# Listening to an R&D team before talking about reorganisation

> In a large energy group, a research team had just learned that its R&D would narrow its focus, that its centre of gravity was moving to another country and that budgets were falling. Before the team day, we first asked the team what it thought. Its answers wrote the programme.

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

- Company (invented name) : Néolis
- Sector : Energy, research and development
- Size : A few dozen researchers, across several sites
- Format : A questionnaire, then one day
- Audience : A few dozen researchers and engineers working on a decarbonisation technology, spread over several sites and countries, with their management.
- URL : https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/cas-clients/ecouter-avant-reorganiser

## Context

- The group’s R&D is narrowing its focus and becoming more international.
- Part of the team’s work is moving to another country. Management is changing, budgets are falling.
- The researchers feel they were kept out of this shift. Some are very worried, others are still enthusiastic but no longer know what is expected of them.

## The challenge

Restore trust and clarity in one day, with a team whose first request is to be told the truth.

## Design ideas

- **Ask before presenting** : An eight-question questionnaire, a few days before: an enthusiasm score, what would restore my confidence, ideas for cohesion, what I understand of the reorganisation slogans, what I am missing, and one piece of advice for the facilitators.
- **A one-page summary for management** : flowAI summarises the answers on one page for the leadership team, with the most striking quotes. Five expectations come out: transparency, strategic clarity, meaning behind the changes, the future of the projects, mobilising talent.
- **Open with what the team said** : The day does not start with a management presentation. It starts with the team’s own words, put up on the wall as they are, and read before anyone speaks.
- **Turn slogans into consequences** : In small groups, the reorganisation slogans are translated project by project: what continues, what changes, what stops, and who does what.

## Run of show

### Before the day

- **The questionnaire** : Eight questions, anonymous answers.
- **The summary** : One page for management, made with flowAI, with the striking quotes.

### The day

- Morning · **What you said** : The quotes on the wall, read in silence, then shared in pairs.
- **Tell the truth** : Written questions to management. Each one gets an answer, or the date it will get one.
- **What does not change** : The expertise, the projects that continue, what the team is proud of.
- Afternoon · **From slogans to consequences** : In small groups, project by project: continue, change, stop.
- **Who does what** : Everyone’s role in the new organisation, and what still needs clarifying.
- **Close** : What I take away, what I am still waiting for.

## Deliverables

- The one-page questionnaire summary, given to management before the day.
- A roadmap the team understands and helped to sharpen, with clarified roles.
- The list of questions still open, with the date management will answer them.

## The role of AI

flowAI summarised the questionnaire answers on one page for management, keeping the most striking quotes.

## Key takeaways

- A worried team first needs to be heard. Showing people their own words before any speech changes the tone of the day.
- A slogan tells nobody what to do on Monday. It has to be translated, project by project.

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

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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.