Telstra's former group executive Alex Badenoch discusses disrupting company culture.
Mike Carden’s The Joyous Podcast features conversations with some of the world’s leading management thinkers.
This episode features Alex Badenoch, who is well-known for her role in leading a successful transformation at Telstra.
Here’s a ChatGPT precis of the transcript for this week’s episode or listen here.
Badenoch says the transformation involved a holistic approach, encompassing customer experience, product and service offerings, organisational structure, cost reduction, and workforce culture.
Key factors in the success of this transformation included:
Clear and simple plan: the transformation was anchored around a one-page plan with clear objectives, key goals and specific measures of success. This clarity provided focus and accountability.
The discussion during the podcast also touched on the challenges of healthcare transformation, where leaders at the top were making significant changes while many frontline employees perceived little change in their roles.
Badenoch discusses how Joyous, a company that focuses on using employee feedback for continuous improvement, could play a valuable role in transformation efforts within organisations.
Carden asks whether Telstra had to break the culture during its transformation. Badenoch acknowledges that they did need to disrupt the existing culture significantly to bring about change. While they didn't eliminate all aspects of the culture, they made substantial changes, including changing 50% of the executive team and restructuring the organisation. They emphasised transparency and shifted to a more servant leadership style, where leaders focused on removing obstacles rather than micromanaging.
The conversation concludes on the idea of servant leadership, highlighting its significance in bringing about transformative change in organisations.
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