Building resilience and capability: Shaping the future of Morgan Sindall Construction

Phase two

An expert’s perspective Dr Imran Zawwar Innovation thinking

Morgan Sindall is a big organisation, and it is operating in a sector that is very project-oriented and doesn’t really allow for a lot of manoeuvre in business operations. Having said that, although they are limited by their industry environment, I’ve never seen an organisation as agile within those limitations as Morgan Sindall. I think they have the right mix of experience and young talent. They’re very adaptive. They want to make a change and they want to lead that change, rather than manage it. The support from top management was also very evident throughout our sessions – there was continuous interaction. When you have this combination of very agile implementers (your employees) and a very connected leadership, things go in the right direction. The business had real engagement and alignment, which makes our job easier. Hothouse doesn’t work if it is simply treated as a process that participants go through and come out of the other side. It is about the cross-integration and cross-examination of ideas, and an organisation creating a congenial environment to enable that to happen. This wasn’t an orchestrated collaboration. The dynamics were right, the chemistry was right, and mindsets were aligned. There was a real hunger in the participants, and the senior leadership really wanted to enable it. They were open to challenges, adaptive thinking, and all the solutions participants were sharing. They really meant business, and they know their priorities well. Very few organisations have that clarity.

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