Mount Anvil is a mixed use property developer and contractor operating in London since 1991.

Objective

Mount Anvil recognised that to sustain its significant growth and development it needed to invest in leadership development to enhance the skills of its senior management

Impact UK proposed a modular development programme called REACH with three complementary aims:

•    To provide a unique and memorable leadership learning journey
•    To support organisational development objectives in creating a well aligned business
•    To build a cross functional core of applied leadership thinking.

Solution

REACH runs over a 10-month period and includes five residential modules. Leadership development is the key theme, with modules focusing on personal development, influencing, change, managing high performance and sustainable business activity. Skilled Impact facilitators use simulations, dialogue and behavioural feedback to enhance the learning.

The establishment of clear leadership development objectives for participants is crucial. A dedicated 360° feedback tool created specifically around Mount Anvil’s values and leadership competencies, together with a network of internal learning support both managers and mentors, ensures that participants review and update these as learning is applied to roles.

Result

Participants are now three quarters of the way through the programme. Early results have shown that people taking responsibility for their own learning and its application is providing real developmental value.

Investment throughout the modular process on senior management sponsored business projects is helping shape the future market place profile of Mount Anvil. Participants have also been challenged to research, design and deliver a unique Community Action Learning (CAL) project in partnership with a charitable organisation of their choice, utilising their leadership skills. This final module will complete their formal learning journey, but the informal one is set to run for the foreseeable future.

"The REACH programme has been a challenging and rewarding experience for all the participants.  It is already having a positive impact on our business."

Killian Hurley
Chief Executive

"One of our key objectives for REACH was to see an increase in the confidence of our leaders. Impact’s ability to listen effectively to and understand our requirements in creating and delivering the programme meant that this confidence was highly visible after just the first module."

Cathryn Francis
Business Support Manager

 

The Miller Group is the UK's largest privately owned house building, property development and construction business.

Objective

As part of their revised Graduate Development Framework, Miller recognised their graduate intake would benefit from a rigorous experiential learning event.  The event would focus on recognising the importance appropriate behaviours have within the workplace and provide opportunities to develop these within a safe learning environment.

Solution

Impact UK designed a challenging three-day residential programme that incorporated a high-level of experiential activities and review sessions. Throughout the programme the graduates progressed from operating in small groups, to collaborating in larger groups. Key themes explored included:

•    Trust and self disclosure – the relationship between the two and risks involved in each
•    Values – how do individuals live the Miller values and what does this look like in terms of real behaviour?
•    Personal influence – what can each person take responsibility for individually and in the business?
•    Networking and relationships – how can the relationships developed on the programme be used effectively as the graduates progress in the organisation?

Result

Impact facilitated an in-depth action planning session to help the graduates focus on and commit to practical outcomes they could implement when back in the workplace. This crucial session culminated in a one-minute pitch to camera detailing the nature of their individual learning. Impact edited this film, which has subsequently been used to demonstrate to the Board what the participants gained from the experience.

"Working with Impact on the design and delivery of this programme was certainly an enjoyable experience. I particularly valued their ability to creatively interpret ideas into activities, their willingness to share their extensive learning and development knowledge and their flexibility in responding to our ever changing requirements. The dedication and commitment the facilitators demonstrated throughout the actual event went above and beyond.  The result ~ an experience that challenged our graduates, exceeded my own expectations and provided real value for our business."
Shona Marshall
Employee Development Manager

 

With more than 650 facilities in operation in the United States and Canada, Lehigh Hanson is one of North America’s largest suppliers of heavy building materials to the construction industry.

Objective

Lehigh Hanson is the legal entity for the North American operations of the HeidelbergCement Group. HeidelbergCement acquired the Lehigh Cement Company in 1977 and Hanson plc in 2007.

Following the Hanson acquisition, the newly combined IT department was experiencing significant change. The integration required reassignment, relocation and redundancies for many within the department. Prior to the acquisition, IT personnel performed their jobs well, but often worked independently from other areas of the business. Lehigh Hanson needed a ‘one team’ approach that focused on common goals and a consistent vision of success.

Solution

After conducting 1:1 interviews and online questionnaires, Impact USA worked with Lehigh Hanson to create a two-tiered approach to bring the department together.

The first tier focused on developing an aligned management team to lead the transition. The second tier consisted of a cascading series of team development programmes.

Five critical areas for personal and organisational development were identified: connection, alignment, influence, dialogue and action. Each Impact intervention consisted of theory inputs, facilitated dialogue, experiential projects, Q&A with senior leaders and business discussions to create actionable solutions for the integration process. The evening session concluded with a team cooking challenge supported by an award-winning chef.

Result

Following the programme the management team and IT department were better able to:

•    Articulate and align around a vision for the new IT dept
•    Create a common sense of purpose and motivation for the whole team
•    Foster a shared sense of identity and belonging
•    Develop the trust, relationships, and systems for good coordination
•    Increase awareness and understanding of the different functions within the entire IT department
•    Improve communication and ability to collaboratively solve problems
•    Change team-working behaviours

"Our work with Impact significantly helped our IT Team to get to know each other and individually realize that they are not the only ones with significant challenges at work as a result of the Lehigh Hanson merger. Our sessions helped all the participants develop their ability to have influence on the current reality as well as positively impact the future state of the IT department."
Donna Ashabranner
Director of HR Southwest and West Regions

 

Eisai are a research-based human health care company that discover, develop and market pharmaceutical products throughout the world.

Objective

The pharmaceutical firm, Eisai wanted a learning event that would bring their corporate mission to life. Their mission is ‘to give first thought to patients and their families and to strive to increase the benefits health care provides.’ Eisai employees who develop new medicines are greatly encouraged to consider both scientific data and the needs and feelings of the end users.

Solution

Impact Japan proposed an innovative Community Action Learning (CAL) project that enabled Eisai employees to understand their mission statement and how it can be realised through direct communication with patients. Impact and Eisai designed the CAL project with the co-operation of a not-for-profit organisation (NPO) who provide support to children with cancer and their families in a Tokyo hospital. The resulting two and a half day programme was divided into three sessions.

The NPO staff ran the first orientation session. They gave the participants an overview of the hospital and the children. The second session was the first hospital visit. The participants spent the afternoon interacting with the children; finding out what they wanted to be when they grew up and helping them illustrate this in a drawing.

Over the next week the participants prepared a costume for each child, depicting what they wanted to be. In the third session the costumes were presented to the children who wore them proudly while marching around the hospital ward. The participants took pictures of the parade and gave them to the children.

Result

The children, their parents and the hospital staff really enjoyed the project as it provided an excellent opportunity for the children to display their feelings and it focused on a positive future for everyone involved.

For the participants, the project enabled them to evaluate the extent to which they had lived the company’s mission, how they reacted to the feelings of the users of their products and how as employees of Eisai they could better conduct their business.

Read more about Impact's approach to Community Action Learning