Changing the starting question

Amazon's Real Estate & Facilities organization was moving from regional operations to a global business model. The transition included changes in how work was organized and delivered, including the agreement with JLL. As the global model took shape, directors also needed to establish their new teams and help people work effectively within the new structure.

For many people, the change also raised personal questions. They had built expertise, relationships and career plans around the existing work. As responsibilities shifted and new teams were formed, they wanted to understand where they would fit and what their future might look like.

I worked on the change management supporting the move from a regional to a global model. As part of the wider program team, I helped shape the change approach, developed change-management playbooks and supported the transition affecting more than 300 people, including changes associated with the JLL agreement.

As the global model took shape, my work shifted toward partnering with directors establishing their teams in Workplace Experience, Sustainability, and Design and Construction.

I coached the directors as they worked through what their teams needed to accomplish, how they wanted to organize the work, and how they would lead their people.

Those conversations often led into work with the teams themselves. Together, we developed team designs, workshops and interventions that helped people begin working together in the new arrangement.

Where will everyone fit?

What do you need to deliver?

One example was the first offsite for Prasad's newly formed Design and Construction team.

Prasad was leading former peers alongside new colleagues, while others had left. I co-designed the entire offsite with him and his leadership team.

We agreed early to dedicate 30% of the agenda to connection. The relationships within this new team would influence how effectively people could work together.

I served as emcee throughout the offsite, facilitated selected activities, and helped design other workshop sessions as participatory experiences that brought team members' voices into the conversation.

In one exercise, I used a sociometric line: people positioned themselves according to how long they had been part of the team. Roughly half had joined in the previous one or two years. Only two had been there more than ten. The group could see how new this team really was.

I placed empty chairs to represent colleagues who had left. People acknowledged what those colleagues had contributed and what they were grateful for. Someone described the experience as eerie, almost like a funeral, but healing.

Then I invited everyone to turn toward the colleagues who were now in the room and welcome one another.

We formed a circle around a new question: Who do we want to be as a team?

These experiences gave people an opportunity to acknowledge the changes in their team, recognize the relationships they now had, and begin exploring how they wanted to work together.

They were part of a wider offsite designed to involve people in shaping the team they were becoming.

Organizations changing their operating model, moving work to external partners, or establishing new teams whose success depends on how people work together.

“Whenever he facilitated a workshop for my team he helped everyone in the room become more vocal and effective.”— Prasad B., Director, Design and Construction, Amazon

“His approach prioritizes simplicity and a healthy interaction. The way he thoughtfully acknowledges everyone's feelings and emotions, and his ability to observe the mood in the room is truly exceptional.”— Nasim K., Global Sustainability Leader, Amazon GREF · client

“He prioritizes how each person best contributes and can find ways to bring understanding and context in pretty much every situation, even the sticky ones. He left our team and myself with so many tools that we continue to use in our day-to-day work.”— Missy G., Global Sustainability Leader, Amazon · client