The leadership team of a sectoral unit at a multilateral bank asked for our support to facilitate the adoption of a change in its structure, associated with the creation of a regional coordination role. The objective was to delegate management tasks to middle managers in order to strengthen support for technical teams distributed across more than 15 countries and improve coordination among specialists working in the same region.
This structure would also help ease an overly broad span of control in the area’s leadership and enable more
hands-on leadership, capable of supporting people’s development within the team. Although the role existed, it did so mainly informally, without a clear framework regarding its purpose, scope, and way of operating, which made it difficult to legitimize within the team.
The objective of the project was to strengthen and institutionalize this intermediate structure, integrating it into the day-to-day management dynamic while safeguarding the team’s engagement.
The process began with a qualitative diagnosis, through interviews with regional coordinators and team members, with the aim of understanding how the role was being carried out in practice and identifying the main risks, tensions, and opportunities. Based on these inputs, a work process was developed aimed at:
The process was carried out collaboratively and focused on embedding and managing the change associated with formalizing the role within the team’s dynamics, combining analysis sessions with strategic conversation spaces with the leadership team, the coordinators, and team members.
A common foundation was established for carrying out the regional coordination role, strengthening its function as a link between strategy and operations, and generating concrete guidelines to guide its evolution in the next period.
