A management charter written cohort by cohort
Réseau OrvaneInvented name
A public body with a regional network wants decisions to be made closer to the front line. Its senior managers, then several hundred line managers in successive cohorts, worked on the question one link of the chain at a time. The charter of operating principles was written live, each cohort picking up where the last one stopped.
- Sector
- Public administration with a regional network
- Size
- Several thousand staff
- Format
- Two days, then a week in cohorts
- In the room
- About a hundred senior managers from the network, in some twenty teams. Then several hundred line managers, heads of department and unit, welcomed in successive cohorts over a single week.
Context
- Leadership is launching a change in management practice: make decisions at the right level and give the front line more room to act.
- This change goes hand in hand with major reforms already under way.
- Frontline teams face more complex situations than before.
- Line managers say they are caught between instructions from above and an already heavy workload.
The challenge
Make a principle concrete when it stays abstract as long as people discuss it in general. And get several hundred managers who never meet to write one shared text.
The design
Key ideas
A chain of responsibility
The network is drawn as a chain of levels, from head office to frontline teams. Between two levels sits a numbered link. Nobody talks about “decentralising” in general any more: people work on one specific link, and on the decisions that should move one step down.
Two rounds of workshops, two links
Each cohort runs two rounds of workshops. The first is about the link between department and unit: room to act and real use cases. The second is about the link between unit and teams: managing day to day. A number on each badge sends people to their use case.
A “room to act” canvas
A triangle in three bands. At the top, the manager’s manager: how I can support, what I will let go of. In the middle, the manager: what they want to take on, their skills, their needs. At the bottom, what they hand over to their teams or stop doing. Filled in alone first, then as a group.
A charter that changes hands
The charter of operating principles is not presented: it is written. The first cohort starts from a draft zero. Each following cohort receives the previous version, with the crossings-out and additions in colour, and reworks it. Everyone also picks one principle they already live by and one that costs them.
Timed peer coaching
In threes, with a fixed time for each step. The person bringing the case explains it, the other two ask questions, then share ideas, and the first person says what they want to do with them. The timer protects their voice.
How the time was used
- Open
- Explore
- Decide
- Celebrate
Senior managers’ seminar · two days
Open
What changes the game
Frontline challenges set out at the start, then one subgroup per challenge.
Explore
A shared language
What “deciding at the right level” means: proximity, added value, responsibility.
Decide
The chain of responsibility
Use cases, link by link: which decisions move one step down?
Line managers’ week · one day per cohort
Open
Questions for leadership
A dedicated slot gathers participants’ questions, one page per cohort.
Explore
Workshops A: room to act
The link between department and unit, with the canvas, alone then in groups.
Explore
Workshops B: managing teams
Same approach on the link between unit and teams.
Decide
The charter, next version
The cohort reworks the charter handed down by the previous one. One principle you live by, one that costs you.
Decide
Peer coaching in threes
Explain, question, suggest, conclude: each step has its time.
Celebrate
Group photo
End of the day, and the baton passes to the next cohort.
The seminar in miniature
What changes the game
About a hundred senior managers, in some twenty teams, open the seminar with the challenges the front line is facing. Major reforms are under way and situations are more complex than before. Putting these challenges on the table first gives everyone a concrete reason to want decisions made at the right level.
One subgroup per challenge
Everyone heads to the room for the challenge that concerns them. There, they build a shared language: what “deciding at the right level” means in terms of proximity, added value and responsibility. The words agreed here will be used by every cohort that follows.
Link by link
Back in plenary, by table, the senior managers work on the chain of responsibility: the network drawn from head office down to frontline teams, with a numbered link between each pair of levels. Using real cases, they look for the decisions that could move one step down. Nobody talks about “decentralising” in general any more.
Questions for leadership
Then comes the line managers’ week, one day per cohort. Each day opens with a slot for questions to leadership, gathered on one page per cohort and also asked live through the polling tool. They all go into a collection handed to leadership.
Room to act
In the breakout rooms, two rounds of workshops, one per link: between department and unit, then between unit and teams. A number on each badge sends people to their use case. The triangle canvas is filled in alone first, then as a group: what the manager’s manager can support or let go of, what the manager wants to take on, what they hand over or stop.
Peer coaching in threes
In threes, with a timer. The person bringing the case explains it, the other two ask questions, then share their ideas, and the first person finally says what they want to do with them. Each step has a fixed time: the timer protects their voice and stops advice from coming too early.
- Explain
- Question
- Suggest
- Conclude
Group photo and handover
The day ends on the terrace. Just before, the cohort reworked the charter handed down by the previous one, crossings-out and additions in colour, and everyone picked one principle they already live by and one that costs them. That version goes to the next cohort, all the way to the final charter.
The materials, redrawn
The chain of responsibility
- Head office
- 1
- Region
- 2
- Area
- 3
- Department
- 4
- Unit
- 5
- Frontline teams
Round A
Room to act, real use cases
Round B
Managing teams day to day
The “room to act” canvas
What sits with my manager
How I can support
What I will let go of
What sits with me
What I want to take on
My skills
What I need to succeed
What sits with the team
What I hand over to my teams or stop doing
- A clear frame
- The right to make mistakes
- Safety and accountability
A charter handed from cohort to cohort
- Draft 0
- Cohort 1
- Cohort 2
- …
- Final version
Family 1
Family 2
Family 3
- Struck out by a cohort
- Added by the previous cohort
- Added by an earlier cohort
Deliverables and follow-up
- A theme-by-theme synthesis, produced during the seminar from the teams’ own outputs: a matrix of convergences between themes and recommendations on four fronts (training, partnerships, tools, organisation).
- The final version of the charter of operating principles, shaped by every cohort.
- The collected questions addressed to leadership.
AI and digital tools
Live votes and questions through a polling tool built into the slides. The thematic synthesis was produced during the seminar, from the teams’ report-back materials.
What we take away
- A general principle becomes workable once you bring it down to one link, between two levels that know each other.
- The charter is not presented, it is written live. Each cohort inherits the previous one’s work and sees it crossed out and added to.
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