About a hundred ambassadors bring a leadership model to life
VerlanceInvented name
An international manufacturer was reworking its leadership model and came with a first draft. In one day, about a hundred ambassadors tested it against reality and turned it into observable behaviours. At 1.30pm the room was validating the synthesis of its own morning, put together with AI over lunch.
- Sector
- High-tech manufacturing, international group
- Size
- A few thousand employees
- Format
- One day
- In the room
- About a hundred “ambassadors”, managers and non-managers from every department, with the project’s operational and strategic sponsors.
Context
- The company is reworking its leadership model. The previous one had stayed invisible to most employees.
- Leadership comes with a draft zero: a few axes, with values at the centre.
- It has to be tested against day-to-day reality, turned into observable behaviours and made ready for roll-out.
The challenge
Genuinely open the draft to criticism without losing sight of what leadership had already decided. And produce, within a few hours, a faithful synthesis of what about a hundred people said.
The design
Key ideas
Kiosks run by the sponsors
Themed kiosks, run in pairs by the sponsors, about twenty people at a time for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Reactions are sorted into four columns: rings true, needs clarifying, something is missing, examples of behaviour.
First impressions in mixed teams
What convinces, what calls for caution. Team report-backs are audio-recorded.
The mirror report-back
Over lunch, the facilitation team consolidates all of the morning’s material with the help of AI. At 1.30pm, the room discovers and validates the synthesis of its own work.
Behaviours written as “I…”
In teams spread across the model’s axes, participants write concrete behaviours. Then a mix in threes and fours across teams, and a return to the home team to consolidate.
Separate what is voted from what is decided
Only a few questions go to the group’s vote. The rest belongs to the sponsors. Putting to a vote what is already decided damages trust.
How the time was used
- Open
- Explore
- Decide
- Celebrate
8.30amOpen
Opening
Vision, the ambassadors’ role, ground rules, psychological safety.
Open
Where we start from
History and limits of the current model, comparisons, structure of the draft.
Explore
Kiosks
Rotation between kiosks, reactions captured in four columns.
Explore
First impressions
In mixed teams, report-backs recorded.
NoonExplore
Lunch and synthesis
The morning’s material is consolidated with AI.
1.30pmDecide
Mirror report-back
The room discovers and validates the synthesis of its morning.
Decide
“I…” behaviours
Writing in teams, mixing, consolidating.
Decide
The enriched model
Revealed step by step.
Decide
Roll-out and commitments
Roll-out conditions in small teams, then an individual commitment in pairs, on a card.
6pmCelebrate
Close
Words from the sponsors, mood check, cross interviews.
The seminar in miniature
Opening
About a hundred ambassadors, managers and non-managers from every department, hear the vision, their role, the rules of the game and what makes it psychologically safe. Then where things start from: the history and limits of a model most people never saw, and the structure of draft zero, a few axes with the values at the centre.
Kiosks
Themed kiosks, each run by a pair of sponsors. About twenty people at a time, twenty to twenty-five minutes per kiosk, then groups rotate. Reactions are sorted into four columns. Draft zero is genuinely open to criticism, and every comment finds a home.
What surprised us
In mixed teams, people pool what they saw at the kiosks: what convinces them, what calls for caution. Each team’s report-back is recorded on audio, so nothing gets lost in the lunchtime synthesis.
Lunch and synthesis
While the ambassadors have lunch, the facilitation team consolidates all the morning’s material with the help of AI: the kiosks’ four columns and the recordings of the report-backs. The aim: a faithful summary of what about a hundred people said.
Mirror report-back
The room sees the summary of its own morning’s work, and validates it. That changes what the summary is: no longer the consultants summing up, but the room recognising what it said.
Behaviours in the first person
In teams spread across the model’s axes, participants write concrete behaviours in the first person. Then a mix in threes and fours across teams, and back to the original team to consolidate. The enriched model is then unveiled step by step: general values become observable behaviours.
Rollout and commitments
In small teams, the ambassadors work on what it will take to roll the model out. Then each person writes an individual commitment, in pairs, on a sheet. Working in pairs makes the commitment real: someone has heard it and can come back to it.
Close
Words from the sponsors, the day’s weather check, cross interviews. The next day, a two-page decision note goes to the sponsors: the decisions to take with the options voiced in the room, the few questions to put to a vote, and indicators that can be checked a few days later.
The materials, redrawn
The model, from draft zero to behaviours
The kiosk capture grid
Rings true
what lands as it is
Needs clarifying
what reads unclear
Missing
gaps and warnings
Examples
behaviours people have seen
The decision note
Decision note2 pages, sent the next day
The gist in five lines
Decision 1
Put to the group’s vote
only a few questions
Indicators a few days on
to see whether commitments held
Deliverables and follow-up
- A web page reporting back to the ambassadors.
- A consolidation file for the sponsors.
- A two-page decision note, sent the next day: the gist in five lines, the decisions to make with the options voiced in the room and the weight the material gives them, the few questions to put to a vote, HR uses of the model (feedback, hiring, development reviews, manager journeys, communication) and indicators that can be checked a few days later.
- A model that moves from general values to a few dozen observable behaviours.
AI and digital tools
Audio capture of team report-backs. A synthesis over lunch, shared with the room in the afternoon. Analysis of several hundred individual comments. A decision note produced from the material gathered in flowAI.
What we take away
- The mirror report-back changes what the synthesis is: the consultants no longer summarise, the room validates.
- Saying plainly what is voted on and what is decided protects participants’ trust.
Working on something similar?
Tell us about your context. We will tell you how we would approach it, and what we would keep confidential.
Tell us about your project