Anglo American

Case Title:

Change Agents: Leaders Tapped to Turn New Org Structure into Growth

Program Name:

Leaders In Anglo (LiA)

Delivery Locations:

Santiago, Chile

Challenge:

Opportunities for growth globally for Anglo were ripe, but its organizational structure was holding it back.  The organization was restructured to leverage this growth opportunity and now more than ever Anglo can use this restructuring to capture new markets and gain massive marketshare.  The challenge was to help the leaders in Anglo to be the agents of this change and see this organizational transformation as a path for their own personal growth – to transform the teams they lead and drive organizational performance.

Solution:

Working with Anglo, ALA helped to design a custom multi-module year-long program called the “Leaders in Anglo”, intended to rapidly accelerate the development of some of Anglo American’s leadership talent.  The program was designed to help this high-potential population begin to understand the global challenges that will emerge over the course of their lives, and to develop the global network of colleagues necessary to drive business growth and alignment.  

The LiA program was designed as a three module program focusing on leading self, leading teams and leading the business. ALA was asked to help in the first two areas.  In the leading self module, ALA served as coaches helping the individuals interpret the 360 Feedback and identify a specific area for improvement to focus on during the program.  To address both goals of  leading self and leading teams, ALA delivered one of their Signature Solutions – the Leadership Labs – where action learning project teams were kicked off and each participant shared what specific item he/she was working on.  Throughout Leadership Lab exercises, accountability partners were leveraged to practice and get clarity on specific feedback needed.

Impact:

Simply being nominated to attend LiA had a huge impact on the participants. It was a clear statement of belief in those 30 individuals per year – and an investment in their future.  Internally, you could literally see the individuals grow even before the program launched.

Retention among LiA participants was much higher as compared to others at that level of management. During a five year period, Anglo put approximately 150 people through the program (LiA 1-5), and lost only five managers during that time period. This is labour turnover of just 3% in 5 years – or  less than 1% per year. Prior to the LiA program, this peer group tended to have a turnover of 10-15%.

Other positive outcomes include:

• Participants’ line managers reported that their direct report(s) were energised by the experience and felt an increased sense of engagement with the business. 
• Between modules one and two, every participant worked on a “Business Impact Project” (BIP), which drove real change in their individual leadership. 
• Many LiA participants were later nominated for AMP – an advanced management program – which means they had been promoted one, or in some cases, two levels in a short period of time.

The Action learning challenge during the final module (module 3) was also highly impactful: participants presented to the Executive Committee and many of their proposals were taken up and implemented. This demonstrated meaningful business-wide impact and further proof that Anglo was achieving their much-desired organizational alignment.