Case Study
Comprehensive Culture Strategy Unites
Two Business Units into One Cohesive,
Mission-driven Organization
Client
A global leader in medical technology, services, and solutions with over 85,000 employees worldwide
What We Did
Developed Culture, Communications & Engagement Strategy to bring together two separate teams under shared values and purpose
Outcome
Disparate teams combined to create one cohesive workgroup. Survey results revealed double-digit increases in engagement levels
Culture Work Increases Employee Engagement by 14 Percentage Points
THE SITUATION
A restructuring at a global medical device company led to the integration of two disparate teams into one. While both departments were doing equally important work related to clinical studies for coronary and structural heart disease management, the integration posed significant challenges. Not only were they separated geographically, each had its own distinct culture; one enjoyed a more progressive, out-of-the-box way of working, while the other favored a more conservative approach.
From a technical and process perspective, the two teams made significant progress on the integration and landed on common operational procedures. However, the geographic and cultural differences created barriers that challenged them in functioning cohesively as one team.
Knowing a strong cultural foundation would be critical to enable success now and well into the future, the company looked to Blue Beyond to enhance culture, communications, and employee engagement within the newly combined department.
WHAT WE DID
Blue Beyond developed a Culture, Communications & Engagement strategy, and partnered with other internal and external teams as needed, to unite the new department under a shared set of values and purpose statement that reinforced and sustained desired behaviors for long-term success.
Enabled successful rollout of Integration Initiative and development of desired culture and behavior
- Created overarching communications and change management strategy and plan to support and enable all aspects of integration, change, and culture work
- Created overall messaging framework, collateral, and strategies to drive understanding and adoption of new behaviors
- Developed compelling messages, materials, and channels including branding, video, executive communications, intranet content, talking points, FAQs, manager communications tool kits, and more to support effective process alignment and implementation
- Ensured that the department’s purpose (vision) and strategies aligned to and reinforced corporate messaging, while also strengthening the department culture
- Helped design and facilitate Leadership Team working sessions; provided coaching, tools, and other support where necessary to aid Leadership Team in “walking the talk” and to build employee acceptance and accountability
Partnered in design and delivery of engaging and effective all-hands (aka Culture Summit)
- Played key role in agenda design, content development, and execution of three-day Summit for all 200 team members
- Helped ensure Leadership Team alignment on the desired outcomes, and provided strategic counsel and presentation support to speakers
- Created clear, compelling and consistent messaging, meeting logo, and other meeting visuals and materials to support an effective summit
Ensured ongoing alignment and sustainability in communication and culture efforts
- Established durable, long-term culture messaging strategy that continued to bring the purpose (vision), strategies, and desired behaviors to life and reinforced culture changes
- Partnered with the Leadership Team and other key stakeholders to ensure streamlined work streams and governance processes are set in motion to support accountability and sustainability
OUTCOME AND EARLY METRICS
After the Culture Summit, pulse survey results showed incredible increases in employee engagement with 85% of team members agreeing “the organization’s leadership team is culturally effective in leading the department, driving the leadership expectations through the department to build a culture of even greater success.” This was up from 71% the quarter prior.
“All the hard work around integration, operations, SOPs, best practices, they built a very strong foundation, but without the work done around culture and the efforts to continue that work, we would not see positive results as these.” — VP of Global Clinical Affairs
Previously, regular pulse surveys showed little change in engagement levels. However, after the culture work and Summit, an organization vice president said, “This is the first time where we see an overwhelming majority double-digit increases at every level.”
Our client expressed that it was the Summit and all the hard work done around culture that ultimately drove up engagement in the organization and propelled the department to the next level. Two high-performing teams had successfully combined to create one cohesive, productive, and engaged department.
