Working with an internal team to connect and develop senior risk professionals across North West Europe
The Client
Deloitte are the preeminent global professional services firm, delivering services in audit, tax, consulting, financial advisory and risk management services in over 150 countries around the globe. This project was for the Quality & Risk Management Team, initially in the UK, then later including North West Europe member firms.
The Brief
Our client, the Talent Lead in Quality & Risk Management, approached us to co-design a ‘business school’ for their senior managers (approximately 90 people). Anecdotes about other business schools suggested lots of sitting around being talked at… Neither of us wanted to create a similar experience.
The Solution
An early decision was made to focus on personal development and career engagement. It was also an opportunity for the senior leaders to connect with their people at a more human level and break down the knowledge hierarchy. Therefore the two days were designed to be driven by participant-led learning, facilitated by senior leaders in the role of mentors.
During the school each group of participants was set the mission of creating the profile of a 2020 Risk Manager so they could benchmark their own capabilities, and produce individual plans on how to leverage their strengths and work on their development areas. They experienced a rigorous crisis simulation, inspirational speakers, formal and informal networking opportunities, peer feedback, and much more. Catseye did their best to keep in the background during the Business School, with most of our efforts going in to programme design, then up-skilling and briefing the various faculty members before the event. And we picked up a last minute keynote role.
The Results
The collateral benefits of the Business School were significant:
Participants zoomed out from their specialisms and got a more holistic view of their role, leading to better devolved decision making
Levels of engagement and discretionary effort increased as leaders made more time to be with their people
Leaders who acted as faculty grew their skills as people developers, and developed their own emotional intelligence
The Business School ran again in the UK and another version is being rolled out for the North West Europe region.