Serious banking

Blue Ridge Bank and Trust – one of Missouri’s largest independently owned banks – wished to launch a Retail Business Development strategy that would strengthen its core business.

As is true in almost every strategy, the critical success factor behind this new initiative was the people. The strategy would require the Regional Branch Managers to assume new responsibilities and to work together as a team – the latter being an especially difficult task. This type of teamwork simply was not common in the financial
organization’s past. In fact, the group of managers had always had difficulty with buying into business strategies that were handed down from top management. It wasn’t that they couldn’t work together – they could – but because they had never really worked as a team they functioned more like a group of individuals that occasionally
worked together.

A single session with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY changed all that.

“I was absolutely amazed,” one of the participants explained. “Associates spoke their true feelings instead of not speaking at all.”

LSP was able to allow the Branch Managers to interact with one another on a much more deep level than ever before. “The entire team now has a better understanding of the team’s goal and each person’s value to the journey of reaching the goal,” said Doreen Scarborough, Assistant VP of Retail Branch Operations. “Everybody was completely exhausted by the end – exhausted after a good day’s teamwork!”

The results followed. The Branch Managers were able to come together as a team and not only discovered each other’s strengths, but also how they could work together. Action steps were taken to ensure that the Retail Business Development was launched successfully and would meet the Bank’s expectations. This business initiative has now been in place for over a year and has been integrated into Blue Ridge Bank and Trust’s 2005 businessplanning program.

Luann Cunningham, Vice President, Service and Sales, endorsed LSP saying, “I liked it very much and will be recommending it to some other businesses.”

– Workshop delivered by LSP partner Dynamic Adult Learning, USA