DTW (Digital Transformation World)
DTWS: Telenor’s Chief People Officer on purpose, radical management and reverse mentoring
Cecilie Heuch, EVP and Chief People Officer at Telenor, says the company wants a flexible work culture going forward, adding "We do not want to go back.” Find out more about how Telenor is accelerating growth via its workforce.
18 Nov 2020
DTWS: Telenor’s Chief People Officer on purpose, radical management and reverse mentoring
Cecilie Heuch, EVP and Chief People Officer at Telenor, talked to TM Forum’s CEO, Nik Willetts, about how her company is accelerating growth by creating a highly engaged, expert-led digital workforce. This was the final Headliner session at Digital Transformation World Series (DTWS) 2020, and a fitting conclusion to this online event which has been unique is so many ways – including an unprecedented high level of interest in company culture.
Willetts noted that Telenor has gone from having 20,000 people in Norway to 18,000 people across nine countries, with staff drawn from 29 nationalities. He asked how, as the group chief people officer, she harmonized the corporate culture across so many different backgrounds and cultures?
Heuch replied that, “One of the reasons my colleagues and I work at Telenor is because of this diversity of talent. We focus on what is similar, but we act in different ways in different contexts. For instance, within the technology area, global teams develop new services and new possibilities for us, but then we have local execution. So global functions across nationalities is our strength – almost a secret weapon.”
Willetts commented on the common use of the word “purpose” at the event and asked if this was a short-term response to coronavirus or signalled a permanent shift?
“It gave us a huge amount of pride and confidence in what we're doing and what we are able to do. I think it will stay, but we need to continue to talk about it and ask why we aren't doing it all the time.”
Telenor set about capturing lessons from its remarkable achievements in the crisis: “We started in May with strategic projects, looking at how can we take this forward. We saw how we can modernize faster and can be much more radical in how we structure our organizations going forward. On 3 June, our CEO, Sigve Brekke, said we want flexible work going forward in our company; we do not want to go back.”
Part of this is the adoption of the loose tight, loose, tight management philosophy, which has captured audiences’ imagination at DTWS. Heuch explained that Telenor, “Felt a need to be more specific on what leadership should be…and chose this concept which…is rooted in research going back 30 years [but] we found it particularly relevant in this time. The first ‘tight’ is about setting the expectations for your team and rallying around purpose.”
“Loose is that we trust people to know how to do their job, without a manager sitting on their shoulder. We want to give our people autonomy,” Heuch continued. Leaders are well-placed to intervene in unsolved problems.
The last “tight” is about following up; reflecting on the job done to see what changes could be introduced to improve things in future instead of rushing straight to the next.
She said this sounded simple, but the success of the loose phase depended on people being consulted about strategy and having it explained to them, rather than management issuing instructions at the end of the first tight phase and expecting automatic followership. Another aspect is that in parallel with autonomy, people need psychological safety to work in that environment, Heucht stressed.
In the last tight phase, she observed that, “We are [often] failing at the learning part of the first tight and loose.”
Willetts expanded on that theme of constant learning, alluding to Telenor encouraging people to have a portfolio of careers rather than doing one thing throughout.
Heuch replied that telecoms is a paradox. On the one hand fewer people were needed every year, but at the same time, there is a great need for new competencies. She said that for individuals to succeed it is a fundamental to have a learning culture in the company, so everybody feels a certain pressure and the opportunity to remain relevant through upscaling – getting more skills for what you do – and reskilling so you can do something new. She said, “There are no obstacles [at Telenor]. We should think diversity here, and not be sort of blindsided by age or anything else.”
Heuch said the young women she has mentored in the last few years are typically in a different functional layer to her, and they have taught her much. In particular, one mentee in communications educated her about social media and how to use it.
Willetts noted that Telenor has gone from having 20,000 people in Norway to 18,000 people across nine countries, with staff drawn from 29 nationalities. He asked how, as the group chief people officer, she harmonized the corporate culture across so many different backgrounds and cultures?
Global functions, local execution
Heuch replied that, “One of the reasons my colleagues and I work at Telenor is because of this diversity of talent. We focus on what is similar, but we act in different ways in different contexts. For instance, within the technology area, global teams develop new services and new possibilities for us, but then we have local execution. So global functions across nationalities is our strength – almost a secret weapon.”
Willetts commented on the common use of the word “purpose” at the event and asked if this was a short-term response to coronavirus or signalled a permanent shift?
“Meaning and purpose are key trends among the young people we recruit all over the world,” Heuch said, adding that previously the crucial nature of telecoms was understood by those who worked in it, “Now our societies identified us a critical service, so we have a renewed responsibility. People [in the industry] exceeded everybody's expectations…to keep the societies working [in lockdowns].
“It gave us a huge amount of pride and confidence in what we're doing and what we are able to do. I think it will stay, but we need to continue to talk about it and ask why we aren't doing it all the time.”
Telenor set about capturing lessons from its remarkable achievements in the crisis: “We started in May with strategic projects, looking at how can we take this forward. We saw how we can modernize faster and can be much more radical in how we structure our organizations going forward. On 3 June, our CEO, Sigve Brekke, said we want flexible work going forward in our company; we do not want to go back.”
Tight, loose, tight
Part of this is the adoption of the loose tight, loose, tight management philosophy, which has captured audiences’ imagination at DTWS. Heuch explained that Telenor, “Felt a need to be more specific on what leadership should be…and chose this concept which…is rooted in research going back 30 years [but] we found it particularly relevant in this time. The first ‘tight’ is about setting the expectations for your team and rallying around purpose.”
“Loose is that we trust people to know how to do their job, without a manager sitting on their shoulder. We want to give our people autonomy,” Heuch continued. Leaders are well-placed to intervene in unsolved problems.
The last “tight” is about following up; reflecting on the job done to see what changes could be introduced to improve things in future instead of rushing straight to the next.
She said this sounded simple, but the success of the loose phase depended on people being consulted about strategy and having it explained to them, rather than management issuing instructions at the end of the first tight phase and expecting automatic followership. Another aspect is that in parallel with autonomy, people need psychological safety to work in that environment, Heucht stressed.
In the last tight phase, she observed that, “We are [often] failing at the learning part of the first tight and loose.”
Led by experts
Willetts expanded on that theme of constant learning, alluding to Telenor encouraging people to have a portfolio of careers rather than doing one thing throughout.
Heuch replied that telecoms is a paradox. On the one hand fewer people were needed every year, but at the same time, there is a great need for new competencies. She said that for individuals to succeed it is a fundamental to have a learning culture in the company, so everybody feels a certain pressure and the opportunity to remain relevant through upscaling – getting more skills for what you do – and reskilling so you can do something new. She said, “There are no obstacles [at Telenor]. We should think diversity here, and not be sort of blindsided by age or anything else.”
She added, “As the workforce shrinks, to gain more business agility, we are delayering, which means fewer managers and more experts. We need to think how we recognize our experts and build their careers.”
Reverse mentoring
Heuch said the young women she has mentored in the last few years are typically in a different functional layer to her, and they have taught her much. In particular, one mentee in communications educated her about social media and how to use it.
Heuch said wryly, “We are so used to talking to young people and giving advice, but…they have knowledge and insights that we can benefit from so much. As a leader it is fundamental to get direct input from people who work in your company, far away from your role. They have totally different perspectives, which is very enriching.”
