Summary
In 2009, the founders of Bluefield had a vision: that renewable energy would become mainstream, and Bluefield would be pioneers in the industry. Today, the Bluefield Group of companies encompasses the full value chain of the renewables industry, with expertise across the UK and Europe. It has set itself the significant ambition of “powering a city the size of Rome with renewable energy by 2028” that represents a four-fold increase from what it provides today.
In 2023, Bluefield partnered with Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? to make its biggest ever investment to develop its leaders. The ‘Road to Rome’ leadership programme was created, with all leaders across four cohorts undertaking the programme.
A Bluefield Story:
How Did we Get There?
The Challenge
Bluefield experienced rapid growth and pace in recent years, resulting in their leaders facing increasingly demanding challenges alongside the competing tensions it creates. With the business navigating the complexity of transitioning from start up to scale up, there was an acknowledgement of what got us here, won’t get us to the next stage. Bluefield wanted a transformational programme for their leaders that was practical and action focused, enabling them to create a culture of high performance that could be cascaded beyond the leadership population.
The Solution
Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? designed a bespoke 1-year Leadership Performance Programme.
This approach included:
- 1:1 diagnostic interviews with a sample of leaders who would be participating to understand respective regional challenges/ opportunities. This summarised and themed data was used to shape the programme design, signed off by the business.
- Over a period of 8 months, three cohorts attended three one-day in-person performance workshops, interspersed with virtual momentum sessions, using the cohort peer support to resolve challenges and blockers experienced day-to-day.
- Linking the leadership programme to the company ‘Crazy Goal/North Star’, Individual Leadership Challenges were set up at the start of the programme, providing the opportunity for participants to develop projects that had a direct impact on the wider business.
- A fourth cohort were provided with access to our digital platform, The Boathouse over a period of 12 months. During this time, they were guided through specific development channels, in a programmatic format, working through a range of mediums including videos, exercises and learning journals. The cohort also came together between channel blocks, for virtual momentum sessions.
- Given the pace of the day to day, asking people to take a day out of the business can feel like a strain, so our design approach was a very practical format, with examples brought from their day to day with clear actions for participants to take back to their role.
- We’ve also delivered keynote speeches at Bluefield conferences from Ben Hunt-Davis MBE and Harriet Beveridge. The recent summer conference provided the opportunity to celebrate the progress made by the leaders who participated in the leadership programme. All our participation at the Bluefield conferences included facilitated performance workshops to all attendees.
Alongside the ‘Road to Rome’ leadership programme, we gave targeted support for the leadership team to define and set out their strategy to deliver Bluefield’s Crazy Goal/North Star ‘to power a city the size of Rome with renewable energy by 2028’. We did this by using our layered goal framework to clearly outline the key measurables for 2028 to achieve this and the organisational areas of focus required to deliver these measures. Having this clarity of direction was a critical ingredient for the leadership programme to have a focal point. Through the programme, we developed leaders with the necessary skills to drive and realise the Crazy Goal/North star.
The Results
A significant shift has been that leaders have adopted a coach leader style from a more directive style as previously noted. They have learnt how to employ more pure coaching in everyday activity to empower their teams, that it is a mindset rather than an isolated activity.
There has also been a real shift to become performance rather than results focused. With a clear understanding of what the result needs to be, leaders have built the habit of reviewing performance in increments, both for themselves and their teams, knowing what to start, stop and continue to do as they move towards their specific goals. This is foundational behaviour to creating a high-performance culture. With the programme running across all leaders, there is consistency at every level of the business.


Measures to note
- Since starting the programme, 95% of the leadership performance measures have increased.
- 12% uplift in the leaders stating they ‘have clarity on what they need to prioritise each day’ in line with Bluefield’s goals.
- 14% uplift of leaders who now ‘proactively seek specific feedback’ from their colleagues.
- 11% uplift of leaders who now provide ‘detailed feedback (motivational and developmental) that reinforces desirable behaviours and improves performance’.
- 11% increase of leaders who believe that their ‘leadership capability’ has increased.
- 10% uplift in leaders feeling ‘motivated’ to achieve Bluefield’s current strategic goals.
"We wanted to partner with a provider who could give us the full package – a provider who could help us shape our organisational strategy and develop our internal leadership capability so we can achieve our long-term objectives. Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? excelled at guiding us to define measurable organisational goals and designed an interactive and engaging leadership programme. Our ‘Road to Rome’ strategy is now embedded in the organisation and our Leadership teams have grown in their skills and confidence. I would recommend Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? to any organisation wishing to embark on a similar journey."
Debra Russell, Group HR Director