Helping Sky’s People Partners build impact through client-centricity

Sky is operating within an ever-changing, extremely fast-paced marketplace. Constant developments in the worlds of TV, content creation, mobile and broadband mean their leaders are navigating continual challenges.

And that’s where Sky’s People Partner team comes in. Part of Sky’s HR function, People Partners work as internal consultants, connecting leaders across the business with the suite of tools available to help them solve problems. 

This team wanted to better serve their internal customers. The Treehouse team identified True & North’s Client-centred Thinking methodology – which uses design thinking, neuroscience and behavioural economics – as a great fit for this challenge, so we delivered the programme together.

What we did

We ran an all-day in-person session for 35 people from Sky, all of whom work at different levels of the business, with different internal clients.

Together we explored: How can Sky’s People Partner team take a more client-centred approach to their roles, create greater consistency, and make use of the tools available?

The success and effectiveness of Sky’s People Partner team depends on establishing trust amongst Sky’s leaders in the support they offer, so it was vital that this issue was addressed. Without that, colleagues may end up seeking external support for challenges which could be dealt with in-house. 

We took the group through True & North’s three step process, which they can apply at Sky – Care, Co-create and Consensus.

Care is all about building real, informed empathy with customers. We showed the group how to use research and observation to build an understanding of individuals, and then put yourselves in their shoes, and consider how they might feel in certain situations, and what pressures they might be facing. 

We then taught the group how to use anchor questions in their conversations with leaders – i.e. questions which build in the insights they’ve developed, to create a more fruitful discussion. Taking a more human-centred approach demonstrates to the person that you value them, their role, and their time, and helps drive the conversation forward.

Co-create is all about using this new approach to conversations to explore possible solutions together. We showed the Sky team how they can use the understanding they develop about individuals to start to table different solutions, and discuss the potential benefits they might bring. This client-centred approach allows teams to start to discuss specifics – such as cost, scale, and timing – in the conversation, and test possible solutions there and then. 

And the last step – Consensus – is all about planning for what could potentially go wrong with the chosen solution. We showed teams the value of conducting a premortem, using empathy to explore with their internal clients all the things that could go wrong, and how they can support them if those challenges arise. 

We had a great response from Sky’s People Partner teams to this session. The group left excited to start putting everything they learnt into practice.

“I wanted to just drop you a line to say we have been getting some really positive feedback today and a few people have said they have started to really think about the anchoring questions in particular that they are using with their clients. One of the directors went out of her way to tell me they found the session really useful and really helped them to reframe some of the team’s  approach with tricky stakeholders” – Workshop attendee

Similar stories

Reimagining the learning experience for managers

ebay has a long reputation for designing and delivering excellent internal learning programs. In 2018, a team comprised of HR, L&D and talent leaders came together to apply a design thinking approach to reimagine what […]

Read more

Training top talent at Fujitsu in human centred design

Fujitsu have long been advocates for using human centred design as a method for identifying opportunities to develop technology that can help solve problems for customers and society, right across the globe. Their core Innovation […]

Read more

Creating fantastic facilitators

Sky is committed to innovation. Operating in such a competitive and fast-moving market means it’s vital that the business can not only anticipate, but set industry trends. We’ve been working with Sky to rollout the […]

Read more
Read enough? Get in touch
Drop us a line to discuss the learning objectives you have for your people with one of our training specialists.

Let's talk

If you can spare the time for a 30 min ZOOM call, a member of our senior team would be happy to discuss your aspirations and challenges, and explain how we can help.

Send us a message

Please enter your name

Loading...
We use HubSpot as our CRM platform. By submitting this form, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to HubSpot for processing. Learn more about HubSpot's privacy practices here.
Close menu  

Treehouse Innovation

Consulting

Solve complex problems and design new products, services and strategies that make a measurable difference

Go to Consulting

Transform Business and Culture

We journey alongside our clients in their voyage to create innovative new business models, strategies and future-fit cultures that drive sustainable growth

Design New Solutions

We join forces with your teams to solve complex challenges and create the products, services and internal solutions that create sustainable competitive advantage

Engage & Align Stakeholders

We help you bring together your most critical stakeholders to co-create and align around new strategies, solutions and plans of action

Close menu  

Treehouse Innovation

Training

Learning programs that teach teams to thrive in times of change

Go to Training

Design Thinking

Empower your people to be more customer-focused, collaborative, and innovative in their everyday work

Innovation Leadership

Enable your leaders to create the conditions for innovation to flourish

Facilitation Training

Design for more human-centred thinking and effective sales.

Innovation Strategy

Understand the levers available to business leaders when seeking to drive profitable innovation

Leading Change

Equip your people to effectively respond and adapt in a rapidly changing environment

Client-Centred Innovation

Empower sales teams to connect more deeply with customers and dramatically improve performance

Artificial Intelligence

Learn how to harness the power of AI in your business to drive innovation

Close menu  

Treehouse Innovation

Assessments

Solve complex problems and design new products, services and strategies that make a measurable difference

Go to Assessments

Innovation Impact: Skills

Understand the strengths and opportunities to develop innovative capabilities at the individual, team and organizational level.
(Individual, Team, or Organizational profile)

Innovation Impact: ROI

Measure the ROI of innovation and design thinking practice on real business outcomes in your organization.
(Project ROI, Organizational Outcomes )

Close menu  

Treehouse Innovation

Tools

Digital tools to help teams continuously innovate

Go to Tools

Sprintbase

A powerful innovation platform containing all of the Treehouse tools and methods along with built in structure and guidance to help newly trained teams make an immediate impact

Innovation Priorities

An interactive card game and virtual tool for engaging senior leaders in setting innovation strategy for their organization