Changing the Culture Changes the Game
Wow! The results of the 2013 survey showed that significant improvements in company culture and core competencies were universal and accomplished in a remarkably short time. Specifically,
1. The overall engagement index moved from 61.6% positive in 2012 to 90.4% positive in 2013, an increase of nearly 30 percentage points.
2. Every work group measured in the survey – the overall employee population and 19 other work groups – increased its engagement scores.
3. The scores for all six of the high performance behaviors increased, and five of the six showed statistically positive improvement.
4. The greatest improvement in a single question targeting leadership and an environment of openness and trust increased from 43.9% to 87.0%, an increase of 43.1 percentage points in one year.
5. The tenor of survey comments showed substantial improvement. In 2012, only 14 (0.8%) of the 1,660 written comments were positive compared to 545 (56.4%) positive out of 966 comments the following year.
Improved positive scores in specific questions further reflected employees’ newfound sense of personal accountability, expanded confidence in adverse situations, greater awareness of daily performance and strengthened emphasis on collaboration. Of the 27 engagement and behavior questions asked in both the 2012 and 2013 surveys, 26 questions had improved scores, and 18 of these 26 questions increased significantly.
As impressive as the survey results were, the number of employees who reported that they had personally participated in one or more change initiatives was equally notable. Of the 1,694 responses, 79.3% said that they had experienced a change agent interaction such as a listening session or Team Advantage™. The remarkable consistency of responses and improvements over all of the company’s functional areas reflects positively on the impact of these interventions.
Consider that typical commercial organizations are structured to reward superstars and motivate high performers by promoting internal competition. Then imagine the possibilities when this structure is turned inside out and replaced with a collaborative mindset of “everybody wins or nobody wins” as is promoted and taught in Team Advantage™. A new interpretation of winning is what the change agents offered, and that notion and commitment by leadership nurtured this cultural turnaround. When employees are given a voice, leadership is able to understand what is holding back high performance. Leaders can then systematically eliminate or minimize those barriers, and great things can happen.
The challenge going forward will be to sustain and grow this momentum. In a system prone to chaos in change, it is difficult to remain on a path of continuous improvement. But by developing each leader to become an agent of change, Sanofi has laid the groundwork for strong ongoing success and has become a place where people are engaged with their work and positive about their company’s future.
About the Authors
DJ and Barry Mitsch are co-founders of The Pyramid Resource Group. DJ is a Master Certified Coach and Pyramid’s project lead on the overall change initiative. Lynn Hays is the principal of Haysmar, Inc., a company that specializes in behavioral research.
Acknowledgements
Barbara Poole, MCC, of The Pyramid Resource Group, provided mentoring and change agent development. Craig Flanagan, VP of Business Excellence and Commercial Capabilities, led the Sanofi change agent team.
For more information, contact:
Sanofi North America Pharmaceuticals
Kim Fox, kimberly.fox@sanofi.com, 908-981-4851
Judy O’Hagan, judy.o’hagan@sanofi.com,
908-981-7300
The Pyramid Resource Group, Inc.
Barry Mitsch, barry@pyramidresource.com,
919-677-9300 ext 102
