Swiss Re is the leading global reinsurer with 10,000 employees serving clients in over 160 countries through 79 offices around the world.

Impact and Swiss Re have worked together since 1997. The relationship has evolved and today Impact is a key provider for Swiss Re, working at almost all leadership levels, with an emphasis on the top and middle management. Programme delivery is on a global basis with Hong Kong, Switzerland and the USA being focal points.

A close partnership between the organisations has enabled us to develop what we believe to be some unique and innovative leadership development solutions. Our programmes combine the power of experiential learning with the Swiss Re business context.

Objective

Transforming Leadership at Swiss Re (TLS)
In 2003 the Swiss Re Academy launched a ‘Greenfield Project’ for best practice leadership development at Swiss Re. Organisational analysis had identified a need to develop the personal leadership behaviour of current top leaders.

After an extensive selection process, Impact was chosen to partner the Swiss Re Academy in designing and delivering TLS. The project has been a huge initiative targeted at developing the interpersonal leadership skills of the top 300 people in the organisation worldwide.

Challenge

A challenging audience
As attendance on this CEO - sponsored programme was to be a mandatory, the stakes were high and it was essential to create something that would engage participants immediately and develop a positive ‘word of mouth’ reputation.

Impact knew that the participants would rightly be demanding and looking for immediate value. We knew that their intellectual capability was very high and that most of them had experienced several previous leadership development initiatives in the past. As a design partnership, Impact and the Swiss Re Academy were committed to enabling behavioural transformation at an individual level - and ultimately a transformation of the prevailing leadership culture at Swiss Re.

Guiding principles
With this demanding audience in mind we developed three guiding principles:

Establish the Business Context for Leadership Development - to ensure that leaders could make the link between the needs of the Swiss Re business and the consequences their leadership.

Swiss Re Business Context combined with Experiential Learning - we were committed to an experiential learning approach as the most powerful tool for leadership skills and behaviour development. This had to take place in the Swiss Re business context.

Sustainable Business Application- participants must be able to apply learning and insight back in the business and be seen to do so.

Solution

Together we designed an interactive, challenging and innovative five-day learning journey. During the programme 24 participants work together in four facilitated groups. The programme is preceded by a ‘Creating Breakthrough Strategies’ workshop and a 1:1 coaching discussion. These both reinforce the establishment of the business context.

TLS is a very intensive programme comprising three main parts, which progressively shift the focus from the organisation to the individual leader:

The Leadership Enquiry - this three-stage process is designed to build a picture of the business context against which individual leadership capability needs to be developed. Participants explore their understanding of the current and future leadership challenges for Swiss Re. They then compare this to the view from the other end of the organisation in a series of staff interviews and finally have a two-hour dialogue on leadership with their CEO.

The Leadership Simulation
Part 1: A three-hour interactive session where participants work alongside students from top Swiss universities on a creative project and receive fresh and unfiltered feedback from them on their leadership behaviours.

Part 2: A 24-hour simulation designed to raise issues of personal leadership in a dynamic, interactive and experiential setting. The simulation replicates a ‘day in the life’ of the Swiss Re business and presents participants, acting individually or in teams, with a series of interlinked leadership challenges.

The overall scenario, based on the challenges of the China market, is fictitious, but has been researched to be entirely realistic and organisation-specific. The simulation involves actors, journalists, film crews and Swiss Re Executive Board members who all contribute to the realism and excitement of the process.

Intensive feedback - the simulation culminates with a number of sessions which deliver personal feedback, accompanied by Behavioural Analysis data.

Taking Ownership for Performance
TLS concludes with a follow up three-day workshop. Participants then synthesize and cement learning from ‘Creating Breakthrough Strategies’ and the TLS programme and apply this to current Swiss Re business challenges.

Result

November 2008 will see the final TLS delivery, after a highly successful four years. During this time almost all of the top 300 Swiss Re leaders have been challenged, stimulated and enjoyed the programme.

Read more about Impact's approach to Inspiring Leaders

European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Awards

In June 2008 Impact and Swiss Re won the Excellence in Practice Award for ‘Partnership in Organisation Development’ from the EFMD. From a shortlist of 20 companies, the Transforming Leadership at Swiss Re programme made it through to the final three and fought off strong international competition to win the award.

Read more about our collaborative award winning entry - click here