Co-creating the roadmap for transformation success excites an entire organization for the journey ahead

Vision

For a leading global MedTech company, the head of R&D had been driving the evolution of its R&D organization for a number of years. Ready to push forward with an ambitious three-year vision to drive innovation meant reigniting the transformation spark and aligning and exciting teams across all functions, layers, and levels of the organization. 

Challenge

• Past transformation efforts had seen a mix of success and setbacks on some critical projects that had unsettled teams and leadership.
• Market and technology trends, the rise of AI, and increasing regulatory complexity represented external challenges to innovation.
• A need for high-levels of cross-functional, multi-layer orchestration was critical to deliver the full value from transformation efforts.

Solution

Transformation success depends entirely on an organization’s people, and the head of R&D felt our approach would re-instil leadership confidence and cascade understanding, belief, and ownership (UBO) from R&D leaders all the way through to business process end-users.

Genioo Partners guided the Head of R&D through our Success Planning program to define what success looked like. Together we: 

• Reviewed past transformations to understand what had worked, what hadn’t and why, and what was still a priority.
• Used our bespoke framework to define a crisp vision with concrete goals and benefits, fully explore what needed to be done, by when and by whom, and create an exhaustive list of obstacles and how to overcome them. 

We then engaged the broader R&D leadership to prepare for our Top Team Alignment program; co-shaping a three-day agenda which:

• Brought together 40+ R&D and other critical leaders to align and engage with the vision, share their views, and build the future together.
• Inspired and energized teams with motivational speakers, presentations from leadership, team building and social activities. 
• Provided a moderated platform for plenum and breakout sessions to align on priorities, openly discuss pain points, and problem solve together.
• Co-created a high-level roadmap with full alignment on priorities, workstreams, transformation waves, and commitment to roles and responsibilities, project charters, and the next steps – to set up the workstreams and move into the design and build phase.
• Engaged Communications and HR teams to co-design a comprehensive communications and change plan including updates, workshops, and town halls, to keep stakeholders informed and engage the broader business.

Impact

• A concrete vision that could be cascaded upwards, downwards, and across the organization.
• Roll-out of a multi-channel comms plan to engage and excite the wider business and build an inclusive change culture.
• Teams felt they had a voice in shaping their future and co-creating a prioritized and phased roadmap that was both ambitious and achievable. 
• Open and honest discussions deepened transparency and trust and empowered teams with the confidence to navigate the challenges and realize the full value.
• Clarity on the way forward and roles and responsibilities helped embed understanding, belief, and ownership (UBO) and enabled R&D leaders to mobilize their own teams.
• Aligned and engaged teams from the outset to work as one team with one direction and smooth cross-functional communication and collaboration critical to transformation success.