The Veolia leadership team co-created solutions using all of the wisdom in the organisation to build the path forward.
The Challenge
Veolia’s ambition is to become a global leader in ecological transformation and the Municipal Water division in North America will play a huge role in this transformation. CEO Karine Rouge and her senior leadership team were ready to bring their extended leadership team together to co-create their strategy to make this ambition a reality. Transformational changes are required for society and the CEO is aware that for the company to do this transformational work, everyone in the company must also transform.
As a newly merged company, trust and collaboration was key to ensuring a sense of openness for sharing and honesty to take place so meaningful connections could be made and maintained.
Collaboration
This meeting was built on the multiple successes Karine and Annyse have shared in the past. They joined forces to design the two day gathering that invited the extended leadership team to begin their own personal transformation as they worked together to co-create their strategy for business transformation.
Co-created solution
Thought Leadership in the North American water space was brought into the event through the participation of New York Times bestselling Author Seth Siegel. Personal transformation guidance was led by Jeremy Hunter, Associate Professor of Practice and the Founding Director of the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
The 120 participants co-created the agenda which sparked ownership and leadership while allowing the passion and wisdom from the entire team to generate the seeds of growth for ecological transformation. This meeting was not a top-down approach – it was a co-created solution whereby they used the wisdom of the organization to build the path forward.
The Results
The team left armed with action plans fuelled with the passion and energy to accomplish them. They also left feeling seen and heard and values as an active and contributing member of the greater team. Many people shared that they felt more connected to the deep purpose of Veolia overall as well as better understanding their role in fulfilling that purpose. Deep and meaningful connections were also formed which was long needed after Covid.
As one attendee noted, “What I enjoyed the most is it’s so different from any other kind of training or conference that I’ve ever experienced. The fact that we didn’t have an agenda, we walked in not knowing what to do and then having the ability to choose what we wanted to talk about. I mean that’s something I’ve never seen, and I think that made it so much more meaningful”.
Veolia Group aims to be the benchmark company for ecological transformation. With nearly 220,000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides game-changing solutions that are both useful and practical for water, waste and energy management. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources and replenish them.