This year, we reach a new milestone – at Integ Partner, we have been working with our Integral Management model for 40 years. Over these four decades, we have evolved, developed, and gathered experience through our collaboration with organizations and leaders across various industries. That’s why we sat down with our CEO, Helena Söderström, and one of our founders, Lasse Ramquist, to delve into the key questions and insights that make change management and leadership successful.
“What will be especially important for managers and leaders in 2024? With her 20 years of experience as a leader in Swedish industry before joining Integ Partner in 2020, it’s natural to first pose this question to our CEO, Helena Söderström.
– Given the unpredictability and rapid pace of change we see in our surroundings and today’s society, I believe leaders need to create a sense of security within their organizations. This can be achieved, for example, through continuous dialogue between employees and managers about what is important and why, as well as taking the time to discuss strategic priorities together so that everyone is aligned. This also reduces the risk of sub-optimizing in silos in a reality where everything needs to move quickly.
Helena continues:
– I also strongly believe in openness and transparency regarding progress and challenges. We need to trust employees to drive change and make quick decisions throughout the organization. To develop both employees and the organization, I think it is especially important in these times for leaders to take the time to listen and be genuinely curious – both about customers’ needs and their strategic goals, but also about the challenges and improvement suggestions from their own employees.
Helena was drawn to Integ Partner after having had the privilege of working with the company’s management model during her many years as a leader at ABB and Sandvik. She describes it as a results-driven model grounded in solid and proven theory and practice.”.
“What’s in store for Integ Partner in 2024?
– In 2024, we’ll be focusing a bit extra on packaging new service offerings, building a new website to present them, and becoming more efficient internally. Like all other companies, we constantly need to evolve to remain relevant to our customers and partners!
“We help our clients focus on their most critical strategic and operational challenges.”
Now, let’s turn to one of our founders, Lasse Ramquist. His career spans as long as our Integral Management model has existed – about 40 years. His journey began somewhat by accident when, as a newly graduated psychologist, he stumbled into consulting.
After a few years as a leadership developer at Asea, Lasse realized he needed an approach that could deliver larger and more lasting impacts. Together with his colleague Mats Eriksson, he began developing what would become the foundation of today’s Integ Partner.
How would you describe the customer value that Integ Partner provides?
– We help our clients focus on their most critical strategic, business, and operational challenges. To succeed in this, we assist our clients in building robust infrastructures for ongoing strategic dialogue to ensure everyone is moving in the same direction. But this infrastructure also fosters a culture where frontline employees gain greater freedom – and more power to make local decisions. This approach allows local expertise across the entire value chain to play an increasingly influential role in implementing strategy on the ground.
“The message needs to be cohesive enough to withstand scrutiny.”
Based on your experience, what are the success factors behind effective leadership?
– First and foremost, as a leader, you need to know what you want, but you also need to convey your message in a way that inspires and engages. You need to explain where we are going and WHY! The message must be cohesive enough to withstand being examined, questioned, and scrutinized by all the colleagues and employees whose wholehearted support you need to succeed.
Lasse continues:
– Second, you need the humility to genuinely ask everyone for help. Listen carefully to the local expertise that exists across so many hands in all large organizations. The understanding that today’s complex operations cannot be led by decree or micromanagement must permeate every modern leadership style. The ability to ask, listen carefully, and extend trust to this local expertise is a fundamental necessity in leadership today.
Would you like to learn more about how we at Integ Partners can support your leaders and employees in creating real change?”, contact us!
