Where Culture meets Performance! Case Study: Exergyn

Over the past six months I have been working with a unique organisation in the Research & Development space called Exergyn. Led by CEO Kevin O’Toole, Exergyn has a clear mission and purpose to create a cleaner world by significantly reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by leveraging its world-class expertise in Shape Memory Alloy (SMA).

When I started working with Exergyn, I knew they had a unique culture and a magic that was both intriguing and special. They reached out as they needed help uncovering and understanding what made them different. Like many organisations, they had a set of values but they weren’t really known or embraced by the employees as much as they would like. As they were growing and beginning to scale they knew they needed to have a culture that was the glue for their employees in multiple locations.

"In the past we have had values in place that were either not widely known, or not commonly referenced. As such, these offered no advantage to us as a growing organisation. Since Emer's arrival and the refresh in thinking that she has brought, there has been a noticeable shift in behaviours across the breadth of the company towards culture and values" ~CEO Exergyn, Kevin O'Toole

Alongside the exceptional HR specialist Pamela Kavanagh, I had the privilege of working with Exergyn to uncover the magic of their culture, to unveil a set of values that ignited a spark in their people and to embed the values from leadership level all the way down to project and team level.

On a personal level Kevin has said "Emer has provided me with a framework to link culture and values to my everyday work as CEO. This perspective has helped me view the organization through a different lens which has provided me with new tools to tackle everyday issues. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with Emer and discovering new areas of applicability and tools to help drive the company forward."

Through a blend of creative and dynamic workshops, 1-1 performance coaching and leadership coaching, we have aligned the Exergyn team across Ireland, the UK and the Czech Republic with their culture and we continue to enhance the collective performance through the values. The values are so much more than a 'nice to have' if they are embraced and truly mean something to your people. They are anchors for ‘how’ your people perform together and how they approach their work. From uncovering a set of values to embedding these values in leadership practices and team performance, this Exergyn team embraced it's values of Solid, Bold, Focused and One and have taken something that at first was 'fluffy' and turned it into a tool that has directly impacted performance.

If you have a set of values buried in a folder in HR that you are not sure what to do with. Or if you know you're part of or leading something special but you're not quite sure what it is, please don't hesitate to reach out and I can help you uncover your magic and see how your values can drive high-performance. You can DM me on LinkedIn or pop me an email on fogartyemer1@gmail.com.