National Highways is tasked to deliver the objectives of the Government’s Road Investment Strategy. The previous strategy (RIS1) ran from 2015 to 2020, at which point RIS2 launched - an ambitious 5-year strategy with a total budget of £27.4bn - almost twice as big as RIS1.
In light of this huge budget increase, making effective investment decisions would become more complex and challenging, particularly as the overall size of National Highways (at around 6,000 employees) would not increase significantly; hence a requirement to achieve more with the same. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic had taken hold in 2020, transforming the world of work almost overnight.
National Highways wanted to create a development programme for all of its people leaders that would address three key challenges:
- How COVID-19 fundamentally impacted the way in which managers needed to manage their teams.
- The requirement to drive enhanced collaboration across boundaries and wider teams.
- The need to create consistency in leadership effectiveness.
To achieve the required outcomes and mindset shift, this programme needed to be practical, real and actionable.
The solution
We designed a 2-day in-person development programme titled ‘Lead, Collaborate, Succeed’, to create connection (to purpose and each other), emotionally intelligent leadership behaviours, collaboration, transformation, and momentum for 1500 people managers across National Highways who needed to deliver a very challenging business plan.
We launched the programme with a virtual workshop for leaders of the people managers, that was designed to focus on how they needed to role model and champion the programme; which was then followed by some pre-work. However, 4 months into the programme, delivery had to be switched to a virtual experience due to government restrictions (latter part of Covid-19 pandemic).
Despite this additional challenge, we flexed our approach accordingly and delivered a number of different development interventions for all 1500 managers and leaders, some of which included:
- 3 x Business Challenge Labs – practical simulation exercises undertaken throughout the 2 days.
- Theory Boosts – bite-sized learnings and tools that could be used immediately.
- Practical Exercises – where participants put the theory boosts into action.
- 3 x Collaboration Challenges – each, a practical and immersive three-hour experience focusing on effective collaboration in changing circumstances.
- Peer Coaching Sessions – with participants learning how to coach and support their peers on an ongoing basis.
The impact
In recognition of our Lead, Collaborate, Succeed programme, we won the CIPD People Management Award for Best HR/L&D & OD Supplier.
We supported 1500 managers and leaders in total, with 84% strongly agreeing their support had been a highly effective learning experience. Participants were also asked before and after the workshops to reflect on their competency in a range of effective leadership traits and behaviours; with improvement cited across all key areas.
“Lead Collaborate Succeed was a crucial programme, delivered at a time of significant change for our leaders. It resonated with our people, providing a safe and secure space for them to regroup after the pandemic, with lots of helpful learnings that were easy to understand and action straight away. We continue to build on the great foundations of the programme, reinforcing the positive cultural norms and behaviours we want to see across the business.”
- Ted Miller, Organisational Development Director for National Highways
