The work

The programme had three strategic drivers. 1. To keep a highly connected culture alive  2. To prioritise well-being 3. To support and enable effective leadership in uncertainty. Simply Business knew that their managers were facing unprecedented challenges that required ongoing attention and support; and given previous experience with peer learning, knew that creating space for people to share, connect and access the collective intelligence of their peers could be extremely powerful and beneficial.

We worked in partnership to design an approach that brought together previous work on coaching culture and leadership to ensure this peer learning initiative felt integrated and additive to other learning initiatives. Alongside the focus on connection and well-being we designed a programme that created the space for leaders to challenge their capacity for proactive and responsive coaching to key challenges, and develop their confidence and resilience in responding to and leading their people at such an uncertain time.   

An additional motivation was the need to maintain and deepen the connection between the original UK business and the more recent US business. At different stages of maturity, it felt important to keep the two entities communicating together to work through tensions that might have arisen. It felt strategically important that the peer learning programme helped to create a stronger depth of understanding of the different needs, perspectives and dynamics between the two regions and particularly facing the global challenge of the pandemic.

When it came to developing the programme, we firstly paid close attention to the organisation’s context and needs and combined this with our knowledge and experience of implementing successful peer learning. We worked to develop trust with the Simply Business learning team and co-design a programme that met the strategic objectives of the programme. 

In collaboration with SB Learning we created a launch and onboarding process that brought people together, creating practical insight and experience that introduced key concepts, principles and skills required for a successful peer learning experience. The participants were then put into peer groups of 6/7, with a diverse representation from across the business. Each group then embarked upon 6, monthly RISE facilitated sessions, with content that underpinned core leadership skills of listening, reflective practice, inquiry and coaching to learn about, and explore, fellow group members challenges.