Industry: Global Health

Challenge:

A global leader in health products had experienced a costly product failure. The newly appointed Senior Vice President of R&D felt a key contributor was a lack of open communication within the division. The SVP had recently assembled a senior leadership team from around the world. They had extensive experience in R&D, but their inability to resolve conflicts and make decisions together was preventing the type of turn-around progress the CEO and Board of Directors were commanding. The Senior Vice President further feared that if the division’s team of top scientists and product developers did not start sharing their views more openly, particularly on cross-functional teams, it could lead to a lack of innovation and another product failure.

Overview:

The Executive Communicator was contacted by the Senior Vice President of R&D. His objective was to quickly turnaround the “culture of silence” that had grown prior to his coming on board and to assure that his newly assembled team of direct reports were able to have open dialogue, resolve conflicts and reach consensus.  The Executive Communicator began the engagement by conducting confidential interviews with each member of the senior team and several of the division’s scientists and middle-managers. We then tailored and facilitated a series of sessions on “Open Dialogue” that we rolled out to fifty of the company’s R&D directors and scientists. We designed the sessions so that the teams could still focus on “real issues” in “real time” while also learning advanced communication skills. Following the open dialogue sessions with directors and scientists, our President Susan Farwell met with the Senior Vice President and his leadership team for several days. During this time she shared techniques for resolving conflict, practicing open dialogue and effective decision-making. The senior team participated in exercises designed to increase trust and improve listening and probing skills. They completed assessments that identified the different communication and negotiation styles on the team and learned about various cultural worldviews that were leading to misunderstandings. She then facilitated open dialogue sessions with the team around several key issues they needed to discuss and reach consensus on. As a follow-up, she was retained as an executive coach for individual members of the leadership team and a team coach to revisit the team’s progress over the next year.

Outcome:

The organization’s commitment to cascade the intervention throughout their Research and Development division – from senior leadership to their top scientists and middle managers – was a good one. Not only were the sessions highly rated by participants, but the communication culture within the organization changed. The senior team established a set of behavioral principles that they committed to practicing. This not only enhanced their decision-making and reduced negative conflict, but set the tone for the entire organization. The work The Executive Communicator did with the division’s scientists and middle-managers surfaced several issues that had not previously been discussed openly, and provided senior management with new insights and approaches to creating a more open environment. Due to the success of our work with their R&D division, the firm engaged the Executive Communicator to provide coaching and training to their IT and HR departments, members of the C-suite and their Latin American operations, as well.

Focus Areas:

Team Dialogue, Communications Coaching, Intercultural Communication, Conflict Resolution, Executive Coaching, Team Coaching, Facilitation, Assessments