Enterprise-wide Team Effectiveness in the Energy Sector

Energy Industry

Learn how the 6 Conditions and Team Diagnostic Survey were used in hundreds of teams within one global energy company, and the impact this had on important organizational outcomes.

Faced with the urgent need to navigate and lead during the transition to a clean energy future, Royal Dutch Shell’s new CEO engaged 6 Team Conditions to support the launch of his executive leadership team.  We certified over 125 of their internal Organization & Development Learning professionals, coached their mission-critical teams, developed their team leaders, and linked Team Diagnostic Survey data to key HR analytics.

In the context of global climate change and in order to retain the remit of society to provide vital energy, Royal Dutch Shell wanted to align its leadership team to respond to this “wicked problem.”   The CEO sought the assistance of 6 Team Conditions to design and launch his leadership team.  

While working with their leadership team, it became apparent to our practitioners that the effectiveness of Royal Dutch Shell’s teams and team leaders could be improved across the whole organization spanning more than 100,000 global employees.  

By partnering with the 500+ professionals in their Organizational Development and Learning function, 6 Team Conditions supported the rollout of the 6 Conditions and Team Diagnostic Survey to hundreds of teams and team leaders around the globe.

Our approach to assisting Royal Dutch Shell with its transformation goals was multi-pronged, and took place in five distinct phases over the course of 2+ years.  These included:

Top Team Development

We began by helping the CEO design and relaunch the top team, with a focus on leading the energy transition.  This involved two senior practitioners, the Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes To Make Them Great book, a number of coaching and advising sessions with the CEO, and a number of intensive in-person sessions with the top team.  Utilizing the 6 Conditions for Team Effectiveness framework helped the CEO and leadership team put in place the essential conditions for the team to be aligned on the massive challenge of helping the organization begin responding systemically to the demands of the energy transition.

Team Practitioner Development

The second phase involved cascading the 6 Conditions Framework and Team Diagnostic Survey across the organization.  In close partnership with the Executive Vice President for People Strategy and Organizational Development, senior 6 Team Conditions faculty certified over 125 internal Organizational Development professionals in the 6 Conditions Framework and Team Diagnostic Survey.  This involved a dynamic mixture of online learning modules, in-person workshops, and ongoing support.

Coaching Mission Critical Teams

While the Organizational Development practitioners began utilizing the framework and assessment to support teams in their regions, senior 6 Team Conditions practitioners provided direct team coaching services to a number of mission-critical teams, including the strategy leadership team; the new energies leadership team; WorkDay change management governance, management and development teams and more. 

Team Leader Development

As the framework began to permeate teams throughout the organization, attention in the fourth phase shifted to training team leaders to be able to more effectively design, launch and coach their own teams as well as developing self-service resources that team leaders could apply immediately.  

HR Data Analytics

The fifth and final phase involved linking up Team Diagnostic Survey data from more than 150 teams to the company’s Employee Engagement data.  The HR Data Analytics team worked with 6 Team Conditions to conduct this analysis.  The data revealed significant impacts on important organizational metrics including operational excellence, engagement, safety, psychological safety, learning and more. 

The 6 Team Conditions have greatly helped us improve the effectiveness of our leadership teams at all levels. The framework is easy-to-understand and can be easily applied across a number of scenarios, cultures, and countries. The tool is valid, reliable, and based on years of research so we can trust the assessment. By pinpointing specific areas of focus, the assessment allows our teams to have meaningful conversations to help improve their performance. Our teams have enjoyed talking about the results and working together on action planning. Working with Dr. Wageman and her team has been most rewarding. I highly recommend the 6 Team Conditions assessment.

Jorrit van der Togt
Executive Vice President People Strategy, OrganiZational Development, and Learning,
Shell

Two categories of results were achieved by Royal Dutch Shell in partnership with 6 Team Conditions:

The first involves aligning the top team as well as a number of other critical leadership teams throughout the enterprise.  Given the challenge of pivoting a global conglomerate to be fit to lead throughout the energy transition, this was no small undertaking.  Fortunately the CEO and top team seized the opportunity to redesign and launch itself with the help of 6 Conditions to accomplish this.  This first phase was so successful it lead to cascading the 6 Conditions and TDS across the enterprise.

The second category of results involves demonstrating the measurable differences that investing in developing Organizational Development and Learning practitioners, in team leaders and in teams using the 6 Conditions framework and TDS made on important organizational metrics such as operational excellence, employee engagement, safety, psychological safety, learning and more. 

To learn more about our work with Royal Dutch Shell, listen to our podcast in which Drs. Ruth Wageman and Krister Lowe talk to two learning professionals from Royal Dutch Shell.