# Bringing a whole leadership community together for the first time

> Brands, sites, upstream, supply chain and staff representatives from several houses had not met together for a very long time. In one morning, over a hundred managers worked on three major issues and prepared their own questions for the group’s chief executive. Everything was captured and transcribed, board by board.

*Real case, anonymised: the company name is invented.*

- Company (invented name) : Maison Aubrelle
- Sector : Luxury goods, several houses within a major group
- Size : A leadership community of over a hundred managers
- Format : One morning
- Audience : Over a hundred managers from several houses: brands, production sites, upstream and expertise, supply chain, with staff representatives and the group’s leaders.
- URL : https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/cas-clients/communaute-direction-reunie

## Context

- A new leadership team is arriving, in a market where competition keeps renewing itself.
- The houses work side by side, each with its own habits. Brand managers in the capital and site managers rarely meet.
- The group is setting up new governance through committees and wants ways of working to change, without announcing any reorganisation.

## The challenge

Turn a rare gathering into a useful one: give everyone a hold on the big issues in a single morning, and organise a frank exchange with leadership rather than a string of presentations.

## Design ideas

- **Three issues, three groups** : Upstream (sourcing and expertise), industrial, and the vision for the category. Each manager joins the group where they have most to contribute, with colleagues from other houses.
- **Data to talk about the promise** : The “vision” group works from market data and a blind product test run by experts. The question asked separates the promise of the product from that of the whole category.
- **The room’s questions, asked by the room** : Each group prepares its questions for the group’s chief executive, and participants ask them. The exchange starts from real concerns, including industrial relations and quality.
- **Capture that keeps everything** : Photos of the boards, recordings of the report-backs and the exchange, then verbatim and thematic transcripts. Nothing that was said depends on a few people’s memory.

## Run of show

- Morning · **Opening** : The leaders set the frame: meeting at all is already a message.
- **Three issue groups** : Upstream, industrial, the vision for the category, in teams mixing the houses.
- **The promise** : Market data and a blind product test to feed the “vision” group’s thinking.
- **Ways of working** : One cross-cutting question in every group: which ways of working should change?
- **Preparing the questions** : Each group chooses what it wants to ask the group’s chief executive.
- **The exchange with the chief executive** : Questions asked by participants, answers given live.
- **Conclusion** : The chairman sums up what he has heard.
- Noon · **Lunch** : Around the house’s products, to end together.

## Deliverables

- A six-pillar promise for the category, from the “vision” group.
- About thirty verbatim and thematic transcripts, board by board, and recordings of the exchange with the chief executive.
- A shared diagnosis on governance: a relay layer is missing between the operating committee and the rest of the community, without multiplying committees.

## The role of AI

The photographed boards and recorded contributions were transcribed and then grouped by theme with AI. Each summary points back to its source, so people can reread what was said rather than what they remember.

## Key takeaways

- For a community that almost never meets, the first success is the meeting itself. The design has to leave room for it.
- Questions prepared in groups and asked by participants make for a franker exchange than a roving microphone.
- The room was more aligned than it thought. Full capture made it possible to show it, with evidence.

Related expertise : [Leadership offsites](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/seminaire-de-direction), [AI-augmented seminars](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/seminaire-augmente-par-l-ia), [Collective intelligence](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/intelligence-collective), [Seminar facilitation](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/facilitation-de-seminaire)

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Source: Flow Design, https://www.getflowdesign.com
Contact: victoire@getflowdesign.com, marie-violaine@getflowdesign.com, +33 6 72 15 94 77. Request a quote: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/nous-contacter. Draft a run of show online: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/concevoir-mon-seminaire.