Case: Fortune 500 Oil & Gas Company

The Company: Global organisation in the energy industry

This global organisation is a leader in the energy industry and continually seeking to be competitive in every aspect of its strategy, business model and operations.  Health and safety, and corporate social responsibility are at the heart of its business priorities.

The Challenge: Creating a highly personalised development architecture

As a leader in its domain with vast numbers of employees located across the world, the corporate academy conducted an end-to-end review and refresh of its leadership development.

Mannaz worked with the corporate academy to strengthen leadership and deepen professionalism across the business from its strategic leaders to first-line leaders. The corporate academy’s goal was to take a radically different approach by co-creating an ‘in-context’ and highly personalised development architecture and journey, and its associated processes.

It had been over ten years since the last comprehensive review had taken place, and there were now significant changes in strategic direction. Given the strong ambitions and goals of the business, it was also essential that the key behaviours expected of leaders should be addressed and integrated into the programme journey in terms of design and enablement.

The Solution: Refreshing the leadership development

Mannaz was invited to work with the academy to refresh the leadership development journeys with a particular emphasis on strengthening the in-context and in-role approach across the talent and learning architecture. In all cases, it involved reviewing the previous programmes, gaining input from the business advisory panel of senior leaders, and co-creating the new global architecture.

The academy having conducted a recent review of leadership and talent development discovered that leadership development needed to be aligned more clearly to the strategic aspirations of the business, and the creation of a talent and learning ecosystem that supported their ambitions.

It also became clear to the academy that compared to other global organisations, their leaders were less personally engaged in the development of people. This led to the conclusion that the refreshed design should encourage and prompt leaders in the development of their direct teams in multiple ways. They also worked alongside the academy and Mannaz facilitators as co-facilitators on the new leadership development programmes.

The Impact: An enduring architecture that enables a commercial edge

The overall design, pilot and rollout demonstrated the value of in-role development, and in particular, the importance of the line manager’s commitment and enablement. The academy and Mannaz co-created specific methods and guidelines that enabled the line manager to understand and add value before, during and after the programmes. Leaders also collaborated with an enhanced network of peers, and internal and external stakeholders as part of the development journey.

This engagement is ongoing, and so far the outcomes are promising in terms of evidence of an enduring architecture that enables a commercial edge. Now that processes and dialogues are aligned, so too are the corporate decisions from talent development to performance.

One of the main learning points identified was the need to review and refresh the programmes, ensuring their continual alignment to the market and business context. Most notably, with the increased disruption and uncertainty faced in the industry, including the challenges of lower oil prices, the approach taken has boosted strategic focus, customer orientation and simplicity in delivering value. This has been achieved by close review and monitoring of how the programmes meet the ever changing needs of the business. The on-going refresh of the architecture and respective development programme journeys and processes continue to support the business in realising the necessary impact in the marketplace.

Most notably, with the increased disruption and uncertainty faced in the industry, including the challenges of lower oil prices, the approach taken has boosted strategic focus, customer orientation and simplicity in delivering value.