Case study: 38% increase in Psychological Safety. One 12-Month Programme.
How Channel 4's 4Sales team transformed its culture to compete in a rapidly changing media landscape
Channel 4's 260-strong sales team was high-performing, but operating in ways that wouldn't survive the pace of change disrupting the media industry around them. They needed a deep, honest analysis of their culture, a clear picture of where it needed to go, and a rigorous plan to get there. Twelve months later, psychological safety across the team had increased by 38%.
Discover
The media landscape was changing dramatically; to survive, the big players would also need to adapt. With new competitors entering the market and the advancement of digital technology driving rapid change in their sector, Channel 4 set out to refine & refresh the culture of their sales team, which had settled into quite a traditional way of operating due to its favourable % of market share. This meant C4 needed a deep analysis of what was working in their culture, what culture they needed to move towards and a plan on how they were going to get there.
They wanted to:
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Build on existing success
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Unleash the untapped potential within 4Sales
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Be change – ready and prepared to succeed in an ever-changing environment
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Ensure their vision, values, strategy, skills, behaviours and processes were aligned
Define
Working closely with the senior leaders across the 260 strong 4Sales team, TWP completed an in-depth diagnostic of the problem. We collected organisational data, observed multiple meetings across the department, ran a series of half-day workshops and undertook Psychological Safety & Culture Surveys. We also ran a series of half-day strategic workshops with the SLT to understand what they needed to change within the culture to meet the needs of the business moving forwards.
Deliver
Overall findings were presented to HODs in the first instance, and then the entire 4Sales department. We supported the HODs in owning the issues, celebrating successes and pledging to return to the entire department with a formal plan of change. Each HOD was paired with a coach to develop their own development action plan to drive change in their own area and behaviours. An away day was held with all senior leaders where they worked together to co-create the solutions needed to address the key themes that emerged from the data we collected. Key areas of focus which needed to be addressed included: structure & culture of meetings, agile working, career growth, and psychological safety & trust. Working groups were established for each of these areas with overarching strategies and success metrics.
Feedback from participants was extremely positive: they stated they had been fully heard and listened to, and that they felt an increase in honesty, transparency & clarity. In addition, participants reported that they noticed changes in their own behaviours over the 12 months of the programme.
12 months later, we re-tested Psychological Safety and were pleased to note an increase of 38 percent through our interventions.