A leadership development programme, delivered at pace, remotely, through COVID-19.
Sauce Labs help their customers evolve testing and error-monitoring processes so they can develop, update, and release market-leading web and mobile apps, faster. When Covid-19 struck, their workload increased hugely, and the need for collaboration and leadership intensified.
Support teams across EMEA to build, embed and sustain leadership
NEEDS
Sauce Labs have a head office in California with teams across the globe. The CEO wanted to install focus and belief in the organisation’s mission across all teams. They wanted to manage change and target site-specific challenges with an approach that would develop leaders locally to engage employees.
Teams in Poland, Germany and the UK needed to be aligned to the organisation’s overarching ethos and given the space to act autonomously, leveraging their own strengths effectively.
To support the organisation to collaborate, innovate and grow, the CEO wanted an improvement programme delivered with velocity and urgency. Sycol prepared to spend 3-4 months in different locations to drive change.
An agile response to developing leadership skills remotely
SOLUTION
The initial plan was for a Sycol team to work in person, in London, Warsaw and Berlin. The work was designed to focus on developing the skills and mindset of EMEA leaders in the UK, Poland and Germany. A Sycol improvement programme is often intense, with an expert Sycol consultant being embedded in a team to model collaboration and innovation.
However, in this instance, the pandemic prevented in-person attendance and the whole programme was delivered through online sessions. It was at the beginning of Covid-19, so working remotely was a new concept to everyone involved.
The nature of Sauce Lab’s business, supporting developers to be more agile as they develop market-leading apps and web solutions, meant the teams involved also became hugely busy as the world shifted to working and socialising online.
The acceleration in demand for Sauce Lab’s products could have distracted them from the Sycol improvement programme, but it didn’t. There was a real buzz as the teams involved, embraced the new systems introduced by Sycol. In fact, the focus of the programme on collaborating, innovating, leading and managing was crucial in giving the organisation the tools needed to work together remotely, to meet customer demand.
Structured support delivered in the right way, at the right time
IMPACT
The experience and adaptability of the Sycol team, combined with the enthusiasm of Sauce Labs meant that tremendous improvement, across multiple time zones in a global crisis, was realised.
Individuals had much clearer understanding of their roles in the company and the importance of their contributions. Leadership and management systems were better defined and communication between colleagues and countries was greatly improved.
Pace and velocity, outlined as crucial at the outset, became even more important once the work started because of the demands of the pandemic on Sauce Labs. Sycol adapted and thrived in this situation, bringing structure, straight-talking guidance and skills-building to people in a way that seemed to really strike a chord.
“By having SYCOL we got feedback from a different perspective which helped us to focus on areas of leadership and management improvement that we were unconscious about. We were helped to structure a way to be more accountable for making improvements, which we don't often allow ourselves time to do because day to day tasks get in the way. The feedback too was always direct and un-sugared, which was helpful.”
Andreas Lüdeke - Director, Berlin Office
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