This British multinational oil and gas company employs over 90,000 people and operates in more than 70 countries.
Back in 2021, the company set itself the ambitious target of becoming a net-zero emissions energy company by 2050, while simultaneously growing shareholder value and providing the energy the world needs. Political and socioeconomic shifts, changing learner demands and climate change pressures make agile training a top priority for this energy company, requiring stellar leadership at all levels.
A new approach to leadership development
In order to get the new strategy off the ground, leaders must go beyond their existing technical expertise and practical skills, including connecting with their deeper purpose and values, employing soft skills such as relating to others and working with colleagues to come up with solutions to rapidly evolving business challenges. This required a new approach to leadership development, helping middle managers to become key drivers of business performance and strategy.
This approach required a way to develop managers' inner leadership worlds, such as by building continuous learning mindsets and learning how to manage in uncertain situations, ultimately helping managers develop more self-awareness and understanding that would help them venture beyond conventional working practices and think more strategically. This needed to go hand-in-hand with developing outward-facing behaviours such as building psychologically safe environments for their teams.
Helping leaders help their teams
Since 2017, this British multinational oil and gas company has partnered with 5app's content partner Hemsley Fraser to develop practical, technical leadership skills. However, as the years went by, they realised they needed to develop even deeper, future-proof leadership skills and capabilities to succeed.
That's where the LEAD for Team Leaders learning journey came in. LEAD for Team Leaders needed to help the company's middle managers create psychological safety for others, encourage alternative thinking and become more curious to reach more creative solutions. These skills would then need to be modelled, coached and developed in their team members.
The 12-15 week leadership journey needed to be launched within just two months, and the programme needed to fit into the busy schedules of a diverse range of managers. LEAD for Team Leaders has 33 hours of formal learning delivered virtually in small group settings, helping leaders develop and sustainably embed their new mindsets and behaviours.
Learning was delivered 'little and often', supporting by The Leadership Hub, powered by the 5app LMS. The Leadership Hub allows learners to access custom content and personalised learning pathways on demand, whether that's playlists of leadership content or group learning opportunities.
Self-reflection, group feedback, action learning and peer coaching all play important parts in this learning journey, with 360 assessments bookending the leadership programme as part of the journey evaluation.
Strong engagement and great learner satisfaction
Since launching in April 2022, more than 2,000 managers have benefitted from LEAD for Team Leaders - and the great news is that they love it! Learner satisfaction currently stands at 4.5/5, and feedback shows that participants feel comfortable applying what they've learned in their day-to-day roles and they're enjoying the content.
And the data shows that this leadership programme is working. It shows that leaders who complete LEAD show marked increases in the mindset and behaviours expected of leaders, bringing the organisation as a whole much closer to its goal of becoming net-zero by 2050.
So what's next for this oil and gas company? Plans are currently underway to boost programme effectiveness via better communications and signposting of learning, as well as measuring how this programme improves internal mobility and manager retention.
