An ambitious, future-ready Force
Within West Midlands Police, the Change Team plays a vital role in helping the organisation adapt and prepare for the future, developing new ways of working, new systems, and new capabilities. But like in many large operational organisations, cultural and practical tensions can arise between those focused on day-to-day delivery and those responsible for change.
For the Change Team, this meant working within a complex system where operational priorities, rightly, took centre stage, while the value of long-term transformation could sometimes feel abstract or secondary. The team needed space to explore their role, build empathy across different parts of the organisation, and develop a clearer collective identity as the custodians of change within the force.
Our approach
We designed and facilitated a workshop programme that combined systems thinking and organisational mapping to help the Change Team see the organisation, and themselves, from a new perspective.
Through guided activities, participants mapped how power, communication, and decision-making flowed across the system. They surfaced the underlying relationships and dynamics shaping their everyday work, and identified where influence, friction, and opportunity sat within the wider force.
— Participant
Over the course of the sessions, the team moved from describing challenges to designing responses. Together, they articulated a shared purpose and began to define new ways of working and communicating that would help them deliver more effectively within the system they operate in.
By visualising their organisational landscape, participants were able to spot leverage points and areas where interventions in communication, engagement, or decision-making could have a significant impact on how change takes root across the force.
Impact of the work
The workshops gave the Change Team a renewed sense of clarity, confidence, and purpose. Participants left with a deeper understanding of how their work connects to the wider organisation, practical tools to support ongoing collaboration, and a shared identity as enablers of progress rather than disruptors of stability.
Our role
We created the structure, language, and environment for honest reflection. We helped participants make sense of complexity, see the system as it really is, and build empathy across organisational boundaries. Our role was part facilitator, part critical friend, guiding the team through a process that turned abstract systems thinking into practical, human insight they could act on.
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