Project Description
A law firm
Our client is a global law firm providing a full scope of legal services to the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions. The firm has more than 3,000 lawyers advising clients across more than 50 locations worldwide. It is recognised for its client service in key industries, including financial institutions; energy, infrastructure and resources; technology; transport; life sciences and healthcare; and consumer markets.
Having been through significant change in recent years the firm’s finance function wanted to refocus on its core purpose to drive exceptional performance in their support of the global business.
How People Business assisted our client
As a result of an internal recommendation, People Business was invited by the law firm’s Finance Director to support him in bringing his vision – for the finance function to be a trusted, value-adding business partner that delivers outstanding service and operational excellence – to life.
We initially engaged the Finance Leadership Team, subsequently bringing in a wider group of managers and team members from across the finance function. This series of interactive events were focused on enabling people to:
- take collective ownership for the vision for the finance function – with a focus on being role models for change
- lead a culture for high performance – through collaboration, engagement and accountability
- understand what it will take to bring the wider finance function along with the change
- get to know each other better and build a team that delivers more than the sum of its parts.
These team events introduced simple tools to prompt people to have the conversations that were needed to make a difference. We encouraged feedback across the function, encouraging honesty and self-awareness so that team members could call out the challenges and take responsibility for making effective change.
What the client said
‘’What I have found effective has been breaking down our vision, paying attention to how do we make it practical and operationally deliverable.’’
“I am thoughtful about situations where I can provide feedback – understanding who my stakeholders are, the importance of being a role model and delivering on our mission.”
“This has been thoughtful and focused. It has helped to us to move forward together in an area where we have been stuck.”
“Everyone was able to give regular contributions – it wasn’t one or two voices giving all of the input.”
“I think people were positively surprised by what we did and the outcomes.”
Feedback from participants at the leadership events