Project leadership support

Participatory processes to support project leadership

CASE Association of Municipalities in Kalmar County, Sweden

the Challenge

The project experienced challenges related to leadership, roles and responsibilities, mainly because of the complexity of the problems that the project aimed to solve as well as the different perspectives represented by the thirteen public actors involved.

the Outcome

A common understanding of the purpose and shared goals of the project for the participants; a higher level of involvement among key actors; an increased clarity of the complexity of the management issues concerning the project as well as concrete ideas on how to deal with them.

Emerging got on board in the midst of the process of defining and clarifying project goals and expected outcomes in the EU Social Fund project FSLA (Fortsatt Samverkan Leder till Arbete/in English: Cooperation Leads to Work). The project aimed to empower unemployed people who faced difficulties in entering the workforce. The method used was cross-sectorial cooperation and partnership between municipalities, e.g. through knowledge sharing and joint efforts to support the development of the target group’s  competencies.

In close cooperation with the project management, Emerging supported a process of building sustainable structures in order to lead the collaboration of the thirteen actors. There was a focus on how to increase motivation and active participation as well as sharing principles and best practices on how to cooperate and lead a regional cooperation project. Emerging conducted nine dialogic based and facilitated workshops in total. They were held in a virtual/digital format targeted to the steering committee as well as to seven working groups who needed clarity on their tasks, input and feedback for team cooperation and how to document their results.

Participatory processes enables project success

“At KFKL we are grateful for the support Mette provided to the FSLA project. The virtual workshops functioned as an excellent way to start up our different workgroups and made it possible to move on in our processes as well as sharing best practices among the different stakeholders which were part of the project.”

Sofia Wermelin, Head of the Department of Health and Social Welfare, The Association of Municipalities in Kalmar County.

 

Photocredit: Headway & Octavian Dan (Unsplash)

Case facilitators

Mette Lindgren Helde

Cases

CASE Organisationen Danske Museer

From Sustainable Development Goals to everyday actions

View case

CASE Malmö City Council

Creating identity and culture

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE

Creative collaboration online

The power of cross-disciplinary teams working online across the corporation

CASE Dupont (IFF)

the Challenge

To be able to harness the power of cross-disciplinary teams working online in Design Thinking processes across the corporation, creating novel solutions to real business challenges.

the Outcome

Twelve specialised online facilitators with the ability to facilitate efficient and structured ideation workshops. Increased innovation and problem solving and a nurtured creative culture in the organisation.

The main focus of the assignment was to target a group of twelve appointed facilitators and increase their skill sets in online facilitation and the use of Design Thinking as an overall framework. Throughout the program, the participants developed their ability to facilitate creative collaboration and ideation sessions online.

Analyzing impact and feasability of ideas

The training was highly interactive and interlaced short lectures with hands-on work. We worked with action learning and group coaching, taking participants through hands-on experiences followed by reflective evaluation sessions. Throughout the program, there were opportunities to share and formulate insights and discuss how to apply lessons learned in daily life in DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences.

 

As a final assignment the participants facilitated ideation workshops for internal clients with a need to develop innovative ideas around real business challenges.

The build up of the training was structured in 6 online sessions

“Henrik’s engagement with Design Thinking, and professionalism propelled us toward action based online learning whilst being blissfully unaware just how much we were capturing. His skill lies in unlocking the door to so many connective points such that the more you reflect and practice, the more you get from his course.”

Niall Young, Technical Fellow & PhD

Case facilitators

Henrik Johansson

Cases

CASE Vestas

A transformation made possible through focus and determination

View case

CASE Danish Youth Council

Dialogue as a method for sustainable change

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE

Developing the strategy together

Togetherness with a strategy - a story about onsite and online collaboration

CASE Malmö Live

the Challenge

To engage artists, musicians, producers and technicians across the organisation in a highly collaborative process resulting in the strategy for Malmö Live for the coming five years.

the Outcome

With broad involvement through online and onsite facilitation, all employees took part and were invited to contribute in the co-creation of the company strategy. By working together across, we harnessed the collective intelligence in creating the strategy as well as anchoring it.

The newly appointed CEO wanted to involve as broadly as possible when creating the new strategy and requested a strategy process where everyone in the organisation, all co-workers, all managers, members of the board as well as important stakeholders, citizens, audience and guests were engaged.

During initial dialogues with members from the management team we decided to use “The Strategy Loop” as a design of the strategy process. Furthermore we decided to do a blended process combining onsite with online activities.

The first step was to create a history map tracking the origins of Malmö Live, the Concert Hall and Malmo Symphony Orchestra back to its roots and define lessons learned. We used the canteen in the concert hall as an interactive exhibition and collected perspectives across the organisation.

A history map tracking the origins of Malmö Live, the Concert Hall and Malmo Symphony Orchestra back to its roots.

During the initial seminar a “Strategy Group” of 30+ employees representing a cross section of the organisation gathered all the perspectives from the exhibition and defined important learning points that needed to be included as a foundation for the new strategy.

Next onsite seminar for the Strategy Group focused on defining the current state and it initiated an online process where all employees were invited to contribute to gathering of intelligence and foresight.

Collecting learning and defining current state.

Over 140 foresight signals were gathered by more than 60 employees and during an online seminar the signals were analyzed and categorized into strategic insights pointing out important strategic crossroads for the organisation.

The mapped crossroads was handed over as input to the management team who during a facilitated onsite workshop prioritised and created the outline for the strategy and returned it to the Strategy Group for anchoring during another online session. 

Now the members of the board (politicians) were invited into the process through an online workshop and the board made an initial approval of the strategy outline.

Finally, the management team continued the development of the strategy during a serie of meetings and the strategy was approved and decided upon ten months from the initiation of the strategy development process.

Photo with Robert Trevino and MSO: Håkan Röjder

The Strategy Loop is described in the book “Den Strategiska Loopen” by Ingela Sjölund,  ISBN 9789175650838 and in this video: https://vimeo.com/136286699)

Case facilitators

Henrik Challis

Cases

CASE Danish Foundation for Culture & Sports Facilities

From physical facilities to engaging meeting places

View case

CASE Association of Municipalities in Kalmar County, Sweden

Project leadership support

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE

From Sustainable Development Goals to everyday actions

CASE Organisationen Danske Museer

the Challenge

To motivate and inspire managers (museumsinspektører) of Danish museums to transform the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into actions within their organisations

the Outcome

Engaged and motivated managers who; 1) share an understanding of the value and scope of the SDGs 2) are capable of identifying areas of potential improvement within their organisations 3) are capable of translating the SDGs into changes in the day-to-day running of Danish museums

As part of a larger strategic initiative called Museum2030, the ODM sought to offer to its members a structured process for engaging with the SDGs. This involved a revitalization of the strategic purpose of the member organisation to support transformation and ensure the continued existence of Danish museums in an ever changing society.

Dialogue as a measure of creating transformation

ODM wanted a partner with well-documented experience in the facilitation of large-scale processes for managers. Based on a recommendation from one of its board members, ODM reached out to Emerging as a consultancy with vast process facilitation experience. The parties met up and found that they were a great match for the task at hand. Emerging designed and facilitated a process based on an appreciative and collaborative approach, emphasising the importance of polyphony and co-creation.

“With great competence and high spirits, Gry facilitated a remarkably interesting day full of learning and insights for a large group of museum directors. Everything went according to plan and I had full confidence at all times in our ability to achieve the goals set for the workshop”.

– Nils M. Jensen, Director, The Organisation For Danish Museums

Commitment to actions

In January 2020, 60+ managers participated in a workshop led professionally by experienced consultant Gry Guldberg Friis. Gry provided a framework to support the participants’ work of transforming the day-to-day practices involved in running Danish museums. This included process methodologies involving one-to-one and plenary dialogue, co-creation, and qualification. Part of the preparation involved a thorough dialogue-based analysis to establish which SDGs were most relevant for the museums.

“As a facilitator, Gry delivered a very structured process design and beautifully hosted workshop. The participants were extremely passionate and argumentative, so we needed a well-organised process for discussing the Sustainable Development Goals. Gry facilitated with great overview and a firm agenda. The outcomes of the workshop were great discussions and a lot of new insights”.

– Anja Olsen, Museum Director in Rudersdal Kommune and board member of The Organisation For Danish Museums

Case facilitators

Gry Guldberg

Cases

CASE Association of Municipalities in Kalmar County, Sweden

Project leadership support

View case

CASE Danish Foundation for Culture & Sports Facilities

From physical facilities to engaging meeting places

View case

About us

Emerging gathers some of Scandinavia’s most skilled practitioners of leadership and organisational development. We believe organisations play an important role in building a sustainable future for the planet, its citizens and our democratic systems.

LEARN MORE ABOUT US

Co-creating a stronger Sydbank

CASE Sydbank

the Challenge

To inspire commitment and ownership in the strategy among leaders at Sydbank.

the Outcome

Increased engagement and ownership from a Strategy Hackathon for 300 finance leaders from Sydbank to co-create ”A Stronger Bank”.

Sydbank wanted to ensure that their 2019-2021 strategy – to become “A Stronger Bank” – had been understood, processed and refined by all leaders within the organisation. They also wanted to empower and inspire its leaders by giving them the opportunity to share their previous successes in different strategic areas.

The dynamic processes that are commonly used to internalise strategy in an organisation are less effective in a large group of 300.

Sydbank’s head of communication approached Emerging with an invitation to start a dialogue. This led to meetings with the CEO and executive management team who outlined Sydbank’s needs and expectations: they wanted their leaders to understand that they were making a difference and that they will continue to contribute to Sydbank’s success in becoming ”a stronger bank”. Doing so required a novel solution that had not been tried out before.

Emerging took on the task to develop and facilitate a strategy day for all 300 leaders through a novel process that was designed specifically for Sydbank’s needs. The resulting Strategy Hackathon was carried out in March 2019 by a team Emerging facilitators alongside co-facilitators from Sydbank. The highly structured and dynamic process employed methodologies such as appreciative inquiry and co-creation to refine the strategy and allow leaders to enter into dialogue both laterally across silos and vertically throughout the hierarchy.

The Strategy Hackathon are now used by the managers in Sydbank to bring the strategic discussions closer to their own units and employees. It has become an easy-to-use toolbox to maintain a dialogue about the organisation’s direction and strategy, while honouring past successes to fuel and focus the busy daily operations.

”The Strategy Hackathon we co-created with Emerging was a great success on the day, and exactly the day we wanted with lots of energy and interaction centered around the most important topic for us – our strategy. The Strategy Hackathon made a difference in the way we look at ourselves and what is possible in our bank. We are proud of what we achieved, and we see leaders more easily engaging their units and employees in a process around the strategy based on the process material, templates and guidelines we used on the day, and which was easy applicable for the managers to use themselves.”

– Søren Reumert Kommunikations- & Marketingdirektør

Project Leaders & Lead Facilitators: Marianne Egelund Siig & Amy Jean Hamilton
Project assistant: Sofie Lund
Process review: Gry Guldberg Friis
Co-facilitators: Jens G. Friis, Christian Munch Svendsen & Alexandra Benedicte Collin

Case facilitators

Jens G. Friis

Gry Guldberg

Alexandra Benedicte Collin

Cases

CASE Organisationen Danske Museer

From Sustainable Development Goals to everyday actions

View case

CASE Greenpeace Mobilisation Lab

Game-changing campaign innovation

View case

About us

Emerging gathers some of Scandinavia’s most skilled practitioners of leadership and organisational development. We believe organisations play an important role in building a sustainable future for the planet, its citizens and our democratic systems.

LEARN MORE ABOUT US

Dialogue as a method for sustainable change

CASE Danish Youth Council

the Challenge

Fostering dialogue and rebuilding relations between Denmark and the Middle East and North Africa region following the Mohammed cartoons controversy.

the Outcome

Training and educating youth leaders as Ambassadors for Dialogue to facilitate dialogue on controversial topics, such as politics, sex and religion.

Denmark’s reputation was damaged in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region following the publication of the Mohammed cartoons in 2005. In order rebuild Denmark’s relationship with the region, the Danish Foreign Ministry decided to reach out to leaders in Jordan and Egypt through the Danish Youth Council (DUF) – an umbrella organisation with more than 70 children and youth organizations.

In 2009, DUF brought Gry Guldberg from Emerging onboard to develop the programme. Gry recognised that in order to defuse the tense and potentially explosive relationship, Denmark’s communication with the MENA region needed to move from debate to dialogue. Developing a method to realise this vision, however, was an enormous challenge.

Through pretotyping, action learning and gathered experiences, Gry and DUF co-created the Dialog Ambassadørene (Ambassadors for Dialogue).

The goal is to enhance mutual understanding between youth across national, cultural, religious, ideological and other divides by means of dialogue.

The programme is under constant development in order to ensure that its methodology, tools and approach can be applied worldwide.

Over the past ten years, Gry has educated 300 Ambassadors for Dialogue together with her Danish, Jordanian and Egyptian partners and trainers. These Ambassadors for Dialogue have designed and facilitated workshops and reached  40,000 young people in Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt and Denmark. She was also professional consultant for DUF’s Dialogue Handbook, which has been translated into into Danish, English and Arabic.

 

Gry Guldberg is a highly experienced, dynamic and courageous facilitator with the capacity to manage challenging and charged situations with due care and attention.

She maintains the respect and integrity of the participants even when the issues are sensitive and delicate. She has the ability to hold and transform spaces to become settings for wisdom and insight for the participants. In so doing, she acts as a role model for effective leadership.

Case facilitators

Gry Guldberg

Cases

CASE Dupont (IFF)

Creative collaboration online

View case

CASE Malmö Live

Developing the strategy together

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE

Game-changing campaign innovation

CASE Greenpeace Mobilisation Lab

the Challenge

Boosting the creative capacity and culture of Greenpeace worldwide, finding creative solutions to environmental problems, and engaging greater numbers of people in order to bring about the change that Greenpeace wanted in the world.

the Outcome

Equipping a global network of 400+ facilitators with tools and processes to support campaign teams and inspire relevant ideas.

It started around seven years ago, when Henrik was teaching a group of Masters students at Hyper Island in Manchester. The students were presented with a brief from Greenpeace to create campaign ideas that placed pressure on companies that use palm oil connected to illegal deforestation in Southeast Asia. Henrik was moved by the project, but also realised that Greenpeace faced some hurdles in translating their intention to save the planet, into ideas that could lead to greater impact.

He identified the need to improve how they structure the way they work with ideas, as well as improve their ability to creatively collaborate with others.

At first, Henrik worked for free at the London Office and hosted ideation workshops to develop radically new campaigning ideas. Greenpeace and Henrik and Fantastic Studios subsequently entered into a long term partnership to help develop more innovative campaign ideas for the organisation. Another goal was to strengthen and develop Greenpeace’s own capacity for innovation.

To satisfy both needs, Henrik and Jonas worked with the Greenpeace Mobilisation Lab to introduce a range of different training processes across the organisation globally, such as Human Centered Design, to equip staff with the tools they need.

The result kickstarted a creative revolution inside the organisation by empowering all levels of staff to boost to their own creative capacity and the skills to run co-creative workshops.

There is now a global network of more than 400 facilitators that are equipped with the tools and processes to lead, boost the organisation’s creative process, and support campaign teams in developing relevant ideas.

“A few years down the line we are seeing the impacts of these trainings with project teams taking on co­-creation of ideas with communities as a key part of their planning, greater collaboration between teams internally, and the process Henrik introduced to staff being used to design Greenpeace’s long term strategy for the next 10 years.”

Tracy Frauzel, Mobilisation Strategy Director, Mobilisation Lab at Greenpeace

“Many trainers can deliver content, but only some can ensure that participants fully internalise and master new material and put it into action. Henrik and Jonas delivered a world-class curriculum that empowered me and my colleagues with the skills needed to lead others through creative collaboration and idea development. We know because it’s already happening around the Greenpeace offices globally.”

– Michael Silberman, Global Director, Mobilisation Lab at Greenpeace

Case facilitators

Henrik Johansson

Cases

CASE Malmö Live

Developing the strategy together

View case

CASE Sydbank

Co-creating a stronger Sydbank

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE

A transformation made possible through focus and determination

CASE Vestas

the Challenge

Vestas wanted to maintain its position as global market leader in modern energy, and needed to focus its energy in one direction in order to do so.

the Outcome

We facilitated a two-year process in which 12 strategic projects were prioritised above all else, resulting in savings and synergies.

Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions and designs, manufactures, installs, and services wind turbines across the globe. In 2007 Vestas was facing a number of complex, interconnected challenges:

  • A blurred strategic focus due to having too many projects and initiatives running in parallel
  • No reporting structure to connect strategy with projects
  • Underestimating the process of change and the role of communication in strategy execution
  • Suffered from a low sense of urgency failing to grasp the seriousness of e.g. not reaching a customer loyalty target on a maturing market
  • Had a low Project Management maturity and many of the projects had unclear timelines, moveable targets, no transparency, no handling of risks and lack of planned communication

Vestas engaged in a profound co-creation process with us as consultants. Together we chose a customer-centric ‘Must-Win Battles’ methodology (MWB) to guide the intervention and implementation.

We subsequently facilitated a process in which Vestas selected 12 strategic projects (MWBs) whose execution were prioritised ahead of all other projects. Each Battle was led by the organisation’s top talents and fully supported by the Group Management team. A Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) capability was developed in parallel, whose team consisted of a 50/50 mix of external consultants and employees. Their role was to:

  • Anchor and report the full portfolio of Battles with Executive Management.
  • Align all Battles with one coherent project model
  • Conduct professional reviews and project audits
  • Execute portfolio risk management
  • Monitor resource constraints and coordinate across the Battles
  • Secure communication and change management efforts in Vestas, e.g. establishment of MWB intranet and the internal magazine MustWin

Thirdly, a Battle Support function or a Project Management Office (PMO) capability was developed to work closely with all the Battles. The team consisted of a 50/50 mix of external consultants and employees. The Support function helped the Battles to achieve results by offering methods, procedures, processes and tools within Communications and Change Management and Project Management.

The Battle Support facilitated knowledge sharing among the Battles and communicated best practices within the portfolio.

After two years of ‘battles’, Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel, expressed his satisfaction in the following letter:

“First of all, I want you to know how impressed I am with the progress made in all 12 Battles. It has been fantastic to see the energy and dedication, which the entire Battle organisation has invested in securing the victory for these 12 cross-functional, cross-business unit projects.

The most important way to measure the success of the battles is by focusing on the financial results: Will the winnings actually lead to increased profits? And this is where I am exceptionally encouraged. The 12 Must-Win-Battles are creating savings and synergies that are worth [XXX] million Euros next year alone. These figures are directly reflected in the budget for 2009.

The outcome underlines the potential of working as one Vestas. […] I feel very privileged and proud to be in an organisation where people invest so much of their time and energy in creating real results and change.”

– Ditlev Engel, CEO and President, Vestas

 

Case facilitators

Henrik Challis

Cases

CASE Greenpeace Mobilisation Lab

Game-changing campaign innovation

View case

CASE Dupont (IFF)

Creative collaboration online

View case

About us

Emerging gathers some of Scandinavia’s most skilled practitioners of leadership and organisational development. We believe organisations play an important role in building a sustainable future for the planet, its citizens and our democratic systems.

LEARN MORE ABOUT US

CASE

the Challenge

the Outcome

Cases

CASE Vestas

A transformation made possible through focus and determination

View case

CASE Sydbank

Co-creating a stronger Sydbank

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE

Creating identity and culture

CASE Malmö City Council

the Challenge

How to create a sustainable work culture in Malmö City Council’s Communications Department as it takes on more responsibility in addressing problems the city faces.

the Outcome

The Communications Department is able to play a role in meeting the city’s challenges while also growing and sustaining a functional work culture.

When Malmö City Council centralised its communications activities, the goal was to create a department that could play a central role in meeting the city’s real challenges. From the outset, the new director wanted to focus on developing a highly functional organisational culture. He knew that culture was a valuable asset, even though it was hard to measure.

Johanne signed on and, together with the client, they designed a framework for the process of culture creation.

We worked in parallel on three levels: executive coaching, coaching the management team, and facilitating workshops with the whole department. The first phase defined the culture that they wanted to build and sustain, and started putting it into practice. Simple in principle, but complicated in action. The cultural components that grew out of the dialogues were used to heighten awareness and deepen ongoing conversations about organisational culture.

The primary tools used through the change process were reflection, dialogue and action.

Central to the culture creation was feedback, supporting the creation of a learning environment. Finally, leadership development has played a key role in anchoring new ways of thinking into everyday organisational life.

During the process of successfully integrating the city council’s communication activities with the IT Department, the Communications Department grew from 23 to 45 people. The Communications Department is now an attractive workplace that is recognised for its ability to meet the city’s challenges while sustaining a thriving and collaborative work culture.

Case facilitators

Johanne Eriksen

Cases

CASE Association of Municipalities in Kalmar County, Sweden

Project leadership support

View case

CASE Vestas

A transformation made possible through focus and determination

View case

How we work

From insight to impact, we help organisations and people grow. We work on all levels, from individual coaching and large group interventions, to global movements.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR APPROACH AND EXPERTISE