised to see – despite overall good results – some very low work-life balance and retention scores in his business unit (BU).

Management did not have instant answers for the disappointing survey results.  They also lacked insight into what potential actions would work to turn these scores around.

They wanted to dig deeper into the survey results by engaging employees in a different way.

 

Approach

Together with representatives of the company,.Synthetron developed the questions for an online dialogue to better understand the low work-life balance and retention scores.

The entire BU was invited to spend 1 hour of its monthly “all in office” day to join a Synthetron session about work-life balance and retention.

Top management observed the discussion in a separate room. In this way, they experienced the authentic feedback and could sense the energy of the conversation.

Results

On the day of the discussion, the entire BU felt lots of energy and excitement. Some difficult topics were on the table, and solutions were now clearly articulated.

Within two weeks, Synthetron presented the results to the management and two weeks later to all participants. The results provided insight into what the different issues were. Motivators and de-motivators were itemized. 4 actionable improvement areas with specific suggestions for implementation were presented.

In addition, a mindset analysis made the management aware of how important it was for them to act.  The mindset analysis also explained how management could best communicate about some of the very sensitive issues.

The BU management took action on the practical solutions suggested.  They also addressed the sensitive issues very openly. This created instant good will and a significant increase in employees’ survey scores the next year.

Case: building support for a new strategy

How a consumer technology company used Synthetron to build support for the new strategy and management agenda.

Situation


A multinational consumer technology company wanted to engage their employees worldwide to build support for their strategy, goals and management agenda over two consecutive years.

They needed a way to engage all these stakeholders efficiently.

Approach


In 3 virtual workshops each lasting 1.5 hours the employees of three Regions (Asia Pacific, Europe, Americas) were welcomed personally by the CEO in a conference call. Next was a short presentation of the new strategy.

After the presentation all employees returned to their PCs and engaged in an online synthetron discussion with 100- 200 colleagues of their Region.

They discussed topics such as: the general strategic direction, alignment of employees, and several selected components of the management agenda on how to achieve the objectives.

During the 3 discussions more then 2500 opinions were shared of which over 400 became a synthetron (judged by the participants to be important).
After a quick analysis of the top synthetrons the employees received feedback on the session within an hour from the CEO in a second conference call.

The analysis report, together with the agreed actions by the management team, was shared with all staff by local management.

Results


The management realised the following significant benefits of the exercise:

  • Collected insights and used the knowledge available throughout the organisation.
  • Quantified degree of alignment with the intended strategy.
  • Received quality insights, action list , prioritised by several levels of importance.
  • Engaged a large proportion of staff directly in a way that would have been impossible to do physically.
  • Demonstrated modern leadership based on a true dialogue.
  • Interacted with staff worldwide in a conclusive, open, cost effective and environmentally friendly way.

Case: understanding progress on a Change plan

How an industrial Multinational organization measured progress on its change plan and understood what to adapt.

Situation


A multinational industrial company had started a strategic change program 1 year earlier.

It initiated the implementation phase 6 months later with a major communication effort and needed to understand progress.

Approach


The Top 100 managers were invited to a one-hour interactive Synthetron discussion. Synthetron consultants moderated the session and asked them multiple questions.

We asked them to share their own elevator speech and their observations on the day to day impact of the new strategy to understand alignment and engagement.

We then asked them to reflect on the change, the obstacles they experienced and what they understood to be the key enablers going forward.

Results


The Synthetron management report gave insights into the situation assessment, the main obstacles, and the conditions for accelerating the implementation.

Management was surprised by some of the arguments and their support.

The Change Manager found that this gave much richer feedback than interviews and the outcome confronted management with the reality in the trenches.

Specifically, the client realised that:

  • The communication efforts had not created sufficient ownership
  • They needed to address a main obstacle which was new to them
  • The priorities and key levers they needed to address
  • Which of their ingoing management hypotheses were confirmed or not and why.

      • The roll out plan was subsequently adapted

Case: assessing readiness for culture change

How a global company used a Synthetron value jam to assess readiness for a culture change.

Situation


A worldwide division of a large industrial services multinational developed a proposed new corporate culture with a changed mission.

They wanted to test this in order to launch it successfully at the worldwide top 500 conference.

This involved getting input from different locations before the conference.

Approach


Synthetron organised a value jam session with 8 online open discussions split by employee segment. The goal was to identify present: motivators, irritators, and hopes and fears.

The resulting synthetrons (most supported statementes) were analysed by segment. Furthermore they were integrated to give an overall insight into prevailing, missing, and aspirational values for different managerial segments.

The synthetron and mindset analysis produced a clear overall value map (values that enabled or slowed down). The value map contained a profile of each segment: person, team, company, and outside world.

Results


Management realised there was a significant gap between today’s aspirations & emotions on the one hand and the proposed new culture on the other.

Furthermore, they realised this would compromise the worldwide conference and that they needed to adapt the proposed corporate culture based on the input, and find the necessary bridges and convincing arguments, before moving ahead.

They postponed the conference while they addressed this gap.

Case: building Employee Value Proposition from the bottom up

Synthetron online dialogues. Home. Moving forward. Together

How a telecom company built its Employee Value Proposition (EVP) from the bottom up using Synthetron online dialogues.

 

“When you deal with a big company, it is not always easy to get the opinion of large groups of employees…Working with Synthetron has allowed us to involve a big part of the company when defining our Employee Value Proposition. The Synthetron process is simple, the outcome very valuable, and our people really enjoyed participating. Thanks to the chat sessions we now have a more realistic view about how our employees perceive us as an employer.“

— VP Employee Engagement Belgacom (Belgium)

Situation

The challenge of Belgacom’s HR department in a changing market environment was two-fold:

  • Maintaining a high level of motivation and employee engagement
  • Attracting the right people

Available material was too generic to help build the “who we are” and “who we want to be” pictures for the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

Approach

First, the desired insight was identified: the components of the EVP (affiliation, culture, HR policies, way of working and job). Then participants from 6 business-critical target segments were recruited.  In total, we conducted for 11 Synthetron online discussions in three different languages over three days.

Synthetron designed the discussions to trigger all of our 3H components.  3H components are: behaviour (Heart), rational thinking (Head), and competencies (Hand). People discussed what motivated them about the company and what they were less enthusiastic about.  They also shared their aspirations.   Finally, they gave their advice to the leadership.

The participants were thanked and given a quick report after every discussion. This created a lot of goodwill.

Results

We structured the management report in two parts to make it more actionable. The first part gave the global view of all segments.  The second gave specific insight per segment in terms of: drivers, image, mind-set, and management implications.

Profile sheets were also created.  These indicated the starting level and drivers of engagement and how to improve or maintain them, the recommended tone of voice, and finally what is common and different to other profiles.

The report, profile sheets and subsequent workshops helped Belgacom to successfully revise the EVP.

This new sharp and strong EVP has since helped to:

  • Build the internal employee branding plan
  • Rewrite job advertisements and find better-fit candidates
  • Rewrite the internal career site and reach higher training rates
  • Launch new strategic employee programs

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Case: addressing disappointing HR survey results

Synthetron online dialogues. Home. Moving forward. Together

How a multinational organization used Synthetron’s crowdsourcing method to address disappointing HR survey results.

Situation

The annual internal employee satisfaction survey produced disappointing results for “leadership” and “trust” measures.

Management discussion led to the idea that by reorganising the organisation, most of these issues would be solved. However, they wanted to hear from the floor if this was really the case.

What really matters to the employees?

Approach

Synthetron held a series of 8 Synthetron discussions segmented by management level and business unit/country.

In the discussions participants were first asked the same poll question as in the survey for calibration, followed by a discussion of why to identify root causes.

Next, the focus was on identifying the solutions and Key Success Factors. During the discussion, the hypothesis of re-organisation was tested.

Discovery

Synthetron identified a surprising set of root-causes. The main root cause was the decision making process in the organisation. In none of the discussions did the participants confirm that reorganisation was the way forward. 4 actions surfaced repeatedly as higher synthetrons (broadly supported statements) in all the discussions.

The report gave management insights into what actions would have most impact and which were perceived less important.

Management shared the report openly with the participants and held a set of global web meetings to share what actions were identified through the Synthetron session.

In the end, no reorganisation took place. Rather, the decision process was streamlined and a campaign to strengthen empowerment was launched.

The following year’s survey showed significant better results on trust and leadership.