Recent work

The Challenge

The Mars Global Food Safety Center is a state-of-the-art research and training facility in Beijing, China, that is at the heart of a global network of partners and collaborators tackling the most significant food safety challenges facing the planet today.

Over time, the way the centre’s success is measured has evolved, with additional focus on demonstrating clearer business outcomes beyond the pure science output. Scientific work must now be planned, prioritised and delivered in a way that also aligns with business needs, timelines and decision-making processes.

The GFSC leadership team identified a gap between ‘pure science research’ ways of working and emerging business expectations. Research scientists were being asked to run their work as projects; however, many had not been trained to lead projects in the formal sense. There was a belief generally amongst the scientists that science couldn’t be held to timelines or milestones because ‘science takes as long as it takes’.  

Project management skills such as managing stakeholders, planning milestones, navigating governance, and communicating progress were not previously considered in the team’s recruitment approach.

The leadership team at the Global Food Safety Center recognised they needed help with making this transformation and engaged Knowledge Connections specifically to help build project leadership capability within the scientific community, while remaining sensitive to the realities of scientific work and the cultural context in which the team operated.  

The Thinking

It quickly became apparent that this was about more than skills training.

There were two important layers to understand. The first was cultural. Working with a China-based team required a different approach to communication, authority and engagement. Feedback tended to be polite and positive, even where there was resistance or uncertainty. This made it harder to surface concerns early and respond to them directly.

The second layer was professional culture. While many scientists are trained to focus on evidence and technical problem-solving, project leadership often requires a different skill set; bringing people together without direct authority, working with uncertainty, and aligning diverse stakeholders. In some cases, these activities may be perceived as secondary to the science itself.

Knowledge Connections approached the work through a PROSCI change management lens. Project leadership training was seen as only one part of a wider journey. For new ways of working to take hold, people needed to understand why the change mattered, how it related to the organisation’s direction, and what was expected of them in practice.

The team also recognised that capability would vary. Some scientists would be able and willing to step into project leadership roles, and others would not, regardless of training. That insight later became central to how the work evolved.

The Execution

Knowledge Connections designed and delivered a virtual project leadership programme tailored specifically for scientists working in a global environment.

The content focused on the practical realities of running projects: clarifying roles, engaging stakeholders, planning work through defined stages and understanding governance expectations. Sessions were adapted in real time, allowing discussions to go deeper where curiosity or challenge emerged, rather than forcing a fixed agenda.

To address cultural differences, the team introduced a structured cultural mapping exercise. Participants explored how approaches to authority, communication and decision-making differed across countries and how those differences played out when working with global stakeholders. These insights were then translated into practical strategies for managing relationships more effectively.

Alongside formal training, Knowledge Connections provided coaching and mentoring, worked with line managers to reinforce expectations, and facilitated conversations that helped leaders align around what good project leadership looked like in this context.

The Outcome

The work highlighted just how important adaptability is when operating across cultures, disciplines and organisational contexts.

Through the programme, participants developed a clearer understanding of what effective project leadership involved and why it mattered to the business.  

Leaders gained better insight into where training could build capability, and where alternative approaches were needed. Knowledge Connections provided some tools to measure the adoption of the change, which was tracked over time.

Self-assessment data showed a clear shift in how participants viewed their project leadership capability, with scores becoming more consistent and moving towards higher levels across key areas.

WHAT WAS THE ENGAGEMENT?

We were engaged to provide change management expertise and support for the procurement function within a large global FMCG organisation.

The change involved new tools (IT systems), processes and behaviours for 300 buyers and their finance counterparts spread all over the world.

WHAT DID WE DO?

Knowledge Connections supported the gathering and assessment of the ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ vision, and created the proposal for the change management plan that included how we would train and  communicate to the impacted employees, how we would engage their line managers, how to identify and engage with the various sponsors, and how to anticipate and manage potential areas of resistance.

We then actively managed the change aspects of the project: writing draft communications; building training programs; assessing the change adoption and course correcting where needed.

We were also able to cover the unexpected absence of the overall project manager during a critical systems go-live, and ran the daily team check-in with the systems provider to ensure that the system launch was successful

Our Client was a major organisation, planning for a massive expansion, facing into an extremely significant change project to ensure their business was futureproof. The scale of this change meant that it would touch everyone in the business, many thousands of colleagues!

The Client was running a three week induction programme for key Business Process Owners and Subject Matter Experts who were going to be asked to step up and become Change Agents for their functional areas, supporting their colleagues through this period of massive uncertainty. They had varying levels of experience of change themselves and they were being asked to do this alongside their brand new day jobs of designing the future Business Processes.

Knowledge Connections were invited to run three sessions in these induction weeks across two and a half days. The aim of these sessions was to help the Colleagues better understand their own response to change overall and air any concerns in a safe environment, as well as receive structured training around areas such as the Change Curve, and the Neuroscience of Change. Most importantly the sessions were set up to be as flexible as possible allowing time for these Colleagues to be heard.

In order to consider costs and Colleague wellbeing the sessions were run face to face in two locations on the same day. They included virtual check ins from critical senior Stakeholders and also a virtual check in between the sites at the end of each day to ensure consistency of messaging. The feedback from these sixty colleagues was that these two and a half days were the most valuable of the fifteen week programme and had really helped to prepare them for the challenge ahead.

Our Client was facing into a very specific challenge around Data Privacy after the results of an Internal Audit.

They had a short deadline to come up with a plan to demonstrate to the Auditors that they were able to bring this under control and reduce the exposure of the Business.

Knowledge Connections facilitated the bringing together of a group of key Business Associates who could achieve this task, rapidly and in a high-quality way, at a two day face to face meeting. Using the Design Thinking methodology and their years of experience at facilitating meetings they ran this session, keeping the energy high whilst also incorporating global attendees who were unable to travel through virtual technology.

The Client left the session with a clear action plan and a group of Associates committed to achieving this task.