Leader Drums: Bringing leaders together from the same organisation
OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAMME
Leader Drums
The leaders in your organisation know more about your business than anyone else, yet they have precious little time thinking about it together.
Drum gives your organisation's leaders the framework, space and opportunity to work through their real challenges, coming out of it refreshed and resourced.
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Case Study: Warner Brothers Discovery
Alyson Jackson
Head of Global Content Supply Chain, Warner Brothers Discovery
What was needed and why?
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Discovery Channel needed to connect leaders at the same level but not the same departments across their organisation. Recent acquisitions made this even more complex, with organisational changes adding considerable numbers to Discovery's leadership community.
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More and more, already stretched executives and mangers were finding it increasingly difficult to lead, inspire and motivate their teams when they, themselves, were feeling low. Teams were mostly siloed, and leaders faced cultural limitations in thinking. We changed that with Drum.
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How did you get it approved by HR?
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After an initial Leader Drum focus group, Discovery decided to launch Drum throughout the organisation. Inspired by Drum's different approach, Learning & Development (L&D) decided to offer it to leaders whose fresh approach would appeal. L&D broadcast testimonial videos from the focus group via webinars.
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L&D favoured organic growth for the programme - costs covered by L&D as well as individual P&Ls.
What did Discovery get out of Drum?
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Of the Leader Drum participants interviewed across the organisation, all said they would join another Drum. They also reported personal highlights such as improved decision-making, being more at ease with vulnerability, crafting better ideas and engaging new networks to find solutions to common (and not so common) challenges.
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In addition, a huge majority of participants mentioned how being in their Leader Drum made them feel deeply supported by Discovery in their leadership journey. They were also able to transfer the skills they learned from Drum to their teams, making meeting well a much wider practice across the organisation.
Participant feedback
“Too often I have seen employees sleepwalking through their working lives - feeling they cannot impact anything at an individual level; feeling disconnected and on their own. Over the last three years, Drums have demonstrated there is another way!
We have had over 140 people participating in DRUMS across Europe - creating an antidote to apathy and feeling powerless - giving people the belief they have the power to make changes where they are with what they have”
Jamie Cook
GM, CEE & MEA
“I’m with people that you can feel that one day might change the world, if not some lives If you don’t talk to people you trust, you can feel completely alone at the top and struggle.
The level of connection you make in a smaller group and over a longer period of time is quite extraordinary. Being guided to be self-sustaining, coaching and thinking with each other was really powerful.”
Lydia Fairfax
Head of Commercial Partnerships, EMEA and Commercial Development, UK
"What is fascinating about our Drum is figuring out that we are all in the same boat, we have all our struggles with the system sometimes and the constraints we are operating within.
We were looking for answers together and it makes the whole place a lot more human I think by sharing."
Unai Iparragirre
Commercial Development EMEA
“What was also very refreshing was that, until our Drum, I don’t feel like there was ever a place where you could go and discuss those things in an open way. I think unless you create that environment, it doesn’t really happen, somehow it creates a comfortable and safe environment, and I think that’s what I felt and what stood out to me there.”
Victoria Davies
Central & Eastern Europe, Mediterranean and Central Asia SVP, General Manager, Warner Bros Discovery
One more time, for those at the back...
How is Drum different?
There’s no workshopping, materials, outcomes, or KPIs. You can’t be put on a Drum, there’s no homework, content or models. It’s about the connection of the participants, their openness in the space, working the meeting framework to support each other to fresh thinking and stronger leadership.
A crucial element is the natural vulnerability of the participants. Plus, the facilitator works to become entirely irrelevant, not needed at all; they have no power. Drums belong to the participants.