Embracing brand values to enhance frontline customer service

Client profile
Allied Mutual Insurance (AMI), a New Zealand based insurance firm, has a very firm focus on customer service and local representation. Following a merger, it resolved to rebrand and implement cultural change to enhance its point of difference in the marketplace and community.


The key challenge
The challenge was to unite AMI staff across head office as well as branches spread throughout the North and South Islands and get them to embrace a common culture and customer service ethos; to understand and own AMI’s rebranded values of “Care, Assist and Deliver”.

A strategic, long-term partnership to develop people and culture
When we began working with AMI, we took a strategic approach to help implement AMI’s new brand values and put in place a platform with which to sustain cultural change amongst leaders and employees.

Phase 1 focused on the concept of personal mastery and building excellence. The aim of this was to empower individuals to believe in their own capabilities, so that they could respond positively and be able to meet the demands of cultural change occurring within the organisation.

Workshops in Phase 2 went a step further and focused on leadership and behaviour whilst examining AMI’s brand values as reflected by “Care, Assist, Deliver”.

Our methodology assisted staff to understand how AMI’s focus on customer service directly related to them in their roles at work…how could they best adopt the brand values so they were reflected in their behaviour each day at work and with each customer interaction?

More than 400 staff participated in these workshops, which involved all customer service staff, including insurance assessors from branches throughout New Zealand. The Pacific Institute also trained a team of internal facilitators to equip AMI with the ability to regularly reinforce their values.

Our approach delivered sustainable success for AMI

• AMI was voted as one of the top 10 employers in NZ.


• AMI rose to #2 in the ranking for share of the domestic insurance market.

We have worked with AMI over the past 13 years and it has been able to sustain its desired culture where leaders, as well as front-line branch employees, embrace “Care, Assist, Deliver” in their everyday roles at work.

This shift in values, behaviour and a real customer focus, has seen AMI have genuine engagement with local communities through their branch network.

AMI continues to use The Pacific Institute methodology as part of its induction for new staff and for ongoing people development. 

Raising self-esteem and building resilience: 
Helping indigenous youth develop a commitment to their future

Shaping expectations…
We help indigenous youth recognise that they do have choices in life

Most young people hold a set of beliefs and attitudes that shape their expectations of the future. In order to make postive changes in their lives, it is important for them to understand how their mind works. Only then, can they take control of what they think and consequently have the power to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and a strong ethical centre with which to make the right choices in life.

Our curriculum PX2™ has  been implemented across a diverse group of indigenous youth and has proven to be  a life-changing experience. Not just for individuals, but for the entire family: promoting positive communication, building stronger relationships and raising levels of accountability for its participants.

Our curriculum prepares them for the workforce and shows them how they can set higher goals for themselves. It helps develop resilience and a firm belief in themselves that will help them get to where they want to be.

We can help make a positive impact on the future of indigenous youth, their families and their communities.

Raising aspirations…
We help indigenous youth make a commitment to their future and prepare for the workforce

The Pacific Institute can help deliver:

• An increased level of self-belief to enable youth to complete their education, training and to find quality employment.


• The essential skills needed to be able to engage successfully in the workforce such as: a higher level of sensitivity to the behaviour of other people.


• A greater level of accountability for indigenous youth: to themselves, their families and their employers.


• A more goal and results-oriented approach to positively change existing attitudes.


• Heightened self-confidence and self-motivation so youth can reach their individual goals.


• An enhanced sense of self-worth so youth can realise their potential for creativity, open-mindedness and flexibility.

“It will help me make better decisions in the future.” Youth participant
“This will help me become better than I think I am.” Youth participant

Transforming organisational culture and leadership effectiveness

Client profile

Snowy Hydro Ltd operates the Snowy Mountains Scheme, an integrated water and hydroelectric power project located in Australia’s Southern Alps. It provides renewable energy and energy-related products and manages critical water flows. It is also involved in implementing a range of environmental and community initiatives.

The issues

As the organisation emerged from a semi – government business, it needed to shed its ‘silo thinking’ and embrace a culture of innovation where proactive behaviour was encouraged. Although senior leaders had a clear vision of the organisation, the larger workforce of 400 employees did not share or have a sound understanding of the direction of the business.

The Pacific Institute approach

• An ‘inside-out’ approach, guiding individuals across the entire organisation through a process of personal discovery and goal alignment. We then helped them to apply similar principles to their own leadership and organisational development.


• Building vision and belief within the leadership team and ensuring they could commit to, as well as lead, culture change.


• Measuring current and desired culture to articulate what individuals needed to do, in order to support the new culture.

How did The Pacific Institute help enhance leadership effectiveness and transform culture?

We worked closely with our client to help identify the existing culture and the preferred culture and how it linked to organisational strategy, leadership effectiveness and performance.
We assisted the senior management group to articulate the challenges, priorities and solutions, generating a sense of unity and enthusiasm for the changes. We implemented 360 degree feedback to gain self awareness about how their leadership style was affecting culture and what could be done to improve it.

The client subsequently rolled these tools out to all employees. The aim was to help empower and support work teams by identifying and reducing barriers to high performance. We helped foster a “Team Snowy” ethos by providing an environment for sharing ideas, learning to build self – efficacy and accountability towards achieving a shared organisational vision.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

- A measurable cultural index improvement of 42% within the first 18 months, as benchmarked against the Human Synergistics international database.
- A noticeable, desirable shift in culture and positive indicators of the impact leaders had over others, over a 2 year period; tracked via an organisational culture survey to evaluate how the vision was communicated.

Improving culture, education and training outcomes at TAFE

View video Manchester College

Client profile

Manchester College is one of the largest TAFE colleges in Western Europe. Its key aims were to improve its organisational culture and to lift the overall performance of the college.

The issues

Manchester College chose The Pacific Institute to help identify strategies to challenge individual behaviour, values and attitudes, empower its staff as well as enhance its leadership capability. In addition, it sought our services to increase the success and retention rate of its students.

The Pacific Institute approach

The impact of applied social cognitive theory on education and training outcomes

The Manchester College project is one of the largest case studies in the world to look at leadership, culture and performance improvements in a government education and training environment. In particular, it highlights how we use social cognitive theory, learned optimism and the resulting resiliency, self-efficacy and positive self-image. It demonstrates the positive impact these have, on education and training outcomes.

How did The Pacific Institute help improve outcomes?

These integrated programs have been rolled out over a period of two years and are ongoing (2011):

• As at 2011, 12,000 students and 1,500 staff have gone through The Pacific Institute programs.


• Human Synergistics International (HSI), Organisational Cultural Inventory (OCI) survey and report prepared for the College Executive.


• Our leadership and professional development core curriculum focused on personal excellence was run for the College Executive and all staff (IILE/IIPE workshops).


• Our Breakthrough to Excellence/PX2 workshops (these build on concepts from our Excellence curriculum but is adapted for students).


• Measuring the change in organisational culture over an 18-24 month period and tracking results of the above interventions; our client rolled out the Organisational Cultural Inventory (OCI) and a tool with which to re-measure leadership impact.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

The results of the partnership between Manchester College and The Pacific Institute have delivered the following:

• A move to the top 2% of all colleges in the UK, in value-adding to student learning.


• An improved college success rate, currently at 72% (this represents a 30% improvement in 2 years; the UK accountability formula is derived by multiplying pass rate (currently 90%) x retention rate (currently 80%).


• A measurable cultural index improvement of 35% within the first 2 years benchmarked against the Human Synergistics international database (using The Pacific Institute’s unique Cultural Index).

Improving safety through belief - based safety leadership

View video leadership in business and government: step up to safety

Client profile

A major US transport enterprise, Schneider National, with an annual loaded haulage of 2.2 billion kilometres, operates trucks and logistics across the USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada and China. Keen to improve its safety record whilst enhancing productivity, Schneider wanted to instill a culture that viewed safety measures as something the management and staff wanted to do, rather than ‘needed to’.

The issues

The major focus was on building a culture of retention and improving their driver safety record. The company felt strongly about helping its drivers better balance work and home commitments. It needed to move away from a behaviour-based safety approach and build a belief-based safety approach by recognising the barriers that existed from beliefs, attitudes and values.

The Pacific Institute approach

• We identified the link between organisational leadership and the company’s culture which in turn drove employee perceptions of safety and ultimately their performance.


• Working in partnership with the client we looked at ways in which we could help senior management make a positive impact on the culture across the organisation, so that an enhanced constructive culture could help drive safety outcomes.


• We recommended that the client needed to make safety ‘personal’, i.e. we needed to start with individual beliefs and look at ways to get greater engagement and accountability from employees regarding safety outcomes.

What improvements did The Pacific Institute help deliver over 3 years?

• $24m in productivity savings


• Daily customer contacts up by 600%


• Loads per day up by 27%


• Experienced driver hires up from 38% to 100% year over year


• Reduced fatal crashes by 59%


• Reduced fatigue - related accidents by 27%


• Reduced preventable accidents by more than 12% year over year

Through our organisational culture and leadership impact survey, we helped the client implement The Pacific Institute curriculum, focusing on leadership and personal excellence. It helped individuals recognise their self beliefs and truths, as well as raising self-efficacy whilst developing and setting individual goals. Gaining positive momentum, the client rolled out the curriculum to all staff, including 14,000 truck drivers and contractors with the aim of driver training and re-education to change beliefs and mind-sets affecting real achievement.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

• 25 customer recognition awards over 3 years.


• The Safety & Leadership Award awarded to Don Osterburg, Senior VP. Awarded by USA Truck Safety Coalition, June 2010. “Through his leadership, there is now absolute, hard, solid proof that safety need not be sacrificed to promote productivity.”


• Enhanced social and community responsibility through an improved safety record and a positive, constructive culture with sustainable results.

Goal setting and raising self-efficacy and aspirations in youth

View video PX2 Australia

Client profile

Murdoch University is a West Australian tertiary institution that offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs. It sets high standards for teaching, research and student satisfaction, whilst encouraging innovative thinking. It is a well-regarded institution that has a strong community-focus, clearly articulating its vision to ‘make a difference’.

The issues

The University wanted to provide programs to help raise the aspirations of high- school children so that they considered tertiary education as an achievable goal.

The Pacific Institute approach

• We recommended the development of a specialised program “It’s My Life” aimed at Years 8/9.


• We designed a series of age-appropriate workbooks and support activities for the teachers to deliver.


• The University rolled out this 4-year project in March 2011 to 6,500 high school students.


• The aim is that over the 4-year period, each student will receive multiple exposures to the program contents, so as to reinforce the key messages.

How did The Pacific Institute help develop capacity within the organisation?

The Pacific Institute trained 32 support facilitators, also known as the ‘PX2 Crew’ and two ‘ambassadors’ per school, to deliver the components of the program on an ongoing basis.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

Murdoch University undertook an exhaustive review during a 200 student pilot in 2010 which concluded that this program was effective in raising student aspiration levels. Though it may be a little early to fully appreciate the impact, the objective in the long term, is for The Pacific Institute program to assist children to set their sights on bigger goals, including being on-track to a path towards tertiary education.

The value provided to the community is enormous and Murdoch University ultimately hopes that as a result, there will be an increase in its enrolments, arising from the schools involved.

Improving outcomes in correctional institutions

View video Leadership in reducing community violence

Client profile

We have worked with a number of correctional institutions across Australia, the United Kingdom and USA. Our projects have entailed interaction with government departments, prison management, officers and inmates.

The issues

In conjunction with our clients, our aim was to reduce the rate at which prison inmates return to custody, after parole. We have also had a direct impact on prisoners’ sense of self worth and their improved skills in setting positive goals for themselves. The key was to address long term issues as well, so that inmates could take control of their own destiny, whilst taking responsibility for their actions and decisions.

Our approach: what did The Pacific Institute do?

With a practical ‘how to’ approach, we equipped inmates with:-

• the skills needed to set goals, improve motivation and self drive


• the thought processes needed to enhance resiliency and to help them cope better with adversity and setbacks


• maintaining a focus on life after prison and the desire to achieve employment and high levels of performance


• the skills that would help them to better communicate, to be more productive and cooperative in a work environment, both in and out of the correctional institution

How did The Pacific Institute help build capacity?

Our unique approach of building capacity within these institutions delivered sound results. Inmate and officer facilitators were trained up and became role models; they became champions in implementing initiatives. This approach reinforced the positive effects of The Pacific Institute material on each individual. The notion of reaching their individual potential and changing their life around, became real and achievable.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

Across the projects there were measureable improvements in motivation, productivity, inmate behaviour and communication, along with a marked reduction in the rate of individuals returning to prison.

• Enhanced self efficacy, an increase in motivation and goal setting skills: “Participants have more internalised Locus Of Control and are therefore more self directed and take more accountability for their own actions”. Jennifer Hayward, Psychologist in Training, HMP Cardiff


• Dramatic decrease in rule violations, improved behaviour and productivity: “The most dramatic changes have been in the offenders. Statistically, we’ve seen improvements in inmate behaviour through decreases in violation and rule infractions, more success at parole hearings, better production on work assignments, and a sense of cohesiveness in the graduates.” Curt Swenson, Training Director, Montana Department of Corrections


• Increased sense of hope and self worth: “The Pacific Institute material brought hope back to those who just drifted though life,”; “It gave me the ability to cope with the prison experience and an improved focus on life after prison”. Offender feedback from Riverbank Prison, Australia


• Reduction in the rate at which inmates returned to custody, after parole: The graph below shows the results experienced by the California Corrections Department, USA.

Building capacity and leadership effectiveness

Client profile

The Aurecon Group provides engineering, management and specialist technical services to government and private sector clients. With more than 6,000 staff and over 80 offices worldwide, Aurecon has a presence in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East.

The issues

The organisation possessed highly skilled, technical specialists who found themselves in positions of influence and leadership but felt that they needed additional skill sets in order to manage and lead their teams with greater confidence and effectiveness. In particular, they were looking to build senior management capacity in leading and coaching others.

The Pacific Institute approach

• The Pacific Institute was asked to co-design a Leadership Development program by applying its cognitive psychology-based principles and tools.


• Using scientific tools of Human Synergistics behavioural modeling, The Pacific Institute developed a 3-day “Investment in Leadership Excellence” ® program which formed the foundation for Aurecon’s organisation-wide Leadership Development Program initiative.


• The aim was to analyse the impact of management style on the behaviour of others and to examine their perceived effectiveness as managers and leaders.


• In conjunction with Aurecon we looked at conscious and sub-conscious management approaches and helped identify the gaps between intent and actions to determine effectiveness.

How did The Pacific Institute help build capacity?

To date, 120 senior leaders based in Australia have been through the program and a further 120 will attend in 2011/2012. A similar program forms part of the senior management leadership development program in South Africa and is administered and delivered by The Pacific Institute’s Johannesburg office.

The Pacific Institute also makes available highly experienced coaches for one-on-one mentoring sessions for senior management and can provide survey tools to compare results against world benchmarks.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

Aurecon believes that as a direct result of their partnership with The Pacific Institute, there has been a positive impact on the individual and collective skills of their leadership group.

Their direct investment in their key people means that the organisation has more effective leaders who can ‘practise what they preach’ and help drive sustainable change, vision and are responsible for creating the desired organisational culture. Inevitably, culture drives performance.

Assisting educators and young people reach their potential: delivering strategies for goal setting, increasing aspirations and enhancing success

The key issues

There is undoubtedly great concern about levels of underachievement within the school system, therefore enabling staff and students to reach their full potential is a key factor in educational improvement.

The pressure to raise academic standards makes it vital that we also invest in developing emotional intelligence, implement values education and show young people how to cope with challenges and extend themselves towards excellence.

Working with educational institutions: our approach

Our experienced project directors work with principals, teachers and students across government and private schools as well as with universities and technical colleges across Australia and the UK. The Pacific Institute’s proven methodology and framework is accredited by the Curriculum Council of Western Australia.

We aim to equip young people with practical skills with which to enhance optimism, resilience and success in their lives at school and beyond. We show them how to set aspirational goals, increase self awareness and self esteem.

Our methodology

Using our proven psychology based methodology, we work to co-design a framework that suits the needs of individual educational institutions.

• We assist principals to help instil a desired workplace culture to maximise drive and creativity; research shows that culture affects performance.


• We work with educators to equip them with the skills and materials they need to help deliver real change in the classroom.


• We conduct workshops with student groups to introduce strategies to increase self awareness, self esteem and for more effective goal setting.


• Upon an institution’s request, we conduct forums to keep parents informed so they can provide a supportive home environment, where the concepts learned through school are reinforced.

THE BENEFITS

Energising educators

Observers at schools in the UK who have worked with The Pacific Institute have remarked on the positive atmosphere and vitality.

Educators speak of being energised, of a change of atmosphere in the staffroom and of having higher expectations of what their students could achieve.

Working with The Pacific Institute provides institutions with effective in-house professional development.

“This has given me a range of tools and techniques to help me develop - it has undoubtedly affected my classroom practice. I’m much more positive – the kids think I’ve won the lottery!” Teacher “Reminded me of why I wanted a career in teaching all those years ago.” Teacher

Improving student outcomes

By assisting students to manage their own behaviours and adopt values that support good teaching, we can help improve learning attitudes and the working relationships between staff and students. We help the students expect more of themselves and this focus on raising aspirations helps them stay on track towards tertiary education.

For many young people, understanding the value of setting goals and an increased level of self awareness has the potential to change their lives.

“There is clearly a gap between many current high school students and the need for Australia to have enough highly skilled people to be able to adapt to the uncertainties of a rapidly moving global economy. Our aim with The Pacific Institute is to teach students ‘learned optimism’, build their internal resilience and provide the right messages at the right time in their life in order to positively influence their future behaviour and performance. We know that we won’t see all of these students reach higher education but we can see that the potential benefit for the students is nothing short of life changing.” Darren Munday, Director, Student Life and Learning, Murdoch University, WA

Building resilience and engagement in the workforce

Air New Zealand operates domestic and international passenger transport and cargo services and employs approximately 10,000 people throughout the world.

The issues

In 2009, as a direct result of difficult trading conditions and increasing pressure on management and staff to manage change and customer expectations, Air New Zealand sought to implement a program that would build a sense of resiliency and engagement across all people employed in the business.

The Pacific Institute approach

• Working in partnership with the client we looked at ways in which we could help senior management make a positive impact on the culture across the organisation.


• We recommended that in order to build capacity in staff to respond to challenges with resiliency and drive, the organisation needed to focus on changing people’s attitudes and mindsets which in turn, would have a positive effect on their behaviour and performance.


• A joint team comprising key Air New Zealand staff and specialist consultants from The Pacific Institute helped develop a customised program to address these issues.


• Consequently Air New Zealand’s “Realise Your Potential” ® program was rolled out with the aim of building internal capacity.

How did The Pacific Institute help build resilience and staff engagement?

Over a period of two years, The Pacific Institute trained more than 80 Air New Zealand staff and accredited them to deliver the customised “Realise Your Potential”® program across all senior management and staff of Air New Zealand. There were 8 separate Facilitator training sessions and an additional 30 ongoing facilitator support days. The program was presented to management and staff as a voluntary program and after 2 years 9,600 staff (out of a total of 10,000 staff) attended the program.

Management and staff who attended this internally delivered program awarded an average overall point-rating of 4.75 out of 5.

Delivering measurable benefits: partnering with The Pacific Institute was the right choice

“Overall we are delighted with the results and the very definite positive impact it had on our company culture and engagement” Vanessa Stoddart - Group General Manager, Technical Operations and People
“I am so pleased at how well staff are taking to “Realise Your Potential” and the
incredible stories that are flooding us about the impact it is having on people's lives. We also have an AMAZING team of facilitators who are so passionate about the programme and this infects everyone they come across.” Melissa Crawford - Organisational Development Consultant

Air New Zealand anticipates that as a direct result of their partnership with The Pacific Institute, there has been a positive impact on individuals. Their direct investment in their people means that the organisation will be able to help move its workforce forward and have a far better alignment with its desired culture and consequently drive performance.