Case study
Agile Transformation and High Growth
Situation
- Client is a Fortune 150 financial services/technology company with over 40,000 employees headquartered in Eastern United States
- Worked with the technology division of a key business line which had completed a full transformation to Agile principles. Located in the Midwest
- This technology division was growing rapidly, hiring 500+ employees per year
Challenges
Lack of leaders
Employee growth outpacing manager/leader hiring
Opposite Cultures
Two key locations with opposite cultures: older “mainframe” culture and younger “wild west” culture
Continuous Changes
Constant changes in strategy coming from headquarters; an “us” vs “them” environment
Solution
- Designed and executed culture strategy to bring together employees at two key locations, harnessing pride for local accomplishments leadership alignment on the desired culture
- Created unified language and communications plan to support and reinforce new culture through leaders and scrum teams
- Built and delivered technology manager development program to elevate interpersonal and strategy capabilities of technical managers who had significant role changes in the transition to Agile
- Partnered with Chicago tech and innovation community to participate in and host events for employees to live their cultural values
Results and Benefits
- Technology manager turnaround: from ineffective role without a home in Agile to clear alignment on responsibilities, accountabilities and new skills to support execution. Managers becoming the stronger people leaders the company needed them to be
- Increased trust/pride, self-efficacy and performance of this technology division despite continued strategy shifts
- Common ground and increased collaboration between the two key locations
- Created permanent internal role for tech ecosystem outreach and partnership; increased commitment to supporting tech-driven social enterprise
