A unique collaborative leadership development programme whichgives people the skills, confidence and inspiration to become better leaders

Challenge24 Impact Report

2 IMPACT REPORT 2010

We have had a fantastic yearworking closely with a group of veryprogressive organisations and theirleaders who are approaching theirways of working from a newcollaborative perspective.

This exclusive group of crosssector organisations recognisethat while the world of work and thebusiness landscape is continuing tochange at the speed of light, it iscollaboration, and not control, thatis the way to create sustainablesuccess.

These organisations are focusingon delivering results and buildingthe collaborative capability of theirleaders at the same time – somethingwe at The Collaboration Companyhave discovered is essential tomaking positive changehappen in thelong term.

We have been busy working withgroups of diverse leaders who arelearning how to take responsibilityfor problems other than their own,asking big questions, embracingpeople with different perspectives,and sparking their imaginations tocreate strategies that they not onlybelieve in, but are also committedto making happen.

These leaders are gaining a betterunderstanding of how to unleashthe collaborative potential of boththemselves and their teams so thatpeople really do commit to makinga difference.

Our learning programmes arehelping these leaders to not onlyrecognise the need to think andact beyond their immediate circleof influence but also to practicehow to actually do it.

Challenge24Impact Report

89%of participantssay it improvedtheir abilityto behavecollaboratively

“It was a very usefulcourse. It wasparticularly helpful asa problem solvingtool as it helps meunderstand how toavoid jumpingstraight to solutions.”Charles Cliffe, Head ofProjects and CommercialsThomson Reuters

IMPACT REPORT 2010 3

Webelieve it is important to understand the impact our programmes haveon both participants and the organisations where they work - we are verykeen to ensure that the learning from our programmes is embeddedequally within both.

In November 2010 we surveyed all the previous participants from our2009 and 2010 Challenge24 Programme.

We also reconnected with each challenge sponsor from the last 12months to find out how useful and worthwhile the Challenge24session had been for them.

This report highlights the impact that our Challenge24 Programmeis having on individual participants and the host organisations.

Our Impact Survey

4in5of participantssay as a resultthey haveadopted a morecollaborativeapproach toproblem solving

“I really enjoyed Challenge24 andafterwards I had a perfect projectwhich required collaborativeworking. I’ve had more confidencein collaborative working going intothis project and have reallyenjoyed the successes that havebeen achieved.”Rob Warne, Senior Design ManagerWates Construction Ltd

4 IMPACT REPORT 2010

A collaborative learning programme involving non competingorganisations including British Airways, Forum for the Future,Iron Mountain, NATS, Royal Mail, Thomson Reuters, Wates,Which?, and Unilever.

Providing a collaborative learning environment for senior leaders that:

• Demonstrates the power of effective collaboration

• Challenges the participants

• Stimulates creative solutions through collaborative behaviours

• Promotes networking and learning with peers across other organisations

The core idea

“Challenge24 wasa very positiveexperience andillustrated well thepower of collaborationto solve complexproblems. Working inan organisation whereeveryone is short oftime, this is a goodreminder and as aresult I will look forways to schedulecollaborativeapproaches todeterminingstrategic issues.”

David MasonHead ofCommunicationsForum for the Future

“I would highlyrecommendChallenge24 tocolleagues. The timewas well spent – anexperience I wouldnot have hadordinarily. It wasintense but hugelyenjoyable andpersonallysatisfying.”

Angela Van-Den-BogerdNetwork ChangeOperations ManagerPost Office

• Exclusive network for identified senior managers

• Additional input and ideas for real business challenges

• Facilitated collaboration work session

• Unique insight into other organisations

• Opportunity to learn from subject experts from host organisation

Participants receive a personal assessment and feedback to evaluate keybehaviours that are important to highly effective collaborative leaders.

The core elements

6 IMPACT REPORT 2010

The Challenge24 BenefitsThere are benefits on three levels – to the individual participants,their organisations and the hosting challenge sponsors.

Participants repeatedly say that as a result of their Challenge24 experience they:

• Broaden their understanding of the power of collaboration to solve complex problems• Gain more confidence in leading others in a more collaborative way• Pick up new tools and techniques to help drive collaboration within their team andacross their organisation

Organisations benefit from leaders who are:

• Able to inspire and engage the people responsible for making strategy happen• More collaborative and innovative in their approach to existing problemsand new opportunities

• Capable and confident to use collaboration to drive positive change,particularly in complex settings

Challenge sponsors benefit from:

• New thinking and fresh ideas for a real organisational challenge• Opportunity to explore different ways of thinking about their challenge with a diversegroup of senior leaders from different organisations

• Creating a network of senior leaders to continue to engage with in the future

IMPACT REPORT 2010 7

98%of participantssay it was aworthwhilelearningexperience

84%of participantssay it had apositive impact

“Fascinating topic,real challenge and aninteresting group ofpeople to workwith – they haddifferent insights andexperiences. It wasenergising andrewarding.”Nick Kitchen, VP HR Researchand Development Unilever

4in5participants sayas a result theynow lead teamsmore effectively

7in10participants sayit has enabledthem to see thebroader businessperspective

71%of participantssay the experiencehas increasedtheir willingnessto engage withdiverse groups

Collaborative Working- A Case Study

93%of participants sayit broadened theirunderstanding ofcollaboration

IMPACT REPORT 2010 9

Having attended the Challenge24event at British Airways in thesummer 2010, I was lucky to bepresented with the perfect projectback at Wates to develop mycollaborative skills.

Over the course of one year, our goalis to develop the design of a worldclass youth centre with a group of13 to 23 year olds (known as theyouth steering group or YSG). TheYSG is made up of people frommany different backgrounds, andnone of its members have workedon this kind of project before.In addition to this there are otherorganisations involved such as alocal third sector organisation andthe local council.

My job is to employ a multidisciplinary design and engineeringteam and to bring everybodytogether. We will develop the designand should our application forfunding be successful; build it too.

Over the course of this project I’veadopted a process similar to theproblem solving approach that weused on Challenge24. It has beena process of education for the YSGin learning about engineering andconstruction. I have been focusedon building upon people’s ideas,keeping people in the green zone,and encouraging people to takeownership and pride in their ideas.We have been very successful andthere is a real sense of sharedownership and team spirit; onewhich has led to much praise forour organisation from our customer.

One of my objectives for this yearis to upskill our bid team in terms ofcollaborative working. Challenge24certainly helped to equip me withthe right skills and experience toachieve this.

Rob Warne, Senior Design Manager,Wates Construction Ltd.

“I'm so glad that itworked as anexperience foreveryone. We definitelyhave some ideas andinsights that are veryvaluable and we willbe working toincorporate theseinto existing plans.”Sean Bowman, Unilever

“The outputs havebeen incorporatedinto a wider projecton how best toconvey our social andcommunity impact.The new descriptionsof the values arebeing used in corpo-rate communications.It was great to havesuch a high calibreenthusiastic teamworking with us, andthis really helped tohave an externalgroup reinforce thatthere is somethingspecial about theWates culture.”Judith BuftonWates Construction Ltd

10 IMPACT REPORT 2010

Fresh insights and new ideasChallenge24 sponsor feedback

“The output from thegroup was reallyhelpful for us to get a‘big picture’ view ofour growth challengeand all the associatedstrands of work.”Kate Naylor, NATS

“I found the opportunity of havingsome free consultancy extremelyvaluable. The team threw themselveshead long into the challenge I setthem and, as they only had 24hours to come up with the goods,produced some very interestingand instinctive suggestions on howto deal with my challenge.”Alan Peever, British Airways

IMPACT REPORT 2010 11

Alma Park Woodway Lane Claybrooke ParvaLutterworth Leicestershire LE17 5FBT: +44 (0)1455 882 850E: info@collaborationcompany.comwww.collaborationcompany.com