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NEW YORK — The Agile Innovation series focuses on why organizations must constantly evolve and innovate with an agile mindset to remain viable in today’s dynamic world. Throughout the series, Trey Holder, accelerate360’s chief business officer and president of distribution and logistics, explores the current business environment through interviews with leaders in a variety of fields.
Lisa Paley
Recently, Holder had a chance to sit down with Lisa Paley, president of Haleon’s North America region, to learn more about the company’s culture. Haleon, a new consumer health care company formed through a GSK demerger, provides a world-class portfolio of products and brands that are built on science, innovation and human understanding. Trusted by millions of consumers, the company’s products span oral health, vitamins, minerals and supplements, pain, respiratory, and digestive categories. Agility and innovation have been key to Haleon’s success and growth, and were intentionally ingrained into the company’s DNA during its formative stages.
Here are the highlights from their discussion about building an agile culture in today’s evolving workplace:
HOLDER: What are some of the opportunities that you think leaders face today trying to build an agile innovation culture inside their organization?
PALEY: One of the things that we did at Haleon, because we had the opportunity to set a culture from scratch, was focus on something we call the Founder’s Mentality, which promotes a type of ownership mentality that’s energized by change. We believe that for those that are able and willing to be agile, it will come more naturally. Part of this willingness comes from being obsessed with the front line, having a strong pulse on the consumer, being in tune with your customers, and really knowing the competition inside and out, both the ones that are obvious and those ones that emerge quickly and can move in really fast on your business.
HOLDER: How did you keep a purpose-led performance culture as a leading backdrop during the early stages of the company?
PALEY: We wanted to instill a Founder’s Mentality across the organization, so we literally created a Founder’s Wall that everyone signed to reinforce the mindset that we wanted. Our behaviors, which include “Keep it Human,” “Do What Matters Most” and “Go Beyond” are woven into the DNA of the organization.
HOLDER: How do you deal with a hybrid culture or a hybrid workforce inside your organization?
PALEY: The hybrid culture we experience at Haleon is that of a partnership. We strive to understand and accommodate when colleagues need to be together in the office to celebrate, connect or collaborate on something versus when they may need time to think and if they’re better off doing that in a quieter environment at home or someplace where they feel like they have more quality time to do that. We’re open to how it looks and set up the guardrails so that team knows how to operate with a lot of freedom within the framework.
We know that our team enjoys socializing together, so oftentimes, we bring in food trucks or something similar when we expect to see a lot of people show up for a training or other work event. We’ve found building these activities into the work is well received and can remind employees of a social aspect they forgot they liked because they were away from the offices for a long time. In the end, it’s about making sure people feel connected. That is keeping it human too, right? They need to feel that connection to others and forge meaningful relationships with other colleagues.
HOLDER: Outside of your company’s core values, how do foster an agile and innovative mindset for your employees?
PALEY: It’s a growth mindset. We know that if people can stay open and not get fixed into their ways of working, that enables more innovation. Organizationally, we “de-layer” because when you have lots of layers, it can slow down an organization. By de-layering, you free up people to make faster decisions quicker with one another. You can also increase the spans of their responsibility, which then empowers the people under them to take on more and think more holistically earlier in their career. For us, it’s also about empowering colleagues as we think about innovation and agility.
HOLDER: What projects stay on your mind or close to your heart?
PALEY: I ask myself, while I have the opportunity, how can I help organizations and leaders expand access for health care? There are a lot of underserved populations that are not seen or heard to the same degree as others, and I think the more we can do to help shine a light on those populations, the better. At Haleon, we’re trying to broaden access and inclusion of all individuals through grants and donations and things of that nature, because we think we can make the world better.
Watch the full interview here: YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJc08Uku_tg
This transcript was lightly edited for brevity for Chain Drug Review.
