Innovation - Home

Overview

Industry:
Global technology leader in specialty chemicals

Focus:
Strengthening the organization’s innovation power

Language:
German, English, Spain, French, Chinese

Purpose

Accelerate innovation cycles in view of shortening product life cycles and growing competition from Asia. Strengthen innovation power to meet upcoming sustainability regulation. Key objective was the development of a leadership culture beyond the company’s hierarchical top-down traditional to horizontal leadership of cross-functional cross-regional teams in order to enable a high level of networking within the company and to make better use of the existing diversity in product development.

What were the effects?

A high level of networking between the regions and much closer collaboration with the result that the diversity of perspectives was used specifically for innovation. Solutions to challenges that had existed for years in some cases already emerged in the workshops - primarily through the networking of previously separate units and areas. New innovation initiatives emerged in individual countries, which adopted the program's design for their own organizational development.

Process

Selection of 300 executives for the program. Modular workshop design with group sizes of 15, then 30, then 60 participants to enable networking. The design for the innovation processeswas Theory U by C.Otto Scharmer and Systemic Thinking by Gregory Bateson. In the workshops all taught methods, tools and models were assigned to the 5-step Theory U logic (from Detecting to Deciding). The workshops focused on case clinics in which current requirements of the global organization were worked on. At the end of the program 10 change agents were trained in a three-day workshop, who continued the program internally.

6

Trainer

300

Participants

4

Large Group Workshops

30

Workshop Days