Context
TUI UK & Ireland is part of a leading global leisure travel company, flying more than 5.5 million
customers each year. Employee research showed that awareness of the company's goals was very
weak: 80% of employees could not name even one of the goals; and one in three could not name any
of the three goals or four strategic imperatives. In addition, nearly one-third of employees said they
could not openly express their opinions. If TUI UK & Ireland was going to achieve its goals, everyone
in the business needed to understand them and see how they could contribute to them.
Objectives
The overarching goal was to build “line of sight” between the activities of individuals and teams and
TUI UK&I's strategic goals. We wanted a process that would enable people to “get it”: “I see how I fit
and what I can do to help”. To achieve this, we needed team-based conversations focused on
business strategy. We wanted a unifying approach to reflect the fact that every employee contributes
to the customer's experience but we also wanted people to have local conversations that were
meaningful to them.
The big conversation
We needed a process that generated a high level of ownership of the solution amongst leaders. This
would not only secure commitment to support the process but would also ensure that the picture
reflected the priorities across the functions. Co-creation of the picture was as important as the final
image. With this in mind, we held sessions with each functional team and with the CEO and his
colleagues. During this conversation we found the team making key decisions about the future
prompted by the emerging picture – the picture itself was compelling the leaders to be clear and
unified about future direction.
Once the picture was agreed, we facilitated a session where the CEO talked through the big picture with 70 leaders. Each function developed its plans to conduct the big conversation. Every manager would be a participant in a conversation before being a facilitator. Meanwhile, we finalised the managers' pack including a short video from the CEO positioning the work and talking about what the picture meant to him. Images from the picture are now being used in other internal media to act as a reminder of key messages.
The picture was co-created by the business and the key deliverables were hundreds of conversations about vision and strategy. The process was designed to maximise ownership throughout line management and to ensure that people understood we were aiming not for one-way presentations but for a dialogue leading to understanding and action.
Measurement and evaluation of outcomes
The key metrics against objectives are:
- 87% said the big conversation brought to life the goals and helped them understand the strategy.
- 95% said they now understand how they and their team contribute to the business strategy.
- 90% said they were encouraged to express their views during their big conversation.
- 90% of managers said the big picture had been an effective tool for communicating strategies and goals to their team.
In addition, following the big conversation more than one in two people can name all three strategic goals. 62% of these people got the exact numerical target for each goal (compared with earlier research where just one in five people could name one business goal, and one in three could not name any).
The project has been so successful that the approach has been repeated in UK&I and adopted at Group level.