Challenge: A leading multinational healthcare company had highly aggressive plans for expanding its business in a new global market ten-fold in 7 years. The global head turned to us because he was deeply concerned that despite his leadership team’s outward agreement on vision, mission, and strategy to launch multiple products in this new geographical market, they were not taking the necessary actions to reach their critical milestones for transformation and roll out. This was causing them to risk their window of opportunity in this new market, which put both their top and bottom-line growth targets in jeopardy. The executive and his team needed to take decisive action to restore the critical momentum they needed to meet their objectives.
How we helped: As we spoke individually with each member of the leadership team, we discovered that everyone had been reluctant to share their perspectives about the new opportunities and challenges they faced. This fueled the leaders’ feelings of isolation, frustration, confusion, and ambivalence that was preventing them from working together to make decisions and take meaningful action.
Results: When we brought the team together in a way that helped them feel safe discussing their issues, there was a tangible sense of relief. Members of the team were surprised and relieved to discover that they were not alone in feeling the pressure of their many challenges. When they reframed this complexity as a natural part of growth, they were able to more easily focus on the challenges at hand and collaborate to make the necessary “go big or go home” decisions to move forward. This enabled the group to realize millions of dollars in previously at-risk top- and bottom-line growth.