400 voices shaped the strategy

The challenge

The Insights Group, based in Dundee with staff across many countries, exists "to create a world in which people truly understand themselves and others and are inspired to make a positive difference in everything they do." As a new strategy cycle began, Sandy Wilson asked a simple question: "Have we ever asked our staff what this purpose means to them?" The answer was no.

Sandy was clear that the work must discover what people genuinely thought and felt, not steer them towards a predetermined answer.

What we did

1. Prototype. In March 2022, 18 staff piloted the eight-hour workshop, so we could refine the design before the global roll-out.
2. Global programme. 14 workshops for up to 45 people each, in Singapore, Dundee, Amsterdam, Berlin, the USA and online.
3. From personal to shared purpose. People built models of their own purpose, then of what the company's purpose meant to them, then shared models at each table, combined into a Meta-Model© for every workshop.
4. Brick keepers. Each workshop chose a brick keeper to take its Meta-Model© home and refine it with colleagues' feedback.
5. Ideas. Staff built over 400 "tiny game changers" and "big bold breakthrough" ideas; 35 went forward to senior leaders.
6. Synthesis in Billund. 30 leaders spent time with each brick keeper, hearing the story of every workshop first-hand.

What changed

"The On Purpose project was the foundation for the strategy process that followed. It helped create our four strategic themes, our OKRs and our nine long-term goals that drives the work we do today."
Sandy Wilson, Executive Director of People and Strategy, The Insights Group

The synthesis day in Billund was the best internal communication event we have ever witnessed: brick keepers presenting the collective thinking of 400 colleagues with clarity and passion, and leaders listening deeply.

What we learned

This was personal mastery at organisational scale. Looking back, adding systems thinking and an examination of mental models would have built lasting capability as well as engagement.

The full case is told in The Systems Synergy, chapter 10.