Thistle Initiatives

Seeing what mattered from the trees

We began with an in-depth survey of all staff and a half-day workshop with the newly formed senior leadership team. What quickly became clear was that the organisation was busy hacking its way through the jungle of change – the stuff that needed sorting, fixing, resetting.

But they were struggling to see beyond the dense jungle in front of them. Our task? To draw out the gold from within the organisation, to show people what they were struggling to see for themselves – why they are really here, what matters most.

The good news was that the existing culture was marked by honesty and forthrightness. By asking the right questions and providing a space for answers to emerge and discussions to flow, a clear picture soon emerged.

Purpose: Tapping into the deeper need of customers

To get to the heart of the business, we hosted workshops and conducted a whole company survey. We quickly realised there was a deeper, more emotive customer need being addressed through the compliance work.

For entrepreneurs looking to launch a new financial product or service, the stakes are really quite high. Get compliance wrong (or worse, fail to get FCA approval) and the implications on careers and livelihoods can be significant.

It soon became clear that Thistle were not simply supporting their customers – they were helping them find their way through the dark. They were helping them overcome fears, doubts and misgivings on a perilous journey.

From this insight a purpose statement and narrative emerged – one which the leaders of the business immediately took to.

Values: Setting positive expectations for employees

Despite being a relatively young organisation with a number of new leaders, it quickly became clear that Thistle had an established culture of norms and expectations. Our task was to draw those out and bring them into the light – putting words to assumptions.

From the survey and workshop, six distinct territories emerged – areas where unwritten values where already being (i) desired by the leadership; and (ii) bought into by the wider staff team. We selected four of these territories for further development – territories where values could emerge that would be authentic, aspirational and ownable.

We knew the tone was important for Thistle. This was a young team looking to disrupt some of the old ways of doing things – and the values needed to reflect that ethos and personality. In short, they needed to feel different from the values of the ‘old guard’ of financial services.