CORPORATE CULTURE:
Next Level L-Ressort
CHALLENGE
In times of economic shocks and crisis, markets can vanish virtually overnight. The oil and gas crisis back in 2014, the financial crisis back in 2008, 2009, in 2020, the economic fallout due to COVID-19 and in 2022 the global repercussions from the war in the Ukraine. These economic shocks happen, and when they do, companies go through three phases – they start with “shock”, they cut, and for those that make it, they transform.
In addition to global challenges, the future of mobility is at our doorstep. Swift and rapid technology shifts the industry, which are more dynamic and happen at a much faster pace. These changes require companies to change and adapt quicker than they did in the past, in order to compete in the market.
Markets in general are more regulated and in there is a race for patents, all of which greatly affects the Legal, Compliance and IP resorts of companies.
MISSION
These developments also affect the Legal, Compliance and IP department (L-Ressort) of Knorr-Bremse. Against the background of these challenges, with Claudia Mayfeld as a Member of the Board for the L-Ressort, the strategic route is driven by foresight and the willingness to transform.
It is the declared goal of the L-Ressort goal to become a high-performing team and one united “L-Ressort family”. In addition, the L-Ressort has set itself the aim to pave the way into Knorr-Bremse’s future.
Together with Rabl & Hahn, the L-Ressort has the declared goal to reach its “NEXT Level”, not only when it comes to strategy and profit, but also when it comes to leadership, mission & vision and actively living the values of Knorr-Bremse.
An extensive communication concept and its rollout as well as the upskilling and inspiring of the employees are hereby key to reaching the goals.
Claudia Mayfeld, Member of the Board
”Philipp Hahn is a transformation expert par excellence. Given his curiosity and open mindset on one hand and his high performance in preparing and performing workshops, events and speeches on the other, he is inspiring people to go down the route of transformation. I am grateful that he joined my journey so that we reached the first successes.
Jennifer is the backbone of Rabl & Hahn ensuring timely performance, sticking to plan, remembering and empowering people. Thanks to her for her performance.”
Christian Hamann, Vice President Corporate IP
Rabl & Hahn are currently supporting the transformation in the L ressort at Knorr-Bremse and are inspiring us with their unusual approaches and solutions.
What is particularly remarkable is that they create a supportive, open atmosphere in which even difficult topics can be discussed constructively. A highlight was also Philipp's appearance as a speaker with an inspiring key note that carried us all away. The cooperation with the Rabl & Hahn team is always highly professional and uncomplicated – many thanks for that!
We are looking forward to further cooperation and we can recommend Rabl & Hahn to everyone who really wants to make a difference.
Actions Here’s an overview of the main actions taken during 2022
CHANGE STRATEGY
Employee Interviews & Empathy Map
In order to set up a proper change process that addresses the pain points and needs of all employees in the L-Ressort, Rabl & Hahn conducted extensive, voluntary interviews with employees from all hierarchies and locations. The anonymized results were presented to the management and set the basis for further change activities.
A target group empathy map was used to define the needs for action per target group and set the direction for desired principles.
Leadership Survey
In addition to the employee interviews, R&H also conducted an anonymous survey on the topic “Leadership”. Through a web-based tool, employees could give feedback on their leaders. The results from this survey were the basis for the L-Ressort Leadership initiative.
Change Concept
To tackle the needs for action identified in the employee and Leadership Survey, an extensive change concept for 2022 and beyond was created in a first step. Rabl & Hahn provided benchmarks, proven concepts that where successfully implemented in other companies to establish a new collaborative working and behaviour model for employees and leaders that blend in seamlessly with the Knorr-Bremse structure and values.
A vision for the L-Ressort was defined, and the departments were equipped with missions and strategies.
Workshops and eLearnings, a communication concept and corresponding actions and events were hereby in the focus. Special attention was given to the topics Leadership as well as values and behavior. Existing change processes were taken into account and included in the process.
internal COMMUNICATION
Communication Concept
Boring, incomplete, or late communication is one of the main reasons why changes fail: Authentic stories with a uniform look & feel and inspiring content, rather emotional and simple than too detailed, arouse the interest of the target group.
The transformation only becomes a part of the L-Ressorts DNA when it’s actively lived and communicated. It was the goal to create a culture that enables continuous learning, inspires employees, is characterized by collaboration and strives for the constant optimization of existing processes.
To achieve this, Top Down Communication, Bottom up communication as well as horizontal communication among peers was part of the communication concept.
Change Activators
In every company there are people who want to help shape change. Why not actively use this potential? We asked the team who would like to actively help shape the change and one change activator per department and region was identified.
Change activators are contact persons for employees who need help in implementing the change (if they do not dare to approach their manager). The knowledge is bundled and passed on neutrally by the change activator to the department manager on a regular basis. In addition, the change activators ensure, that the change is actively and continuously lived through regular updates. Together with the teams, they ensure that relevant content for SharePoint is prepared on a regular basis.
SharePoint
Another, very crucial new measure regarding communication was the introduction of an all-new L-Ressort Intranet as central meeting point for all employees of the L-Ressort with news, (strategy) updates, learnings and much more.
In a fully connected world, a digital workplace that combines news, lessons learned, learning material, tools and data, and enables cross-collaboration is probably the most important aspect. We made full use of the possibilities “SharePoint” offers and provided a state-of-the-art platform.
Newsletter
One point of criticism was the room for improvement when it comes to internal communication. A regular, internal L-Ressort Newsletter that informs about news in the department was designed and established.
Workshops and eLearning
Leadership
Any change stands and falls with the management. Involvement & active participation of management is the top priority for every change. Management needs to understand why the Cultural Change is essential. They know the benefit for the organization and for themselves and understand that the change starts with them. Most importantly, the management stands united behind the Culture Change and empowers their team members by providing the necessary support to become a high performing team.
Our goal was for the Leadership team to recognize their strengths but also their weaknesses. This was developed together in various workshops and sessions. In addition, we defined what each leader would like to change for themselves and identified ways to improve themselves and the community.
As part of the Knorr-Bremse Leadership initiative, the following measures have been introduced:
01. Leadership Workshop
02. Leadership eLearning
03. Leadership Day
Values & Behaviour Workshops
Apart from the creation of the Leadership initiative, the employee survey also identified the need to strengthen the identification with the company as well as the teamwork within the L-Ressort. Therefore, a workshop series was initiated in spring 2022.
The workshop series consisted of the following workshops:
Behaviour
The aim of this workshop was to work out the behavior for all managers and employees that is decisive for achieving the goals within the L-Ressort. Because only if the team understands what these values actually mean for their daily work, they can be brought to life. Only then they become a basis for decision-making, a standard of behavior and a guide for action that provides orientation.
SELF IMAGE
In the next step, we defined HOW the employees can bring the values or defined behaviors to life in practice and which skills they may need for this.
High Performing Team
The aim of the third workshop was to define how we manage to be a high-performing team and how we ensure that these parameters are integrated into existing processes/procedures and kept alive.
The results of all workshops were recorded and saved as the basis for communication materials such as the behavior booklet or the Leadership Principles which are all part of the communication on SharePoint.
Events
Next Level L-Ressort Meeting Jan 2022
To kick off not only a new year, but a new era in the L-Ressort, the NEXT Level meeting took place in January 2022. The 3hr live streaming event was meet as an introduction into the intended change and to give an overview of the planned actions for the year.
It included a top management strategy update, a motivational Key Note from Philipp Hahn, a panel discussion as well as an outlook on the Next steps followed by a Q&A session.
L-Ressort World Meeting Summer 2022
Following the NEXT Level meeting in January, the L-Ressort World meeting took place at the end of June. The 3-day event was hosted live on-site at the headquarters in Munich and streamed to Asia and the US for the participants who joined remotely.
R&H created the concept for the event and was mainly in charge of the implementation on site. The entire event was moderated by Philipp Hahn, supported by Jennifer Hahn in the workshops and enriched with an inspirational Key Note by Philipp on “How to leave your comfort zone and become a high-performing team”.
The diverse program included strategy and department updates, external key notes and a variety of working sessions for all departments as well as team building events to strengthen the collaboration.