The Challenge
As the result of a “Real Time Enterprise” restructuring within Microsoft’s IT organization in November of 2011, eight distinct teams were reorganized into Strategic Enterprise Services IT (SESIT). Their Vice President, Jacky Wright, had recently come to Microsoft from BP and faced a big challenge: create a cohesive organization out of a collection of teams that didn’t all have obvious connection points.
SESIT oversees Microsoft IT Enterprise Services and Platforms. These services range from platforms such as SAP, Dynamics AX and Sharepoint, to shared services such as Business Excellence, Enterprise Architecture, Readiness and Supplier Management.
BECAUZ began working with the SESIT top leadership team early on to help them create a compelling future and nurture identity for the organization. The BECAUZ team facilitated conversations ranging from vision, strategy and values to the specifics of the organization’s service catalog.
A key element of BECAUZ’s engagement with SESIT, though, is the development of the Senior Leadership Community. This group of 80 top leaders is the strategic inflection point for creating and cascading meaningful strategy, leadership and identity into the 6,000+ person MSIT system.
Our Approach
BECAUZ worked with Senior Leadership Community sponsors to create a year-long program around the theme “Change the SLC Game.” We chose methodology and processes that, on the surface, up-scaled leadership skills and identified best practices. Below the surface was a secondary aim: to build relationships and upgrade conversations within the community.
At the SLC’s first quarterly offsite, BECAUZ introduced several deep diagnostic methods including Narrative Capture, Future Backwards and the Cynefin Sense Making Framework to help them identify the key challenges SESIT faced. The result was three focus areas: the “Big Why of Real-Time Enterprise,” “Building a Culture of Innovation,” and “From Order-Takers to Strategic Partners.” The focus groups that tackled these topics became safe-to-fail experiments, using facilitated processes to create organization-wide impact and have the SLC become catalysts for change.
The community also participated in BECAUZ’s Conversations for Impact, Presentation Playground and Listening to Transform Accelerator Programs. The curriculum drives breakthrough impact through communication, presence and presentation. Secondarily, it is designed to develop relationships and encourage a learning culture within the community by adding heat to the system so the whole community is out of their comfort zone and developing together.
The Results
Senior Leadership Community is empowered to lead in areas of strategic execution
Through the three focus groups, the Senior Leadership Community took responsibility and got into action to transform important elements of the organization’s strategy and culture. This level of ownership is a key to the community’s level of engagement. BECAUZ measures indicate a high sense of empowerment, value, and alignment among community members.
The Community has a high level of trust in each other and in their Leadership
In just one year, SESIT saw a 35% increase in their leadership effectiveness score, a key internal measure of the SLC at Microsoft. In-room surveys indicated a 45% increase in trust within the SLC in the first six months. The Community has transformed from a collection of disparate teams to a network of relationships that accelerate results across the organization.
The Community has the confidence to become trusted advisors for their stakeholders
Throughout the SLC’s yearlong program, exercises have focused on creating a compelling story for the organization. This has helped to establish a clear identity for the SESIT and an understanding of what they can offer to their partners inside Microsoft and to the company’s customers.