Airbus / Aerolia
Summary
In partnership with The LEGO Group, CAPRESE designed and facilitated two workshops powered by LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) for Airbus to resolve project management and corporate leadership challenges.
Client Context
In 2008, EADS decided to create a new subsidiary, Aerolia, which would manufacture nose cones for all of its own subsidiaries, but would also serve as a profit centre, offering its manufacturing know-how on the open market. The principal programme in development was that of the Airbus A350, for which entirely new manufacturing facilities were to be built. Internally, there was concern that the programme would not meet the official delivery dates. Meanwhile, the management team of the new company was faced with the challenge of establishing itself without further impacting delivery times or employee morale.
Aerolia management had been using LEGO bricks to model its future A380 manufacturing plant and on a visit to Billund, Denmark, was introduced to LSP, which showed potential to address some of the more complex issues facing the A350 project team. The LEGO Group asked CAPRESE to collaborate with them, as we are one of only a handful of firms offering the ability to design and deliver LSP-powered engagements in French.
CAPRESE Approach
A first full-day workshop was organised with 16 participants, representing all functional units and hierarchical levels of the A350 project team. Discussions focussed on the planning challenges that the project faced and how they might be resolved.
During a second half-day workshop with the future Aerolia Executive Committee, an objective was set to uncover the common qualities that would unite the members of the Board and create an effective team that would be able to lead the organisation through this challenging start-up phase.
The following morning, through a facilitated discussion process, the Executive Committee developed a mutual appreciation and recognition of a set of shared values. One key achievement was the establishment of a strategy to include research and development as an integrated support function within the manufacturing organisation.
This mandate illustrated a very useful learning point: some problems cannot be solved by a project team alone, but progress can be achieved by including key stakeholders not necessarily involved with the project.
In addition to pragmatically addressing team-building and strategy implementation, this mandate also demonstrated that a hands-on, experiential methodology like LSP can be used with everyone, from factory floor workers to CEOs.Key words
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®; LSP; team-building; strategy; planning; project management; communications; leadership; identity; aerospace