A company was stagnating for few years. Historically the company has developed by acquiring progressively several activities quite distinct from each other. Several attempts were made of creating a common Board of Management, but not very successfully. If the group control and reporting had common processes, there were no common governance, identity and belonging.
Indeed, the history of the company had made strong leaders of business very distant from each other. Both geographically and culturally. They were sharing very little common support functions and were more an addition of independent businesses. In fact, each member of the board had a strong independent personality and yet very little to do with each other.
And as you cannot get a choir made of divas, the individuality of that company leaders was reflected in each layer of the company.
Here, as we worked with building the Board team, we help first with defining the common purpose of the company.
A story says that 3 identical stonecutters doing an identical work of cutting stones on the street pavement had a vey different apparent attitude and energy.
The first man was exhausted, depressed, back broken, and livid: He was cutting stones 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.
The second was in better shape, but still had this distant gaze: He was working at feeding his family.
The third one was shining and smiling: He was carving out a cathedral.
Well, this metaphor illustrates the way we help. We help defining the common higher purpose, setting the proper governance, and helping to communicate it properly. We help the members of the Board to insufflate that belonging to their organization: Individual stonecutters to become a solid team erecting a cathedral.