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The business issue
The company was not performing as it wanted to, and it was clear that the greatest opportunity for change lay with the senior leadership. They needed to do things differently in order to start a ripple effect of improvement through the company.
What we discovered
Senior leaders had no guidance about what they needed to do differently, and how; but they were also cynical about HR’s abiltiy to help. The business had invested in traditional competency models before, and these now lay on shelves gathering dust. They were too complex and ‘airy fairy’ for this practical minded organisation.
What we did next
We realised that the company needed something radically different, something practical and inspiring, and a traditional approach would not do the job.
We drew on our expertise and our experience of working with scores of organisations, to develop a two-page competency model. It was visually striking, sparse on text (which was in tune with the everyday language used in the company), but robust in terms of its underpinnings. It was also a risk. Despite the company’s aversion to wordy HR documents, the engineering culture liked detailed prescription, and here was something very light indeed on detail.
The outcome
Senior leaders loved it. They were asking for it and using it in their discussions with their teams even while it was still in draft form. If the value of a competency model is measured by how much it is used outside HR, thereby becoming part of the everyday way in which work is discussed, this has been a resounding success. Indeed we have recently completed a similar model for managers in their first management jobs in the company.