How an Overlap workshop transformed the culture and leadership of a multicultural council in Brazil

In addition to these, there were other challenges for the group as it was a multicultural team made up of Brazilians, Germans, Argentinians, Belgians and Africans.

For this reason, we were called to take a ‘pit-stop’ from this madness of agendas and reflect: Do we want to continue like this next year? Is it healthy for us, our teams and the organisation?

During the session we experienced moments of humility, of recognising mistakes, of transparency and even of ‘pain’. But the best thing was that everything was driven and promoted by the CEO himself, who inspired the other Board members to do the same. This led to recognising the need for change, analysing the causes and defining actions (not sophisticated, but with great impact) that would change the Board’s ‘modus operandi’.

That day, we Overlap consultants experienced an example of a leader and a team who want to make things happen despite the difficulties and barriers they face. We identified in them the qualities needed to lead today, in the face of this digital world of constant change and transformation: transparency, humility, generosity, vision, audacity and bravery.

They placed an extra stone on this path to be travelled. This stone was the great lever to bring about the desired change and regain leadership of the market, which had always been theirs, but which they had lost. They showed their attitude and today, almost two years after that meeting, I can say that that pit-stop was the trigger for change. They’re leaders again!

We would like to thank this client company for giving us these moments, which are so difficult to experience in organisations, and for putting into practice the well-known phrase that ‘Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast’ (Peter Drucke).