Do Better Together: A culture journey
Project Scope: Leadershift | Change Management | Culture | Digital
THE PERFORMANCE CHALLENGE
Following a successful launch into the transactional market, African Bank had to maintain focus and momentum. The bank and its people had been rocked by tremendous change in a short period. Support, inspiration and value-driven behavioural change were key to executing on AB’s ambitious, customer-obsessed strategy.
We had six months to connect almost 4000 people to story. 183 days to build a unified culture dedicated to African Bank’s pyramid peak purpose of advancing lives.
THE SOLVE
DO Better Together! An internal initiative that would serve to build a doing, hyper-collaborative culture in which African Bankers could find fit and meaning. TPA strategised a game plan with Exco (leadership matters disproportionally) before activating 700 African Bank leaders via a company-wide LeaderSHIFT. DO Better Together enabled leaders and teams to embrace and then drive a connected and inspired culture. Shift in attitude guaranteed.
In under six months, African Bank’s engagement score topped its best to land at 60%, skyrocketing above industry standard. A team of committed, customer-focused African Bankers were stepping up!
CULTURED COLLABORATION
Culture and its relevance became visible and workable, using the Culture Code. By introducing a shared framework — and a united front in the form of an on-board Exco — we deepened the connection to purpose, anchored culture in the strategy and embedded the value of collaboration in the behaviour of the people of African Bank.
An integrated Connect process of Snac-chat sessions and one-on one coaching cascaded messaging through the business. Discussion guides, feedback templates and coaching frameworks aided leaders, standardised process, eased measurement and made DO Better Together POP! An integrated communications strategy coloured the bank’s shared spaces shining through with the keystone value; collaboration.
The project landed in style with Govember, a year-end celebration that applauded African Bankers’ 2019 achievements and commitment to DO Better Together. Team celebrations made noise across the country, with a Govember film screening, prizes, company-wide gifts and personal Exco visits.
THE RESULTS
After AB’s Omni transformation change journey, we had seen an unprecedented 10% rise in engagement levels. The efforts of ‘DO Better Together’ saw a further increase of 2%; a shared victory and true celebration of collaboration.
90 | 87 | 88 | 60 |
Percentage of African Bank leaders thrilled by LeaderSHIFT | Percentage of African Bankers committed to the ‘DO Better Together’ culture | Percentage of African Bankers that place the customer in the centre of all decision making | Percent of African Bankers are highly engaged |
“To borrow from Peter Drucker — “Culture eats strategy for breakfast... lunch and dinner!” Our people are extraordinary, as once again evidenced by our 2019 people engagement score of 60%, a further improvement on 2018 when we achieved a score of 58%. ... We firmly believe in a collaborative way of working, as expressed in our motto ‘DO better together’, an initiative that was launched in 2019, and that continues to gain traction throughout the organisation.”
