In September 2017, steel giants Tata Steel and thyssenkrupp announced their intended joint venture. Tata Steel asked PROOF to set up the internal communications around the joint venture for the various internal target groups across their European locations, from factory to head office. At that point in time, little was known about the actual impact of the joint venture on employees. What’s more, pending a final decision from the competition authorities in Brussels, the company was very limited in what it was allowed (and able) to communicate.
Leadership Conference
An important part of the internal joint venture communications were communications with leadership, starting with the annual Leadership Conference for the top 220 and 30 young professionals at the Taets venue in Zaandam. PROOF developed a flow for this two-day gathering, created an event script, and was in charge of organising and executing the event.
Leadership on an organisational and personal level
The two days focused on Tata Steel’s strategy, current performance, the joint venture and leadership. PROOF developed a flow based on a proven learning classification framework, Bloom’s taxonomy. Interactive plenary components were interspersed with various workshops. The first day focused on leadership challenges on an organisational level, including workshops about operational excellence and value chain management. The second day tackled leadership challenges on a personal level, including through workshops about authentic leadership and leading change.
Plenary interaction
The plenary parts of the programme were interactive, using various interview formats and a feedback tool, and enabling plenary interaction between the young professionals and leaders, allowing the ‘future leaders’ to express and explain their expectations of the Top 220. At the end of day 1, keynote speaker Gareth Jones inspired the audience with a talk about what makes a good, authentic leader. After his talk, all attendees received a personalised copy of his book Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?.
Successful event
Overall, the leadership conference scored a 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 5, with a 3.9 for the flow. Participants particularly valued the session with Gareth Jones, the interaction with young professionals, and the role of the presenter Gavin Esler.