Aligning strategy and culture at Danske Bank
The Context
Wealth Management was a new business unit established to encompass Danske Bank Group’s expertise in pension savings and wealth and asset management. A merger of departments, a new CEO, and several changes to the executive management team all led to a desire to strengthen the unit’s internal identity. The goal was to drive alignment around new strategic priorities while at the same time strengthening the unit’s identity and building a culture of change and collaboration across the whole business unit.
The Journey
In a close collaboration between the executive management team, The HR function, and the internal communications function, we facilitated the development and execution of an ambitious plan for improving culture and strengthening internal identity through the unit's leaders. Over two years we:
Developed dialogue and workshop tools for implementing strategy and transforming culture.
We trained all the unit's 250 managers in leading strategy and culture sessions within their teams and departments.
We worked with internal communication to ensure strong communication around culture and leadership.
We helped produce video content, surveys, newsletter updates, etc., to support leadership and culture development.
We supported a cross-departmental employee board of change agents in developing and implementing initiatives to strengthen culture and collaboration across the organisation.
We supported the executive management team through coaching and training around cultural leadership and development.
We led a co-creation process across the organisation, which summarised the culture in a 'culture playbook' to onboard new and existing employees to the culture of the unit.
The Results
The process helped leaders and their teams translate the new strategy into concrete actions in their teams, and it significantly increased people's understanding of the culture needed to implement the new strategy. The tools and approaches continue to be used in the unit and other units across the Danske Bank group. They are now an integrated part of the yearly culture calendar in Wealth Management.
“The process Thomas Reibke seeded within our organization has been instrumental in aligning our strategy and culture across the organization. It helped our teams and leaders turn new strategic priorities into daily actions and achieve the business results we need to stay competitive in a challenging and fast-paced market.”