Our client wished to improve and customize a longstanding global leadership development program for their local high-potential (hipo) talent. Until date, the program had been managed from their regional office in Southeast Asia, and deployed in other markets. However, for India, the CEO was keen to have their own.

1. The objective of the program was a true development of character, far more than a focus on skills. This, he believed, was key to having a bench of strong and ready leaders.

2. To complement the spirit of the work and respect the corporate HQ’s guidelines, the HR Head requested the inclusion of the company’s new Competency Framework and long-standing Leadership Potential Framework into a single vision for the initiative.

3. Success for the program would be determined by the talent being promoted to roles with greater responsibility and/or being relocated to the US HQ location as part of an organization-wide realignment.

We began exploring the opportunity so we could define and design:

1. Together with them, Hipo talent was defined as an employee who had the ability (Is the individual able to do the job in question?), commitment (Can this person establish and maintain cooperative working relationships), and motivation (is this person motivated to work hard, achieve, and do whatever it takes to get the job done?) to rise to and succeed in more senior positions in the organization.

2. We conducted a series of interviews with key stakeholders in the India and SEA offices about past experiences with the earlier versions of the global/regional program, the business priorities and on-the-ground experiences with the specific talent.

   1. First, we discovered changing strategies, shifting priorities, and culture clashes. Notably, strategy was set by HQ.

   2. Second, there was a way of working in the company and a sense of being part of something big, listening to and telling stories and meeting with great leaders. The culture was one of keeping an open mind, appreciative and positive, encouraging, saying what must be said without hurting others' emotions, encouraging diverse thinking, accessing resources within the org - incl. mentors, network and expertise. However, the Indian office was seen to be far too small for global, whose focus was returns for shareholders. Worse, Indian talent lacked a strong connection with the brand - the heart of this company’s organizational identity. Instead the talent was perceived as a culture of "Your way OR my way” - a source for poor decision-making, lack of creativity, collaboration and empowerment. People overly identified with the region they came from - Tamilian, Bengali, Gujarati, etc. Lack of appreciation, and being direct and negative, and hierarchical in mind (seeking answers and approval from authority) were the norm.

3. We concluded that the talent in India needed to evolve significantly, esp. its habit of conformance. Doing due diligence with retailers, being authoritative and assertive, and influence them was needed. Thinking for the enterprise - "I am the GM,” and focusing on performance instead of effort was a necessity. The basis for all of this was being open, understanding others, building trust, seeing glass half full, building relationships, giving positive feedback so others feel secure, greater self awareness, emotional maturity, arguing effectively, being comfortable with grey’s, taking risks, having obligation to express, and brand building approach.

Driven by a clear mission and a passion for the business one is in, our client was an example of a global organization that was highly effective at driving alignment between its business and operating model. The company leveraged a strong business focus and unique corporate structure, which combined with key differentiating attributes made it the powerhouse it was.

1. In its simplest form, they were a sports apparel, footwear and equipment manufacturer that grew out of one cofounder’s obsession with tinkering and experimenting to improve the lives of its customers and partners, and the other’s with the economics and manufacturing.

2. With the aid of a combination of high quality product design, use of ground-breaking technology and expansive marketing, they had been able to become a global leader. But, what had been most astounding was their continuous ability to grow. And they planned to increase their growth rate over the next five years.

3. Most notably, their approach to developing their talent was - got a problem, go fix it. Because they had always been growing, and their demand for people outran what they saw as their capability, they always pushed people beyond their limits. Their training program was throwing people into management problems and responsibility - on-the-job training by crisis, as they called it.

We figured that the hipo development agenda had to be in sync with these unique aspects of their global operating model and capability development. To bring it all together, we decided to return to their roots - that is, the origins of this business and program. We found that:

1. the spirit of the two co-founders and their partnership had been central to the numerous periods of revolutionary growth, and

2. that the program was actually about embodying the spirit of the Founders - or, Founder’s mentality.

This rang true with the reason some companies bureaucratized, slowed down, lost direction and lost momentum while others did not. Extensive research had concluded that about 85% of the time, the root causes were internal (as were the ultimate solutions) and that they tracked back to three major sets of internal norms and behaviors—collectively called the Founder’s Mentality—that are often embodied by a bold, ambitious founder. The presence of these three traits was central to how young insurgent companies beat large well-funded incumbents. Conversely, it was the loss of the Founder’s Mentality that was often the core reason large companies bureaucratized and lost their way despite great assets and enormous market opportunity. The three elements of the mentality were

1. “an insurgent mission,” that defined how companies differentiated outside and inspired inside,

2. “a frontline obsession” for continued moves to streamline the organization and empower its frontline employees, and

3. an “owner’s mindset” that drove relentless curiosity, confidence and counsel helping shape and transform the company's original business model.

“The starting point for a talent from India is very different from the starting point for another from other countries and regions” - were the words of a senior Leader in the region. She had held global positions and was originally from the India office . They became our mantra and we decided to focus on 3 specific competencies:

1. Self - Demonstration of Brand Passion - This would include the work of realizing one’s own potential – gaining a whole picture of self and others. And positioning self to better to handle situations.

2. People - Communicating Effectively and Championing & Embracing Change - This would include changing perception of others in the office, understanding and learning about each other - different gender, races, culture and functions, understanding other people’s priorities and ways to approach them, practicing transparency, making better choices, being open to feedback, getting closer with each other, building rapport and breaking barriers across functions. Leadership goes beyond work, to how and who the other person really is.

3. Business - Fostering Consumer & Customer Commitment - This would demand improving relationship with boss – “I could just knock on his door (generally) and we would chat.” And standing each time and making a commitment – feeling accountable to my “friends” - this is my business and I am the GM.”

Given their culture and on-the-job training, we designed the program to include:

1. Experiences - Activities that brought ideas to life, role plays that got people to really talk with one another.

2. Action Learning Projects - Projects in an area different from their own. For eg.; finance person to run a sales project and forcing them to step outside of their comfort zone. And more importantly, projects that are needed for the future development of the organization.

3. Expert Speakers - specific speakers, who would enhance the knowledge and expand the perspectives were suggested.

4. Follow up between modules very important (keep it face to face, connection and transformation is important and so is doing it properly)

Because a design had already been in place, and our client wished to keep the parts that worked, while improving the rest, we targeted three specific areas:

1. A clearer larger vision (incl. the overall program objectives) for the whole program AND a clearer individualized-vision for each module.

2. A clearer connection between experiential activities and the outcome or learning.

3. A ‘red thread’ that held the entire program and delivered on the goal – a connection that brought the various parts of the program together into a cohesive experience.

We designed a five phased development journey. Our approach to the design and delivery placed strong emphasis on enabling leaders to improve their ability and fulfill their potential, address real challenges successfully and drive business performance. And the central philosophy that would facilitate the learning was to shift the “observers” we are:

1. We observe through a number of filters, including our beliefs and values, our experiences and the explanations we have for them, our explanations about “why the world is the way it is”, and the stories we have about ourselves and others.

2. A person’s observer can be understood more clearly by breaking it up into three areas – language, mood and body. Any or more are engaged when we identify a result we would like to achieve and take action to get us the result.

3. However, sometimes all of the actions we try fail to get us the result we want. And so, we have to change the focus from trying different actions to learning new actions. This in turn, requires that we become a new observer.

The shift of the observer has to account for psychological changes - primary enabler of both personal and organizational transformation. The reason is that situational changes are less difficult to make than the psychological transitions. Hence a three-phased attention on:

1. Ending, Losing, Letting Go - helping people deal with their tangible and intangible losses and mentally prepare to move on

2. The Neutral Zone - critical psychological realignments and repatterning takes place. This is all about helping get people through it, and capitalising on all the confusion by encouraging them to be innovators.

3. The New Beginning - helping people develop the new identity, experience the new energy, and discover the new sense of purpose that make the change begin to work.

The above central philosophy and principles informed the design and execution of five modules:

1. Exploration - Learning about who one is, what one’s vision/mission is and how one communicates with others

2. Resiliency - Learning about innovating, leading change and transition to drive differential results

3. Energy - Learning about building trust, embracing diversity, collaborating with others and working across the matrix

4. Elevation - Learning about what it takes to become an Enterprise Leader and to go above and beyond in the service of company’s mission

5. Return to Source - Understanding the consumer, the marketplace and the competition

Over the several months of implementation and learning from the impact of our work we began to hear of significant shifts across the three major facets:

1. Self - Individual members began to feel more composed, more happy and find an inner sense of calm. They agreed and started new practices such as yoga and meditation, which was quite remarkable to gain greater self-awareness and take a much more calmer approach to life. They began strengthening their belief in themselves and others. This positive affirmation began to spill over to seeing their team progress forward as a unit delivering powerful work. And this didn’t mean that it was all smooth sailing, or that they reached their goal. However, they began to come in touch with the depth of their personal and professional journey, the urgency and need to step out of their comfort zone and the courage to keep walking into the unknown and uncertain. They felt that they could “holler” each other if and when they needed help.

2. People - Many members began to shift away from a working style of tactical thinking, quick action, and immediate results. They began to gradually get into a zone which required deep thinking, lot of alignments and influencing, far ahead and further from immediate results. They became thoughtful, and were focusing on things that were long-term. They came in touch with how much of a “performer” they had been throughout their life, and had now begun to initiate the difficult work of pausing, observing and learning to let it go and let their teams lead more. And that meant that they talked to their team members more often and started to sense the emotional and social dimensions of their team members’ experiences. They began reaching out to them and noticing and gauging from body language and emotions, instead of sharing the deliverables through messages/emails. This way they shifted from coming to know about them, to helping them to solve their problems. With much humility they also noticed that sometimes they weren’t able to solve their team members’ problems. This change was definitely challenging for them personally, some times they needed to hold their direction and actions back and wait for others to come back/solve the issues at hand. They also began learning to compose themselves and to communicate persistently and slowly, and adopting that as a habit.

3. Business - Members had shifted their styles to now setting boundaries of time, quality, place when they could and then work with their team members within those constraints - this allowed them to honor the organizational requirements and members’ challenges, creativity and agency. While the journey to this way of working had been rather uphill, they found themselves pleasantly surprised - their team had flourished and grown and created work that continued to break barriers. Team members became more open, they were collaborating across the boundary and with other functions. And they were relieved that they were no longer “sitting on top of a bullet train with no stops.” The sense of calm within and in working with teams brought liberation. For this they were grateful. The desire to “put a ding in the universe” had not left them, but it was clear that they didn’t have to do it alone.