The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) is one of the largest multi-academy trusts in the South and East of England with 45 primary and secondary academies. In total, TKAT has 22,000 children and 3,350 staff in its ‘family’.
The pandemic has put school leaders, teachers and students under significant pressure, yet TKAT decided that improvements could not wait and embarked on a programme with Complete that has been described as “phenomenal”, “transformative” and “incredible”.
The challenges facing the organisation were the silos and hierarchy that were operating in a previously undiscovered feedback loop. Challenges arose because the different functions were servicing their own area of the business, with the responsibility of coordinating with manufacturing facilities falling on a few individuals in senior positions.
Relationships between different functions within the organisation became transactional; manufacturing facilities were thought of as suppliers rather than colleagues with whom they should build and sustain meaningful relationships.
The Complete interventions focused not only on explaining what was preventing progress, but also revealed how the organisation could enhance collaboration to reduce the dependence on those in senior positions and build a more connected organisation.
The first step in prompting the change was ensuring a common understanding of the problem.
“Working with Complete has been transformative for senior leaders at TKAT, for many from the very first moments of their development work. Leaders describe ‘lightbulb’ moments when they realise for the first time just what they need to achieve more and have better working relationships.
We are hoping that the staff will have a better work life balance, will be more creative in their thinking and that ultimately TKAT will become the employer of choice and we’ll attract great people because of our culture.
When we have happy, productive and creative leaders, we inspire better teachers, which impacts on better outcomes for children. We can’t underestimate how significant the change created by Complete has been and, we expect, will continue to be.”
