Tommes Snels:
For 25 years, I have been helping organisations change themselves, the last 8 years through GroupMapping. Driven by a systemic philosophy focused on collaboration, I work to solve complex issues. Want to know more? Check out our site or socials or get in touch.
My passion lies in ‘bringing strategy to execution’. Because how beautiful is a strategy that is not only understood, but also really felt by everyone in the organisation? One that people can use in their daily work? That not only adds value for those directly involved, but also contributes to a better world?
Too often, strategy ends up as a nicely formatted book that disappears in a drawer somewhere. The employees - those who are at the controls - at best get something out of it in adapted KPIs or during an annual appraisal. They have to look for the content and especially the ‘why’ themselves. This must and can be done differently.
What happened then was magical. Movement and commitment arose around the StrategyBox. Managers started working with their teams themselves - just as we had intended. No consultants, no external project team. Just going through the strategy document together, translating it to their own practice and daily work. In a couple of weeks, some 2,000 employees were brought into the story. They were allowed to have their say, feedback was collected and incorporated into the strategy. Ownership shifted: from ‘them’ to ‘us’.
I'll never forget the moment during a working session with the strategy team. Someone said, “Of course, we also have to start thinking about implementation huh...”
Silence for a moment. And then:
Goosebumps. Because that ‘half a year’ was only in the mind. Not in reality. The strategy had already been brought to life, by the people themselves. That is exactly what we are about: bringing strategy to life, carried by the organisation itself.
We are now years down the line and have done dozens of similar change projects. Always with the same ambition: to make strategy execution concrete, understandable and meaningful. We keep improving our approach: faster, smarter, with more experience and less hassle. Sometimes standardised, sometimes fully customised. But always with people at the centre. Because ultimately - just like you - we want to spend most of our day doing fun work, with fun people and achieving fun results together. Right?
* Even before my time at GroupMapping, the team made impressive contributions to major change projects. Think of the integration of Vodafone and Ziggo or guiding an ambitious IT programme at Akzo Nobel.
