National Power
National Power (now Innogy) management assessments for culture change and development
Situation
At the time of our contract National Power had gone through a major downsizing and culture change as it moved from the public to the private sector.
The Board wanted to support the 500 managers left in the organisation with the processes of adjusting to a new culture agenda and in some cases taking on board a different management style.
It was felt a good starting point would be to do an individual 'stocktaking' with each manager to see how they measured up against the new behaviours that were going to be expected of them.
Solution
After considerable consultation with the Board, we developed a battery of carefully chosen psychometric instruments that tapped into the types of behaviours that would be needed to fulfil the organisation's culture agenda. A communication campaign was rolled out across the organisation to gain buy-in from managers.
One unusual feature of the work was that the managers would be the sole recipients of their data - there would be no feedback of individual data into the organisation.
All 500 managers were assessed by a project team of 20 Psychologists and each manager was given comprehensive feedback. This was followed up with development discussions to support them in designing action plans to build on strengths and address development needs against the culture agenda.
Outcome
The Board members set the pace by volunteering to be the first through the process. Having had feedback on their individual data they decided to share as a group. The overwhelming reaction was one of surprise at the accuracy of the data.
We were asked to aggregate data across the organisation and to prepare a report exploring the implications of the trends that were apparent. The Board then commissioned us to develop a competencies-based performance management scheme to further assist the achievement of culture change.