The Business objectives: 
- Need for organisational change to address liberalisation, globalisation and IT advancements
- Need to position NAS group to address increased competition, quality, and customers…the customer now has a choice!
- Need for attitude and culture change, shifting us from a monopoly market to a global competitive market.
Why did we engage the TLC Partnership?
The successful design, development and delivery of the work undertaken with one of our major customers here in Kenya introduced us to the work of Frits and Sally-Ann. The success of their work at the time was noticeable from the NAS perspective.
Our mutual philosophy and approach “enabling people to do brilliant work”:
- Our developments must be driven from the top to the bottom, and failure to obtain commitment first is tantamount to failure before you start!
- That learning should provide new knowledge and skills giving rise to changes in attitude and behaviour
- That the development solution is not just about delivering objective-driven content – the style and approach must be inspiring and impact at personal level first, then organisationally
- That training is a process- never ending and relates to other organisational activities undertaken before, during and after the learning
- Their commitment to see the entire process through no matter the geography!
- Articulate the big picture as well as deliver the detail
- Working with us not through us or for us!
- Messages that focus the attention for those whom English is not their mother tongue
The Journey
We began with an assessment of our organisational “climate” and culture
Interviews and focus groups (including 1:1) were undertaken the feedback was honest and we recognised we were in poor shape; it included:
- Fear and intimidation
- Lack of respect for individuals
- No recognition
- Bad management style – parent/child
- No team spirit – them & us
- Low pay
- Low morale
- Poor communication
- Victimization/favouritism/nepotism/tribalism
- No empathy
What’s different?
From the above, an all staff engagement program was run, and everyone was involved in identifying the type of company they would wished to work for and out of this, our 15 year development journey began.
- The leadership team identified how to integrate development activities into the business plan with specific KPI’s and measurable outputs.
- Staff were involved in creating our mission statements (5), company values and the critical behaviours that would show that we were living these new organisational values.
- Personal commitment to the company was an agreed expectation, ensuring everyone understood why and how they were responsible for their actions and behaviours and that these reflected the company image and reputation to others they met; with an understanding that the management style would (and indeed has changed to) be more supportive and encouraging.
- Recognition awards were introduced to identify and reward positive attitude and behaviour.
- To address quality, productivity and relationships, departmental teams developed measuring tools and monitored them. (A Kaizen program introduced with on-going implementation and innovation).
- Group management teams were formed to formulate various development and user-friendly process policies to address issues raised on issues such as staff welfare, quality and improvement and identified champions of change in the organizations.
- Performance coaching was introduced with definable measures and a coaching network to support the development process.
- Sharing of profit with staff for the first time in the history of NAS
- A “Tough Love” approach and style introduced to balance the seemingly “softer” management style.
- An organisational mentoring program initiated to seek and support potential talent within the group of businesses.
With thanks to the NAS Group for documenting this case study