Business unit profile in numbers:
200M $ in premium volume
25M $ in commission revenues
160 employees
100 000 clients
Relationship since July 2009
"I chose to work with CANU to position myself as a leader of change. I needed to unite my team and build solidarity with the importance of the change I was introducing."
- Marco Fortier, Personal Lunes Practice Leader, Senior Vice-President between 2009-2012
Challenges
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A new Canadian leader at the helm of an American team following the acquisition of 2 merged companies
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Deployment of an insurance broker agency throughout 11 states in the US within the TD Bank network
Needs
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Accelerate the leader’s positioning as a rallying change agent
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Integrate the culture of both acquired companies within the TD culture
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Help the business unit build their credibility and reputation within the network
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Send 1 coherent message to entire team and validate its integration into new behaviour
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Create the mind shift for middle managers to embody organizational alignment
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Enable team members to discover management style of new leader
Chosen approach
The Embodying Performance program consisted of 3 key moments: The Opening Ceremony, the On water Challenge and the Closing Ceremony.
The Opening Ceremony enabled the leader to present his vision in a climate of openness. CANU’s development landmarks made possible conversations about ambition and vulnerability. CANU documented the team’s answers to challenging change management questions. The team expresses their needs to achieve the vision. A communication plan was developed and implemented to meet the team as it was experiencing the transformation in the months that followed. Coherence was optimized with an ongoing dialogue consisting of newsletters, online surveys as well as informal interaction between the 3 key moments.
The On the Water Challenge was personalized in a powerful manner. Team members’ interactions were videotaped both on the water and on land during the debriefing. We built a video sequence that was viewed by the group at the closing ceremony. Emotions were felt when the team assessed its journey and progress when the viewing of the video happened at the Closing Ceremony. Through a special ceremony, Gold medals were given to each participant by the leader to provide recognition for the effort and the commitment.
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Repositionner le leader qui redevient président;
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Redonner un sens à l’entreprise;
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Rassurer les équipiers et transmettre un message de constance et de stabilité;
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Présenter la vision du leader et permettre aux équipiers de se positionner par rapport à celle-ci;
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Prendre le pouls de l’équipe;
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Réunir les conditions de succès pour s’engager dans la vision.
Our mandate
Two phases to face change
Year 1 of our mandate was focused on embarking the management team to follow their new leader so they could align on a common goal. As a manager, what do I need to change in terms of behaviour so that my people row in the same direction in spite of the fact that we are spread geographically?
The second phase of our mandate was about developing the coaching skills of the management team.
The program
In numbers
40
managers
4
US work permit for CANU
11
States : from Maine to Florida
2
years : duration of the program
30
hours of video montage
"With 40 managers spread in 11 states interactive communications were a key component of the success of the program. With 3 organizational cultures in 2 countries, finding a common vocabulary was critical. It was fantastic to see team members leave the « comfort of the dock » in between each “organizational buoy » to improve the “glide” of the team so that the available “energy” would provide more impact."
Maxime Boilard, President
The second year
Follow-ups
The second year we focused our work on the management team’s coaching skills. To prepare that program where we visited the position of the coach (Developer of Champions) and the position of the coachee (Champion), we asked participants to assess themselves with a CANU questionnaire.
In the months that followed the kick-off of the program, top management team members were asked to facilitate a session with their colleagues about a coaching skill that they were interested in in alignment with their own development. The CANU coach was assisting the facilitating manager to ensure the program’s targeted results would be reached.
Results
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No more « them » versus « us » were heard after our work
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Roles were redefined
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Concrete coaching practices were developed and used
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Some team members won a medal for the first time of their life and it came from their leader
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Participants rate on average 4.4 out of 5 the completion of the following set goals : to know better each other, to better know our organization, to identify ways to improve change management
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