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
