Harnessing values to drive change at Scottish Widows
| Published date | 12 August 2007 |
| Date | 12 August 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390980000978 |
| Pages | 10-11 |
| Author | Jock Encombe |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
10 Volume 6 Issue 4 May/June 2007
HR AT WORK
,
Short case studies that demonstrate best practice in HR
Harnessing values to drive
change at Scottish Widows
S
cottish Widows has undergone
major change in recent years,
including becoming part of the
Lloyds TSB Group in 2000 and
welcoming a new chief executive, Archie
Kane, in October 2003.
The business also faces the ongoing
and increasing pressures of operating in
a fast-paced, constantly evolving,
strongly regulated, highly competitive
marketplace where technological
changes demand that all organizations
remain vigilant and, where possible,
stay one step ahead of the competition.
Scottish Widows recognized that to
maintain its leading position in the
marketplace the company needed to
transform its culture to one with a
deep commercial instinct that would
enable its people to be dynamic and
accountable and to act with initiative
and customer focus at all times. In
addition, the business recognized the
need to support its leadership team
and develop and sustain the skills,
behaviors and competencies required
to lead the organization in the future.
Uncovering the organization’s true values
In 2004, Scottish Widows turned to
corporate psychologists YSC to meet
these challenges. In partnership with the
company’s senior management, HR and
organizational development teams, YSC
worked to create a set of values that
would articulate and capture the key
behaviors and characteristics of the
business and provide a common
language for all employees. This common
language would enable people at all
levels of the business to communicate
with and understand each other. In
addition, it would provide a map for the
new and emerging corporate culture.
The process of developing a common
language for the business purposely
engaged people at all levels of the
organization. Activities such as focus
groups, internal conference-style events
and individual interviews ensured that
people were aware of the importance of
collaboration in this process and that they
were truly part of and seen as key to the
changing organization. In addition,
Scottish Widows introduced an
“engagement team” made up of
representatives from across the business
that worked to build momentum around
the change, help secure employee buy-in
and generally help drive change.
Scottish Widows was able to further
connect its people to the new values by
leveraging its deep and rich history. This
approach helped people connect to the
new values at an emotional level and
gave the cultural change within the
organization a sense of meaning. It also
meant that people understood the new
values in the context of the
organization’s past and that rather
than changing the deeper values of the
business, they were being reinvigorated
for the shifting business context.
Bringing the values to life
The business recognized that initiatives
to define values had been undertaken
before, but that factors such as a
failure to follow through on issues
identified and to secure senior
management buy-in meant they had
limited success. It was therefore even
more important on this occasion to
enable managers to respond to the
proposed values, interpret them and
make sense of them for themselves. To
be too comprehensive or prescriptive
on this occasion would disempower
people and lose their support.
Change Leadership workshops that
served nearly 1,000 Scottish Widows
employees over an 18-month period
really brought the company’s
developing common language and
values to life. These two-day programs
were designed to give people an
understanding and appreciation of how
the values relate to key business issues
and how they can be employed as a
Scottish Widows was founded in 1815. It
became part of the Lloyds TSB Group in
2000 and has become one of the major
brands in the life, pensions and investment
industry in the UK. It employs around
4,000 people.
SCOTTISH WIDOWS
Jock Encombe of corporate psychologists YSC explains how Scottish Widows created a common language in
which to express its corporate values and to help guide it through a period of major change.
© Melcrum publishing 2007.For more information visit our website www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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