LU Case Study
- Client:
- London Underground (LU)
- Project:
- Organisational Coaching
"The service directors have 'raised the bar' of their performance
during this period."
COO
Result: Since the assignment began, LU has achieved its best
four weeks in seven years, in terms of operational performance and
improvement.
More specifically, the Tube's line general managers have worked on
making their service delivery plans 'real', rather than simply
on-the-shelf documents; attention to poor performance has been
increased and is already showing results; and managers report improved
relationships and communication with their teams. Service Directors
have commented that the impact of this programme has been significant
for the line general management population.
Situation: London Underground has gone through significant change as part of the Public and Private Partnership implementation, over a period of several years. A new structure was therefore announced within LU Operations, and while some individuals retained high positions, a new senior team was created, fully in place within a few months. With much external attention focused on the rights and wrongs of the PPP, the new operations management team needed to demonstrate operational improvements, and quickly.
Task: The COO, Service Directors, and Line General Managers needed to focus on effective service delivery. This meant working towards the following objectives:
- Improve operational performance (against internal measure) within six months.
- Contribute to the achievement of organisational goals through personal development.
- Develop a consistent management style across all Service Directors and LGMs.
- Understand and develop an explicit link between operational excellence and customer service.
- Accept accountability as a part of the top-team responsibilities.
- Develop urgency as a key characteristic of the team.
Action: Following comprehensive discussions with service directors, the COO, the HR Director, and senior learning and development managers, TSOC developed specific objectives for the work overall, and for the individuals concerned. We recommended an Organisational Coaching approach to the assignment, placing the primary focus of our coaching firmly on the achievement of LUs business goals.
For LUs senior team, we designed a four-phase programme of intensive organisational coaching. Each phase lasted 12 weeks, and incorporated regular face-to-face sessions.
The range of coaching content for this assignment included:
- Achieving clarity of service delivery plans and personal / team KPIs.
- Stakeholder management.
- Employee relations: taking the difficult decisions and facing the consequences.
- Managing suppliers more effectively.
- Dealing with difficult bosses.
- Achieving public-private partnership goals.
- Identifying and working with key performance data.
- Setting effective performance expectations with teams.
- Supporting performance managers in difficult circumstances.
Feedback:
‘The coaching has helped me improve my performance in the management of others; get things onto my boss's radar; and structure and express my frustration. It has provided the time and discipline to focus on issues of importance.’
Service Director
‘The service directors have ‘raised the bar’ of their performance during this period.’
COO
