The Defence CIO and their key executives engaged People Measures to strengthen the leadership capability and team effectiveness of the Defence Digital Group (DDG).
Outcomes & impact
Key benefits for the participants:
- Almost all executives have commenced implementation of their development plans, demonstrating subtle but impactful behavioural change.
- A structured opportunity to enhance interpersonal effectiveness and strengthen shared accountability.
Key benefits for the organisation:
- Improved clarity regarding team structure, resulting in practical refinements that enhance team performance.
- Improved workflows, communication and collaboration.
Challenge
The Group experienced significant structural and cultural change and, while technically strong, sought to further strengthen collaboration, communication and cohesion to deliver Defence’s critical digital objectives.
- One of the main risks that Defence were cognisant of was the impact on decision making and efficiency, given the complexity of decision‑making across multiple senior technology roles, and the importance of maintaining alignment across stakeholders and delivery partners.
Project objectives
- Enhanced leadership capability.
- Strengthen interpersonal relationships.
- Strengthen skills for constructive challenge and robust decision‑making.
- Develop a productive, high-performing team environment.
Solution
People Measures co-designed a targeted development program, which included:
- 360-degree assessments and a personality-based work-roles diagnostic to identify individual strengths and behaviours requiring adjustment in the digital delivery context.
- Preparation of leader development plans, followed by a three-way session with a People Measures coach and manager to confirm objectives and success measures.
- A series of leader coaching sessions, which were focused on implementing their development plans and embedding behavioural change.
- Application of our proprietary High Performing Teams framework, which integrated data from the 360-degree assessment and work-roles reports to understand how the group was functioning.
- A team workshop to explore diagnostic data and enable joint action planning to identify what collective shifts were required to improve team performance.
- The workshop also provided a forum for addressing interpersonal challenges and strengthening shared accountability for Defence’s digital outcomes.
