Of all the sectors, software and IT is most affected by the increasing speed of today’s economy. Few others have changed as much in the past 20 years. A natural consequence has been the emergence of new demands from sector employees. They want more flexibility, more self-determination, and more opportunities for unlocking their potential.
In August 2019, SIEVERS-GROUP, an IT company with just under 300 employees, was faced with the challenge of merging three smaller divisions into one large division with 150 employees. Shortly before, the management team developed a new corporate mission statement, in which they agreed on a new, responsible and people-centred corporate vision. The upcoming restructuring thus became the lynchpin of profound cultural change.
We had the privilege of helping the SIEVERS-GROUP build a new, self-organized division.
At the kick-off workshop it quickly became clear that The Loop Approach was the right fit for the SIEVERS GROUP. Instead of pre-defined structures, The Loop Approach uses a common language to introduce the basic principles of collaboration, allowing much leeway for client flexibility. Words such as “tension,” “sync meeting,” “government meeting” or “roles” become part of the normal parlance of the team members of the course of a Loop journey and form the foundations for future collaboration. But the team itself is mostly responsible for fleshing out the terms and developing a self-organized operating system for the company.
How do we manage to take 150 people on a journey to an open future? Our answer: We let them find their own way.
Our train-the-trainer approach empowers organizations to pursue transformation independently. During our first Loop journeys with SIEVERS, we trained eight Loop Fellows, who then worked together with our coaches as co-trainers. After only three sessions, the Loop Fellows were able to conduct employee Loop journeys on their own. In this way, the intelligence for navigating their own transformation journeys lay within the organisation itself after a very short time. In the near future, further internal loop journeys are planned for the Human Potential and Key Account Management teams.
The steering team initially consisted of six SIEVERS employees and TheDive's project lead Cornelius Schaub. Parallel to conducting Loop sessions, they made sure that all employees have what they need to be taken along on the transformation journey as well as possible. Again, Cornelius was able to pull out of the process quite quickly, as the team is now driving the process completely independently.
Today, we assist the steering team in the organisation when they identify special needs, such as in-depth training in non-violent communication or meeting facilitation.
“Our new operating system has been crucial in helping us to react quickly to the sudden Corona situation. In fact, I would have liked to have been a year ahead, then we would have been even more flexible and quicker to change our working mode.”
The SIEVERS-GROUP has managed to build up an entire division in a self-organised, role-based operating system within one year, which is already having a positive impact on the effectiveness of the company and the well-being of the employees.
150
employees completed
The Loop Approach training
8
trained internal loop trainers
2
Podcasts from employees about the
Transformation process of the SIEVERS-GROUP
"Working with the SIEVERS-GROUP felt particularly fruitful for me because the executives had an open mindset towards profound transformation right from the start."
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