Alleanza Assicurazioni is an Italian insurance company based in Milan. The arrival of a new General Manager (GM) sparked a need to develop the performance and potential of middle managers and sales supervisors.
Impact Italia initially conducted a leadership development programme for the top team, as a first step to building a strategic coalition for the new GM. After the successful delivery of the programme and with their in-depth understanding of the company, Impact Italia suggested the next step should be to design a bespoke Experiential Development Centre for selected managers.
Impact used experiential learning techniques to transform talent, identify potential, and establish individual objectives related to development needs. This approach ensured that participants saw the development centres as an opportunity to learn, and to recognise that they were part of the learning process.
The Experiential Development Centre (EDC) would:
Impact Italia began by evaluating Alleanza Assicurazioni’s current competency framework through a series of 1:1 interviews with key stakeholders, including the GM. This involved hosting a half-day focus group with the top management team. This consultative process generated alignment on which managerial competencies should be used in the EDC.
It was agreed that the main goal of the three-day EDC was not only to assess each manager’s competencies but also to focus on their motivation to take responsibility for their own development process and performance improvement.
Elements included in the EDC were: role playing, sales presentations, critical reasoning, in-basket exercises, and psychometric measurement. Critical to the success of the EDC was a detailed feedback session that included individual performance reports and personal development plan discussion.
The project was rated highly by the organisation and the original audience was extended to include the sales supervisor population.
Over three years, Impact delivered the EDC and developed individual personal development plans with 400 employees within Alleanza Assicurazioni.
The experiential format ensured that the programme was engaging and popular with the participants, who felt that the event empowered them to manage their professional development.
Impact provided Alleanza Assicurazioni with a detailed report and recommendations on managerial potential, including a database with personal competency scores and distribution of the population in quartiles. This knowledge of the available strengths of their managers and sales force has enabled Alleanza Assicurazioni to develop a more informed business strategy.
