Author: Robert Tennant

‘Winning hearts and minds’: talking to Pano Christou, CEO of Pret A Manger

Posted on by Robert Tennant

In the most recent episode in our ‘Stories from the C-suite’ webinar series, we talked to Pano Christou, CEO of Pret A Manger. Pret has been through a lot in the past six months – like many businesses that rely on high-street footfall, it has been severely impacted by COVID-19 and lockdown, having to shut all of its stores back in March. 

Listening to Pano, however, there was no hint at defeat. And as the challenges created by COVID show no sign of slowing down, Pano is ready to face the pandemic head-on. Pret is adjusting to the seismic shifts of the pandemic by staying nimble, flexible and creatively reinventing its brand. This resilience may stem from Pano’s own personal story: he has worked at Pret since the age of 22, slowly working his way up from the shop floor. 

Our conversation with Pano was packed full of fascinating stories. We have identified five key insights from the webinar: 

  1. COVID was the catalyst for three years’ worth of changes that took place in just six months: if anyone had told Pano that Pret would experience three years’ worth of effort in one year, he said he wouldn’t have believed them. However, for Pret, this agility and fast-paced response to the pandemic is one positive out of an immensely challenging situation.
  2. The lifeblood of Pret is its culture of innovation: in the change narrative Pret co-created with us, one objective was to ‘rediscover the sparkle of Pret’. The transformation, which was accelerated by COVID, aims to ensure that this sparkle remains integral to everything Pret does. An example of this is its latest coffee subscription initiative. 
  3. “Leaders need to inhale stress and exhale serenity.” Pano was firm that he has never been a command and control leader. Rather, he believes people should be given the opportunity to flourish. Completing the Pret story before COVID has helped with this, as the leadership team were aligned on the direction of travel and are able to communicate this to their people. For example, Pano holds a weekly broadcast to Pret branches across the country to keep teams informed and engaged in a difficult time. 
  4. The Pret story is a red thread running through the organisation: the Pret story has served as an anchor, continuing to influence decision-making throughout the business. For example, even though there was a desperate need to reduce costs during lockdown, Pret has not reduced portion sizes. The fundamentals of Pret won’t change, as Pano told us: “when you are driving change through a business you don’t forget where you’ve come from.”
  5. “Hearts and minds.” Engaging the emotional side of people is key to Pano’s leadership. As a big believer in purpose, he wants his teams and colleagues to enjoy an emotional connection to the brand they are part of. And how does he cultivate this connection? By communicating through human stories and making people feel part of the journey Pret is on. He told us that co-creating Pret’s story meant pulling people from every part of the organisation to co-create the narrative – something they hadn’t done in the 37 years since Pret was founded. It resonated so deeply with teams that when the story was shared, many people were in tears. 

Ultimately, Pano sees COVID as an opportunity for Pret. With the Pret story empowering teams to own the part they play, there is a sense of alignment and also optimism for the journey ahead. As working from home continues, Pret is seizing the opportunity to reach out to new areas. Pano finished on a positive note as he described how he sees the future: the business will now be “following the people”, and no longer just the skyscrapers.

To catch-up and find out more about Pano’s story, have a listen to the webinar in full by clicking here. And don’t forget to sign up to our next webinar with Alex Perry, CEO of Bupa Insurance UK on 10th November, 13:00 GMT here.

Your story: a framework for progress and action

Posted on by Robert Tennant

Over the last few months, our team has been working hard to support Executive teams all over the world. These leaders are facing the momentous challenge of adapting to the immediate and ever-evolving situation. As this adaptation happens and organisations move from short-term crisis management to longer term planning, they are starting to consider how they must now transform to be ready to play their part in the “new normal”.

It’s very clear that Covid-19 will have profound and lasting economic, social and cultural impacts. We’re living in a moment in which businesses need to react quickly, act with empathy and fulfil their purpose in a way that helps society navigate a deeply troubling time. Doing so will also prepare organisations for re-emerging into a very different landscape.

The new stories of change

We’ve certainly heard an abundance of stories from our virtual interactions – acts of compassion, moments of innovation, the sudden removal of barriers and cultural walls. We’ve heard from leaders, amazed at how their people have united to achieve things that would have taken months or even years, in a matter of weeks.

For our clients who are in the process of co-creating a narrative to navigate through these changes, there are some significant realisations. There is now an increasing understanding that this situation is catalysing trends and drivers of change. Many of these trends were already significant drivers of change before Covid-19. The convergence of these trends means businesses will face the task of transformation, evolution, even redefinition, on a quite remarkable scale.

Seizing the opportunity

These transformations will, as ever, tend to focus on certain key areas of challenge or opportunity. Those that are truly meaningful will reconsider the very business model and nature of the business that has been successful to date. What will that business model look like in the face of this level of change?

Those leaders who are now starting to be proactive in preparing their people and organisations for profound, continuous change will emerge ready to tackle the enormous challenges ahead and then seize the opportunities that present themselves.

Leading a movement of change

One of the true tests of leadership in the coming months will be: who are the leaders who can successfully create a movement of change? Who are the leaders who will inspire people to look beyond current limits and define new opportunities? Who are the leaders who will generate unity and collective action in the face of challenge? Momentous change is on its way. These leaders won’t design the organisations of the future – but the teams of people who they inspire to believe and take action absolutely will. Focus on the story your organisation needs to write over the coming months and then turn it into a framework for progress and action.

Three opportunities to unlock pace in your organisation

Posted on by Robert Tennant

The Storytellers work with a diverse range of large organisations from multiple sectors. We help businesses leverage their people as a competitive advantage – to engage their teams in a compelling journey and to provide the motivation, means and momentum to drive change. In short, we work with organisations to move more people to do great things.

Our teams thrive on this purpose – it keeps us sharp and enables us to see themes across clients, sectors and geographies. We see on a daily basis the challenges businesses are facing in a world that is experiencing continuous and often unanticipated change.

One of the key themes this year will come as no surprise. Pace. Urgency. Acceleration. If “the pace of change will never be this slow again”1 businesses need their teams and people to be proactive, to innovate ahead of the curve, to make decisions in a smarter, empowered and efficient way. 

Many clients have approached The Storytellers this year because they recognise that to unlock pace in their organisations they need to engage their people in the changes that need to be made. It is no longer enough to show the way and expect others to follow; teams that move at real pace and perform at the highest level have real ownership, purpose and clarity of intent. The way is clear – as is the part everyone can play.

When a business manages to successfully accelerate change they tend to take an integrated approach – there is no silver bullet. Over the years we’ve identified a set of success factors that have resulted in quite incredible transformation stories. Of these success factors there are three which are critical to driving change at pace. They also represent three areas that organisations often either miss altogether or treat as a tick-box exercise:

1. Set compelling context and generate real alignment

In the pursuit of pace many businesses and leaders don’t set context or ensure alignment. It is often seen as an unnecessary “step” in the change process, especially when there is pressure to move quickly. In fact, setting appropriate context brings clarity, vision, purpose and engagement. All absolutely critical ingredients to accelerating change. Ensuring real alignment around the change journey speeds up decision making, builds sponsorship and allows teams to more easily identify blockers and create collaborative solutions. Our experience shows that the use of narrative is one of the quickest ways to reach alignment and a sense of shared ownership. Research has shown that leaders who used a consistent change story to align teams around transformation goals were nearly 4x more likely to be successful.2

2. Build capability to engage rationally and emotionally

Great leaders have the tools and capability to engage their teams in change. Most leaders communicate in a rational manner, aiming to land the essential information. However, leaders who can communicate and connect with people both rationally and emotionally tend to see huge shifts in performance. People are more engaged, motivated to change and willing to shift their mindset in order to adopt new behaviours. This radically reduces the time between people rationally understanding something and actually taking action. We find one of the biggest challenges is the ability of leaders to be influential – to inspire and help their teams through change. Leadership modules that integrate into a narrative-led approach and help leaders spark action at a team level make the change relevant and relatable across functions.

3. Start a movement that generates urgency and builds momentum

As with social change, creating a movement can utilise peer-to-peer influence to spread messages and behaviours from every corner of the business, generating urgency and pace from the bottom as well as the top of an organisation. This needs to be supported by key functions such as Communications, HR and L&D, but it should be people led. Movements need networks and networks need collaboration. The movement needs to be inspiring and accessible for the network to thrive and stimulate positive change. It needs to build energy and momentum by recognising the heroes of the movement – both those activating the change and those responding to the call.