Genuine Parts Company – Unsurpassed Levels of Engagement
“They asked the right questions upfront to really understand the business need and created a collaborative approach that resulted in an excellent framework for the sessions.”
~Rob Milstead, Senior Vice President, Strategy at Genuine Parts Company
Leadership Strategies provides facilitation services for large group meetings across the globe. In October of this year, Leadership Strategies provided a team of facilitators with multiple skills and specialties to Genuine Parts Company for their biennial meeting.
Background
Every other year, Genuine Parts Company brings together more than 150 of its global leaders from around the world to discuss the state of the business. While individual and group presentations had historically been used to report information, in 2017 the format of the meeting was changed to consist primarily of working sessions. Although some went well, some did not. Considering the new format and the understanding that it posed a challenge to the participants and presenters, Rob Milstead, Senior Vice President at Genuine Parts Company, suggested obtaining outside facilitation services. After receiving universal agreement to investigate options, Milstead reached out to Leadership Strategies.
Challenge
Over the last 5 years, Genuine Parts Company has increased its global presence. As the company has grown and adapted to today’s global environment, the face of the company has changed dramatically. The presentation style of previous bi-annual meetings had inhibited the group from providing an elevated level of feedback and engagement. Additionally, they discovered that some universal company issues could be solved across all units rather than individually. Therefore, the company required a solution that would provide a means for all international representatives to effectively collaborate during their biennial meeting.
Solution
Milstead contacted Leadership Strategies and connected with Jamie Drake, Client Executive, and the two worked together to determine the number of facilitators needed based on the size of the groups involved as well as the timing and agendas for each session. Together, they selected the facilitation services that would fit Genuine Parts Company’s needs. Leadership Strategies provided a group of facilitators that created consistency in the way they came up with ideas and communicated them to the rest of the leaders.
Outcomes
The level of engagement and the amount of ideas flowing from leaders all over the world was well received. “Everyone was amazed at the consistency of approach and results across such a large number of groups.” said Milstead. “They asked the right questions upfront to really understand the business need and created a collaborative approach that resulted in an excellent framework for the sessions.” Genuine Parts Company was happy with the interesting approaches to, in some cases, the same problem, which gave them lots of ideas. Additionally, the global leadership teams were able to recognize recurring challenges, revealing some larger needs within the company.
Looking for unsurpassed levels of engagement at your next session?
