Catalysing organisational performance and competitive advantage at Cranstoun

Cranstoun is a UK-based charity founded in 1969 whose focus is empowering people to live healthy, safe and happy lives. Their skilled and compassionate teams work with service users, families and communities to provide a range of services, including substance misuse services, housing support, and specialist services for young people, families and carers.

The organisation found itself in a position where they were no longer equipped to perform to the high standards it had set out in the past and were missing targets as a result. A huge transition in the form of a change in the leadership team brought both challenges and opportunities for Cranstoun, and they reached out to Stephen to support them through this transformation and set them up for success in the long term.

From our initial assessment, we were aligned that developing a high-performing culture and strong cohesion across the leadership team and the board would be pivotal to the success of Cranstoun. Setting the Leadership team up with the right platform to do their best work would lay the foundation for the transformation journey.

We really focused on connecting this team, and by doing so, we supported them to excel in their roles with each other and in how they lead their own teams. Our work explored; the team's compelling purpose, the teams vision for the organisation and doing before actions reviews and after action reviews along the journey of success, the team dynamics, building trust between the leader and each of the members, developing psychological safety, resolving existing conflicts that are interfering with teamwork, establishing optimal work practices for the team. A vital piece of our work included translating the strategy into executable performance and supporting this team to execute their strategy with excellence.

Working one to one supporting the CEO throughout this process contributed to the overall success of this leadership team and our engagement with them.

The leadership team excelled in leading the organisation to levels never attained before since Cranstoun was founded. Within the first year, they had hit targets predicted in the 3 to 5-year bracket. What this meant in real terms – they provided their services to over 15,000 vulnerable people and excelled in how they provided these services at a consistent world class level.

As well as hitting major milestones ahead of schedule, the leadership team are enjoying their work. Employees site-wide have a platform to do their work and enjoy it. As an organisation, they are growing and getting more recognition. We are proud to say our partnership was pivotal in enabling this ongoing success. We continue to work with the leadership team and board in addition to working with the middle management on a companywide transformation programme.