Culture and Change Support for a Risk Consulting Unit

Context

The risk consulting unit of AXA XL Risk Consulting was reorganized: a new division head took over responsibility for the unit operating across several countries, the leadership team was restructured and the teams were newly mixed. The organization was characterized by a pronounced expert and engineering culture with a high degree of autonomy and had little experience of change. The goal was to forge a team out of long-standing silos and initiate a sustainable cultural shift – without devaluing the technical strengths.

Task

PUETTGEN Consulting was commissioned with the design and support of the change process – following a dual logic: first increase the readiness for change, then create individual and shared experiences of success that build on existing strengths.

Approach

Agile, strengths-based and participatory: instead of large programs, concrete experiments and “proof points” emerged that made the change tangible. Leaders were specifically enabled as role models and multipliers; a strengths-based assessment (CliftonStrengths) and the active involvement of the teams fostered co-creation.

Formats

Change coaching for the new division head and sparring sessions with the leadership team, consolidated into a situational picture; a change workshop with action areas and “transformation experiments”; a follow-up; a cascade of team workshops in which each team – starting from its strengths – chose an experiment and created an action plan, agile and feedback-driven in sprints.

Role

PUETTGEN Consulting was responsible for the change architecture, the coaching of the division head, the sparring with the leadership team as well as the design and facilitation of the change workshop and the cascading team workshops.

Transfer

Each team carried the change into its own area of responsibility through a self-chosen transformation experiment and an action plan; sprints focused on focus, progress and sustainability maintained the momentum.

Distinctive Feature

A coherent change dramaturgy: strengthen leadership, clarify action areas, carry experiments into the teams – with leaders as role models and multipliers.