“The question of how to develop our middle managers was elusive; until now we were unable to discover particularly effective measures. In this situation we discovered
CoachingOurselves… ”
Mr. Ikegami, CEO of Fujitsu SSL in 2008
Social learning leads to increased communication and enhanced management skills
Challenge
Back in 2007, Fujitsu SSL performed an external assessment of its workforce and realized that their managers were having trouble finding opportunities for self-improvement and professional development. At the same time, a new headquarters had been set up and concern was rising about how to keep communication flowing effectively throughout the organization. Fujitsu SSL needed to find a program that would help develop their middle managers while also encouraging communication between headquarters and the various offices, all at a low cost.
Mr. Ikegami, then CEO of Fujitsu SSL, recognized that, in order to ensure the further advancement of the company, it would be necessary to aggressively promote employee development. The company found their solution in CoachingOurselves.
Solution
In collaboration with J-Feel, the exclusive CoachingOurselves partner in Japan, a program was designed for Fujitsu SSL. This program not only aimed at developing their middle managers but also at strengthening business relationships.
An inaugural cohort of middle managers participated in 30 CoachingOurselves sessions where they were given the opportunity to reflect on their own management practice using carefully curated CoachingOurselves discussion topics. They shared experiences, opinions, and insights, and applied these learnings to their daily management practice.
Results
As a result of CoachingOurselves, Fujitsu SSL was able to increase cooperation and communication within headquarters and across all federated units, expand their business, give their employees valuable facilitation experience, and increase collaboration with business partners. Due to the success of CoachingOurselves at Fujitsu SSL, other Fujitsu holding companies, such as CWC, FCT, FJM, FMCS, FNETS, FOM, FSAS and Nifty, have also launched CoachingOurselves.
As we can see below, the more managers that attended CoachingOurselves’ sessions, the more the profitability increased. Profits of Fujitsu SSL went up by 50% through CoachingOurselves peer-group coaching program as the organisation became more competitive and at the same time more relevant to society.
About Fujitsu
Since its establishment in 1972, Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory Limited (Fujitsu SSL) has developed its ability to create the most advanced solutions and to integrate systems for total reliability, through its PoweredSolution. The company employs a workforce of 1,200 and generates revenues of $300M annually.
Video Testimonial
In this video, Ms. Misako Shirahama, HR Manager of Fujitsu SSL, describes the use of Mintzberg’s CoachingOurselves approach to Social Learning. This was recorded during our own Reflections 2015 Conference, held in Montreal, in September 2015.
