Abcam Leadership Development

Challenge

Abcam is a hugely successful, rapidly growing life science company supporting 750,000 researchers in over 130 countries to deliver faster breakthroughs in areas like cancer, neurological disorders, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders. In April 2023, the Abcam Global Leadership Team (GLT) came together for a two-day offsite. This was the first time this group had been together in person since the start of the pandemic. Previous events of this nature had been led by Internal Comms and – as such – designed in a ‘broadcast’ format in which messages cascaded out from the Exec to the wider team. The brief to CoCreate was for this event to feel different and to fully make the most of the time together.

Programme

In the run up to the event we spoke with 23 members of the Global Leadership Team, drawing on insight from these conversations to design a two-day programme that responded to their needs. With seven quarters remaining of the existing 5-year strategy, day 1 focused on the priorities for the next 21 months – creating clarity and alignment on the work that was needed and the role of this leadership community in delivery. On Day 2 we shifted to thinking about the longer-term opportunities for the business in a way that helped shape the next 5 year strategy.

All sessions were designed to be interactive and immersive, making the most of the in-person time to develop trust, relationships and understanding across the Global Leadership Team. Through a Fishbowl conversation with the Execs, GLT members were given a candid insight into their priority areas of focus. Using Friendly Consulting – a specially created process for collaborative exploration and learning – the leaders gained an insight into each other’s worlds and built their capacity for peer support on live issues through open and honest dialogue.

Impact

In the post event feedback survey completed by 46 GLT members…

• 100% rated their overall experience of the event as either 4 or 5 out of 5. The average rating was 4.65/5.
• 100% agreed that they were able to achieve their goals and objectives for the GLT event.
• 96% rated the quality of facilitation as either 4 or 5 out of 5. 72% rated it as 5/5.

Client experience