Cross-communication - Meeting with Cyrille Zimmer, External Consultant for Novaconcept

Cross-communication: a key tool to better cope with complexity and today’s transformation challenges

The Novaconcept team comprises more than 50 experienced consultants with a range of expertise to guide you in developing your teams and leaders and meeting your organization’s transformation challenges.

It’s 9 a.m. on a Friday, and I joined Cyrille for the third meeting of the day on his agenda. And yet, I felt that I had his full attention over the hour in front of us. His demeanour during our meeting mirrored his client-focused approach. He’s a great listener and pays special attention to understanding my needs for our discussion. That’s great, as I was keen to learn more about his vision and approach to organizational transformation. How do we change course and sail on the uncharted waters in the current context of organizational change?

When he talks about his approach and expertise, our shared values and cz conseil’s synergy with Novaconcept’s mission become obvious. Cyrille and his team guide company managers as they build and maintain effective, committed and motivated teams in a changing workplace. The client is core to his approach, and he suggests highly tailored solutions during his work, as each organization is unique.

Cyrille has coached teams through various change management challenges for over 15 years. His mission is to dispel the perceived complexity of that topic. He makes sure to gain the commitment of managers and gives them the tools to sail with confidence and ease as they go through a transformation that sometimes causes a bit of doubt and discomfort.

Cyrille and his team work in co-creation with their clients to ensure they’re asking the right questions to get things done. For Cyrille, managers have a crucial role to play during the transformation.  A lot is expected of them, but for that to happen, they need the right tools. This is where he comes in by asking questions and humbly listening to understand what the client is facing and the issues they’re encountering, in order to co-create and propose relevant tools tailored to each manager’s needs. His greatest strength is taking his knowledge and experience in about twenty sectors and putting them to use in the field to offer tailored and concrete solutions that will make a difference. In his experience, a solution doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective—quite the contrary.

Since 2020, by force of circumstances, companies have had to adapt and quickly transform on an ongoing basis. They had to quickly make decisions. The impact of organizational decisions on team manager workloads has often been downplayed. That’s not even mentioning the lack of time to ensure everyone is on board with the transformation proposal. Cyrille goes on to say that we give a lot of thought to the project itself, but not necessarily to how people will experience the project.

Coming up with a solution is only part of the process for Cyrille. It’s vital to consider how this solution will be received and anticipate how people will live with it in their day-to-day. Take the time to analyze possible apprehensions, explain the reasons (the “why”) for the change, and put the change’s positive impacts forward. This minimizes resistance to change, which is and will always be there in this kind of process.

Let’s not forget the need to provide managers with the tools they need to deal with this transition period so they can become change facilitators for their teams and take charge of developing their teams’ skills. Teams will have to learn and create new ways of doing things, integrate procedures, change habits, and find their pace of work again. There’s a learning curve that inevitably leads to a short-term drop in productivity. However, this productivity drop is not a bad sign. Quite the opposite, it’s proof that everyone is moving and that the transformation has truly begun. When you create organizational alignment and ensure buy-in from everyone, you set the table for the suggested solutions to stick and help achieve your desired long-term goals.

It’s clear to Cyrille that a successful organizational transformation depends first and foremost on everyone’s commitment. No manager should carry this burden alone. Cyrille’s strength is getting teams to better communicate with every stakeholder and to develop shared leadership, whether at the executive, managerial or employee level. When he takes action, he ensures that the message is carried strongly and shared across the organization. He coaches management teams to show them how managerial decisions can be well conveyed, as well as how to go from game plans to concrete and engaging employee actions.

Cyrille’s words resonated with me. He definitely has a gift to put the right words to a feeling, ensuring everyone understands. I can see the strength of this people-focused and tangible approach, where listening helps us shift to solution mode. Turning a ship around, charting a new course and staying on that course requires a whole crew, a lot of communication, and sometimes a little outside help.