Transforming Business Culture through Change Management

Alternative Futures Group are a health and social care charity, and they are based in the Northwest of England. They provide specialist support for people with a learning disability or mental health condition. Their mission is to deliver outstanding personalised support that creates independence and value.  Over the last few years AFG have been on a journey and transformed from an organisation that was having to make tough financial choices and cutting back on what they could do, into one that has really turned a corner and has significant growth ambitions.  They currently support around 800 people across the northwest and want to grow that in the short to medium term to 1000. But longer term they want to go further and have a positive impact on more lives.

How do you help to transform and strengthen a company culture into one that engages, develops and rewards colleagues? How do you ensure that company has leaders who inspire, empower, and promote the organisation and role model great leadership?

These were the challenges that Alternative Futures Group came to Project One with earlier in 2024. AFG want a culture that promotes high performance, enabling individuals to do their best work.

So, this is where Project One fit in.

Project One worked with AFG on the initial setup and formation of the culture transformation programme. It was always the intention that AFG wanted to benefit from the expertise of Project One at this initial stage and then handover to a newly hired internal employee who would take the programme forward. At the start of the engagement, a high-level roadmap was agreed, along with specific deliverables.

A baseline measurement of the culture was taken at an extended leadership team conference. This was an opportunity to engage with all leaders in 3 separate sessions to understand the current culture and their thoughts and ideas for challenges and opportunities to strengthen the culture. All leaders identified where they thought the current culture was on a large continuum up on the wall. The output from the conference influenced the detailed planning for the next few months and a revised roadmap was produced along with a formal programme structure was put in place, with an Executive Sponsor, Steering Committee, and Project Working Group.

One of the initial deliverables was to establish a change network. This is not something that AFG had used before, however their Executive team were fully bought into the concept and the benefits it could bring. By the end of the engagement, a 30+ strong change network was in place.

Three full day workshops were held with each of the leadership teams – Exec, Directors, HoDs. The outputs from the workshops fed into a Culture Blueprint for AFG. The Blueprint was ultimately written based on what they had seen and heard throughout all interactions. It went through reviews with the Exec as it did differ in some areas from what they thought it should be. However, an organisational culture blueprint cannot be dictated from the top, it needs buy in from all levels to ensure everyone will engage with it. The Blueprint was also supported by a manager’s toolkit. This will allow managers to introduce the blueprint to their own teams and help them bring it to life and understand what it means for them.

The organisation has the required programme structure and governance in place to take forward the ideas and initiatives to strengthen their culture. They have an agreed cultural blueprint, which will underpin their transformation journey. They also have a toolkit to support managers engaging with their teams to initiate that journey at grass roots level.

The programme will have a significant impact on the people that AFG support. This culture transformation will be an enabler to positively impact more lives as AFG grows.

Project One value add: 

• AFG didn’t have their own change management expertise in house 

• They value the benefits of engaging external consultants who can deliver independent opinions and advice especially to executive and senior leadership team members 

• AFG liked our personal approach and our ability to fit into their organisation 

Unlock the full potential of your business with our expert insights. Contact us today to discover how we can help you achieve your goals. theteam@projectone.com