The Challenge
An international organisation with 13,000 employees operating in 190 countries faced a unique challenge amidst the crisis in Ukraine. The organisation had to transition its efforts from crisis response to a development-focused approach, helping people move beyond the immediate crisis and rebuild their lives. However, the existing workforce was primarily trained for crisis response, requiring a strategic shift in skills and attitudes.
The Approach
To make this transition easier, we concentrated on right-skilling, or future-skilling, the workforce. Our objective was to provide supervisors with the tools to recognize and cultivate the skills and attitudes needed for their teams to move from crisis mode to a developmental mindset.
Key elements of our approach included:
- Designing a comprehensive workshop for supervisors aimed at helping them understand and facilitate the transition.
- Creating a detailed template and guide to assist supervisors in identifying the specific skills and attitudes required for future-focused development.
- Emphasising the importance of preparing the workforce for the next phase, ensuring they are equipped to support people in rebuilding their lives and moving forward.
The Solution
The right-skilling initiative led to a structured and strategic shift in the organisation’s approach, yielding the following key outcomes:
- Development and delivery of a specialised workshop for supervisors, providing them with the knowledge and tools to guide their teams effectively.
- Creation of a practical template and guide, enabling supervisors to clearly outline the skills and attitudes needed for the transition from crisis response to development-focused support.
- Enhanced readiness among the workforce to adopt a development outlook, ensuring they were prepared to assist people in rebuilding their lives beyond the immediate crisis.
By focusing on right-skilling, we empowered supervisors to lead their teams through this critical transition, ensuring the organisation could effectively shift its contribution from crisis response to long-term development. This initiative not only addressed the immediate needs but also laid the foundation for sustainable support and growth in the affected areas.