Context
As global enterprises scale their technology estates, leadership effectiveness increasingly determines whether IT organizations merely operate systems—or actively enable business outcomes. Within this global technology services organization, leaders recognized a growing gap between operational reliability and collective leadership alignment.
While platforms, applications, and infrastructure were performing to expectation, leadership conversations revealed deeper questions:
- Was the organization operating with a shared understanding of its vision?
- Were leaders collaborating effectively across boundaries—or optimizing locally?
- Did success metrics reflect business and user outcomes, or just process compliance?
To address these questions, the organization convened a Leadership Workshop designed not as a training program, but as a reset moment to surface realities, challenge assumptions, and re-anchor leadership around a shared purpose.
The Intervention: Leadership Workshop
The one-day leadership workshop brought together senior leaders and managers across AIS functions in a deliberately conversational format. The design emphasized participation, openness, and reflection, reinforced by simple ground rules: one conversation at a time, no right or wrong answers, and equal voice for all participants.
Rather than beginning with strategy decks, the workshop started with context-setting leadership messages focused on “What’s next?” signaling that the objective was forward-looking alignment, not retrospective performance review.
Compete & Collaborate: Experiencing Leadership Dynamics
A central element of the workshop was an experiential exercise that simulated real-world constraints. Participants were divided into groups, each with unequal resources, and assigned customer-style requests that could only be fulfilled through a combination of internal effort and cross-team negotiation.
The exercise intentionally introduced scarcity, time pressure, and interdependence. Some teams chose to compete aggressively for resources, while others explored collaboration. As the exercise unfolded, familiar organizational patterns emerged—resource hoarding, over-optimization within silos, communication breakdowns, and, in some cases, creative partnership.
The debrief was where the real learning surfaced. Leaders reflected on how difficult it was to collaborate under pressure, how quickly competitive instincts overrode enterprise thinking, and how local optimization often came at the expense of collective success.
This exercise created a safe but revealing mirror of day-to-day leadership behavior.
Outside-In Perspective: Redefining Value in IT
In the session, leaders were introduced to an outside-in perspective on industry practices, challenging traditional definitions of IT success. The discussion moved decisively beyond SLAs and system uptime toward experience, outcomes, and emotional impact.
Key ideas included:
- The limitations of measuring success purely through operational KPIs
- The “Watermelon Effect,” where metrics look green on the outside but dissatisfaction persists beneath the surface
- The shift from Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to Experience Level Agreements (XLAs), where success is defined by what truly matters to users and business stakeholders
This reframing helped leaders recognize that doing what is required is not the same as doing what creates value.
Revisiting the Vision: From Statement to Commitment
The latter half of the workshop focused on revisiting the Integrated Organization vision itself. Leaders were asked to individually reflect on the existing vision, then collectively discuss: Whether it was compelling enough to move people into action
- What currently worked in service of the vision
- What behaviors, structures, or constraints were holding the organization back
- What single change would most improve team effectiveness if leaders had the power to act
Through structured group discussions, leaders developed their own interpretations of the vision—making implicit assumptions explicit and surfacing areas of disconnect.
Outcome: A Revitalized Vision and Leadership Pledge
The workshop culminated in a revitalized vision—not rewritten by consultants, but reshaped by leaders themselves. More importantly, it concluded with a leadership pledge, reinforcing personal and collective accountability for how the vision would be lived, not just articulated.
The outcome was not a new operating model or organizational chart. It was something more foundational:
- A shared language for collaboration versus competition
- A clearer understanding of value beyond operational metrics
- A renewed sense of ownership for leadership behavior and decision-making
- Alignment around the role of AIS as an enabler of meaningful enterprise outcomes
Why This Case Matters
This case demonstrates that leadership alignment is not a byproduct of scale or process maturity. Even in well-functioning global IT organizations, misalignment can quietly erode impact if left unaddressed.
By using experiential learning, outside-in thinking, and structured reflection, the organization created space for honest dialogue—resetting leadership intent without disruption. The result was a more cohesive leadership community, better equipped to translate vision into everyday decisions and behaviors.
For enterprises navigating similar transitions, this case underscores a critical lesson: technology transformation accelerates only when leadership alignment leads it.
About Bridgepath:
Bridgepath Innovations is a practitioner-led advisory firm specializing in Global Capability Center (GCC) strategy and transformation. We help enterprises design, build, and scale high-impact centers that go beyond cost to deliver innovation, capability, and strategic value. Our approach is grounded in real-world execution, not theory — enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of their global talent ecosystems (https://www.bridgepathinnov.com)