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Coaching leadership teams to engage employees during change
Faced with major and sustained change, the Research & Development organization of pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca, decided to coach, equip and support its leadership teams to engage employees in what was happening. To achieve this, they worked in tandem with communication consultancy Synopsis. Here, Dominic Walters and David Norton explain the process and the lessons learned on the way.
The whole pharmaceutical industry is facing change - cost pressures, new markets, outsourcing and changing regulations are just a few of the factors. Like its competitors, AstraZeneca is responding to these broader changes in the industry and research and development (R&D) is a key area of focus. Pharmaceutical R&D requires a huge amount of investment and effort to bring about greater innovation, greater productivity and new discoveries will result in real and worthwhile savings.
Engaging employees in this change, particularly after earlier waves of productivity improvement, constant process improvement and change was a key task for Alex Kalombaris, global head, R&D Communications. Working with leading European communication specialists, Synopsis, he and his team adopted an approach which focused on coaching leadership teams and equipping communicators to support them.
This case study will help those communicators looking to:
* Engage leaders in being effective communicators.
* Raise communication up their leaders' agendas.
* Work with leadership groups to align them, help them understand their roles and responsibilities and play to their combined strengths.
* Show leaders how communication can help achieve real solutions to key business problems.
What did AstraZeneca R&D do?
"It's extremely important that we strengthen our leaders' capabilities in how they communicate," says Alex Kalombaris. "They recognize that being a leader requires more than just technical ability. They're our most important channel and the best way to engage and inspire our employees, especially during times of change. Our leaders knew they had to get this right but they needed some tools and training to help them. Employees look to their leaders to inspire and engage them. Our leaders in AstraZeneca R&D had to step up to the plate in a consistent way. The tools and training we provided through Synopsis helped them do just that."
AstraZeneca R&D based their approach on the Synopsis FAME model...