ECE Project Management

How our workshops encouraged ECE’s management to lead beyond their authority

ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H. & Co. KG partnered with Common Purpose to create and run “Who, if not me – step up to take responsibility”, a series of leadership workshops for all ECE management levels (in cooperation with one of ECE’s partners in management consulting). The aims were to emphasize the substantial connection between leadership and self-responsibility and to develop ECE’s leadership culture more towards cross-departmental and entrepreneurial thinking.

Members of all management levels and divisions participated in the various workshop groups. The ability to listen to other leaders’ needs from within the company, learn from each other, share perspectives and build a common understanding of leadership responsibilities across organizational borders were key to the concept. Experiential learning methods provided unexpected insights into social organizations focusing on issues such as homelessness, poverty, mental or physical health and end-of-life-care. In unfamiliar contexts, ECE leaders were equipped with new impulses for their daily work and gained a broader sense of leading beyond their formal authority.

“As a Common Purpose graduate, I have been in touch with Common Purpose for many years. Their vision of ‘Leading Beyond Authority’ is inspiring and perfectly matched my expectations regarding an innovative leadership programme for our management. Graduates are more likely to critically reflect on their leadership. Besides, they turn out to be more passionate about taking responsibility – for themselves and others. Their feedback was enthusiastic. They highly recommended the programme to others and so we finally ran 15 workshops. “Who, if not me” made a significant contribution to ECE’s leadership development.”

Barbara Hatzer, formerly Head of HR Development & Marketing, ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H. & Co. KG , Hamburg