Innovation Journey

Duration

6 Months

Number of Participants

Type

DISCOVERY flex

Impact

How we helped a Siemens global function build solutions that work across a globally distributed, self-organized network.

The Overview

When the real problem is not the obvious one.

A Siemens global function wanted to strengthen how its teams solve problems at the local level. They came to the Creativity Lab with a clear brief. What followed was a focused, six-month engagement that went beyond diagnosis: the Creativity Lab designed and delivered concrete, ready-to-implement solutions for a globally distributed network of specialists operating without shared leadership and with internal motivation as their only lever.

The Story

How we met.

A Siemens global function had identified a gap between the challenges their teams faced at local sites around the world and the tools and processes available to address them. Someone in the organization saw an opportunity to bring in the Creativity Lab, and what began as a potential keynote contribution to an internal global conference gradually grew into something more substantial. A structured, collaborative engagement with a clear question at its center: how do you actually find and implement solutions that work inside a complex, globally distributed organization where teams operate across borders, without shared leadership, and where internal motivation is the only lever you have?

The Problem

A strong idea, held back by a system gap.

The global function had already invested in developing a group of Facilitators: specialists distributed across Siemens sites worldwide, trained to run collaborative problem-solving workshops with local teams. The idea was sound. But the conditions in which these facilitators worked made it extraordinarily difficult to gain traction. With no shared management structure and no disciplinary authority over the people they were meant to support, their only tool was their own credibility and drive. They had no community to lean on, no follow-up support, and no clear path from the training room to the shop floor. The gap between what the program intended and what was actually happening in practice was significant, and growing.

Creativity Lab – Breakthrough Consulting

Take a look at our breakthrough consulting and discover the individual journey to our clients’ transformation.

Project

Initiation

The project launched in January with a broad mandate: understand how the teams approach problem-solving and develop a process to strengthen that capability across the organization. The Creativity Lab began by conducting an extensive series of interviews with the functions representatives across multiple countries, business units, and organizational levels. The goal was to understand the actual system before attempting to change it.

Problem Space

Exploration

What the interviews revealed sharpened the focus considerably. Different parts of the global function operated with fundamentally different processes, cultures, and constraints. A single framework spanning all of them would not hold. With an organizational realignment also under discussion, the Creativity Lab made the call to narrow the scope, focusing specifically on the facilitator network, where the problem was concrete and meaningful progress was possible.

Solution

Creation

A second, more focused round of analysis examined the facilitator role in detail: what was expected of these people, what support structures were missing, and what was preventing them from doing the work they had been trained to do. From this, two solutions were designed and built for immediate use. A structured community-building program to connect facilitators across sites and give a globally scattered, self-organized group a shared identity. And a stakeholder engagement session developed for the internal global conference, designed to show senior colleagues how they could actively support the facilitators.

Breakthrough

Execution

When the solutions were delivered, the project partners described the work as exceptionally thorough and immediately applicable, noting that every detail had been thought through and that the depth of understanding behind the output was clearly visible. That depth was the direct result of building answers that fit the actual conditions: a distributed network, no formal authority, and internal motivation as the only engine of change.

Outcome

Six months after the project began, the global function had something it did not have before: a clear diagnosis of why its facilitator program was not working, and two concrete, well-designed solutions ready to be put into practice. The community-building program is now being rolled out alongside a refreshed version of the facilitator training, giving a globally distributed group of specialists a structured path from initial learning into ongoing peer connection and shared practice. The conference session was delivered successfully at the internal global event, received with strong positive feedback from the project partners, who described it as precisely what they needed and exactly right for their audience. Perhaps more importantly, the project demonstrated something that is easy to underestimate: that for a self-organized network spanning the globe, the right solution is not more training. It is a system that makes motivation sustainable. The remaining solution streams developed during the project have been handed over as a structured set of recommendations, giving the team a clear roadmap for the work still ahead.

You thought becoming more creative was that easy? Too good to be true!

Investing in creativity to solve your challenges takes time. We work with science-based approaches to create environments that foster the creativity of you, your team, and the entire organization. What’s your creative challenge?

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