Culture Activation

Results

+43%

Increase in the alignment of objectives

as a key contribution to shared success

+27%

Improvement in decision-making

in terms of speed and clarity

+31%

Overall increase in team effectiveness

revealed in a Team Effectiveness Survey

THE BUSINESS

In 2022, Volkswagen Group UK Limited’s organisational structure and operating model was undergoing a major transformation. Their leadership recognised that cultural change would play a crucial role in the success of this shift, and while the desired culture had been articulated, there was still work to do in implementing and activating the change across the business.

THE CHALLENGE

The CEO and executive team turned to Coode for support in translating this vision into practical, observable behaviours and guiding leadership through the transformation, starting from within.

The key challenge was making the desired culture a lived reality across the organisation. VW understood that this began with leadership who needed to act as a role model for behaviours that met the cultural vision. However, they had to be aligned for this to happen.

“With the end objective of enabling us to sustain, adapt and be accountable for the performance of the organisation, Coode’s facilitators were highly effective in using their skills, insight and patience to lead us on the journey, and the impact they had has been significant and lasting.”

Volkswagen Group UK Limited

People Director

THE APPROACH

We worked closely with the executive team to:

Translate culture into behaviours: Leveraging Culture15’s measurement platform, we translated their desired culture into clear, specific behaviours that would be readily understood and recognised across the organisation.
Align the leadership team: Through our DIPS (Define, Insight, Practise, Sustain) process, we partnered with the team through workshops, coaching and meeting observations to explore their effectiveness, shift their habits and challenge their role modelling of the culture.
Engage the wider organisation: We amplified the cultural shift and shared this new cultural language with the wider leadership population through workshops and events, helping them to reflect, shift mindsets and set practical actions for change.

More case studies

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) recognised that strengthening its executive team would be critical to delivering its strategy. While its leaders brought significant individual expertise, there was an opportunity to create a more integrated, high-performing team that was greater than the sum of its parts, while establishing the ways of working and leadership behaviours needed to support this.

Since 2019, Coode has partnered with Solina to support its transformation into a globally aligned organisation. As the company achieved fivefold revenue growth and expanded across Europe, the Americas and Asia, integrating 18 acquisitions, Coode helped define a unifying strategic narrative and operating model that balanced local agility with global scale. By aligning leadership and embedding shared cultural principles, Solina built one cohesive story that continues to drive its international success.

In 2022, a new CEO took to the helm of Concurrent Technologies Plc, an organisation that was well-established in its niche but had hit a plateau. The business had no formal leadership team, with most key decisions previously made by the former CEO. There had been little emphasis on leadership development, and the company lacked the ambition to grow.

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