IF, AS A LOCAL BANK, YOU HAVE TO RETURN TO BRANCHES AND EMPLOYEES, HOW DO YOU KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE MARKET?
Case: Team Dynamics & Agility
Digitalisation and new entrants to the financial market are making it increasingly difficult to keep Rabobank’s operational model future-proof.
Rabobank Group’s operational model is more than one hundred years old. It is carried out at regional and local level by some ninety local Rabobanks in the country. Within this model, the members and clients of the bank take center stage and the voice of the client is heard by representatives of all target groups.
In recent years, the number of bank branches and employees has shrunk sharply. Nevertheless, it is more important than ever to understand the signal that potential customers are sending and translate them into valuable projects for the local Rabobank communities. Rabobank’s question was: What is the best way to organize that? And how do we adapt our organisation?
Assemble a team of motivated squad members at a local Rabobank. Teach them to work agile as a team. Work out the most relevant project plans with the team in a multidisciplinary and project-based way in sprints.
In close collaboration with a local Rabobank, we developed and tested an agile training program in a time frame of six months. The employees were developed to capable squad members who were able to tackle new projects in an agile manner, i.e. multidisciplinary and project-based, using new methodologies and tools.
- Agile e-scan measures the competencies of the participants
- Develop the agile competencies of the participants
- Drawing up a feasible project plan from an idea
- Be able to execute project plan in three sprints
- Being creative in the profession, getting energy out of it
- Accelerating and increasing ownership from intrinsic motivation
Impact after 12 months
One year after the start in 2019, we measured the impact of the program on the basis of previously set targets. In comparison with the situation before the Pawlik program, we found these results:
- Agile project-based work is carried out in multidisciplinary teams
- A project idea is implemented and completed in a maximum of three sprints
- There is uniform cooperation within the region in a way that matches the standards of the organisation.
- The roles in the project team are clear and everyone knows what they are responsible for.
- The focus on the market has increased by retrieving project ideas from outside and developing them together with stakeholders, with each project being a little better than the previous one.
- The agility of the participants and the project team has improved (measured with an agile scan) and they develop each other into better project members.
- The program has delivered more than twenty completed projects and the meter is running…
These results show that when you develop not only hard skills but also soft skills in a program, you can implement a new way of working quickly and with results.
“I’ve learned to enable people by letting them do what they’re good at, and to put this into a nice structure based on the Agile concept.”
Carola Geerts – Manager DBZ Rabobank Tilburg e.o.
