As with all centralized functions of large organizations, there is often a perception that they are insulated from the realities of the unpredictable, fast-changing, world going on externally around them. For corporate learning departments, this can be a particularly damaging perception, as it can undermine their ability to effect the changes they are tasked with trying to implement.

Jenny Zeller, Head of Deutsche Bahn Academy (DBA), understood that this perception needed to be tackled and has presided over a dramatic revolution of working practice within the Academy, which has catalyzed a new sense of purpose there and, perhaps more importantly, given the Academy more credibility with those Deutsche Bahn departments and divisions that they interact with (pretty much all of the organization) in terms of their knowledge and experience in effecting change.

Deutsche Bahn is a classic industry caught in the cross-hairs of digital transformation. At first glance, it may appear relatively protected from the rapid change being wrought in other sectors, such as retailing, banking, music, or even the automotive industry. But digital transformation’s reach is all-pervasive and central to the context it operates in is the increased focus on customer-centricity and the railway business is just as vulnerable to customer evaluation and choice as any other. As a business, built on heavy capital investment, and with a 165-year history behind it, inevitably there are plenty of legacy issues for DB to tackle: from track and signaling, and rolling stock, to traveler communications and working practices, with many other issues in between.

Zeller has led the Deutsche Bahn Academy in Potsdam since 2014 and, after many conversations with her team, she decided to advance an idea seeded by her colleague, Markus Wolfgram, to take the Academy to the ‘Next Level’. At its core, the idea was to flatten the hierarchy and adopt a holacratic approach to strengthen the agility and self-management of the work they deliver.

Zeller’s approach to this transformation from a traditional hierarchical structure to a self-organized one is firmly rooted as an ‘experiment’. This positioning of the change is important, as it allowed for flexibility and changes as the process evolves, and removed the sense of having to work to a pre-defined formula. “Scrums and sprints – the classic approaches to achieving management agility did not seem to fit with the work we do at the Academy; so we needed to find a different approach that suited our particular work needs and culture,” says Zeller. At the heart of the change taking the Academy to the Next Level that Zeller agreed to, was that the process would be led by the employees and not by her. Her big challenge was then to accept that if things were going to operate differently, then she too had to have the ‘ability to let go and trust others’. So, the concept that ‘the employees take the initiative and assume responsibility’ took hold.

Starting in December 2017 the team prioritised ‘making the Academy agile’ and in early 2018 the Next Level Academy project was launched. Over the following months, a framework was identified as to new roles and working structures to enable projects to progress more quickly and effectively.

The significant changes were that, aside from Zeller herself, who was mandated from outside the Academy to lead it, all roles would now be elected by team members. This brought with it a range of issues both positive and challenging. Existing team leaders had to re-apply for their positions or equivalent positions, and could easily find themselves not getting them, with the associated damage to self-esteem and influence. For people who had worked all their lives in the traditional environment of DB, this was a hugely disruptive and potentially problematic change.

On the positive side, though elections are done via secret ballot, the process is transparent and the new role holders start with clear legitimacy and support of the team. However, these are not ‘leader’ roles of a traditional top-down hierarchical system, but ‘nodal’ positions, where the leadership task is much more one of co-ordination and facilitation rather than one of direction and command. In certain respects, these roles, while critical, are the classically less appealing elements of leadership they are the behind-the-scenes ones of managing people and processes and not the front-of-house ones that spotlight the leader

The DBA identified five core project teams: Management and Performance; Leadership; Career; Communications; and Transformation and Digitization teams. Each team had an elected ‘product owner’ and then cross-functional roles within them, that held responsibility for issues like marketing, finance, and IT. These cross-functional members would be able to liaise amongst their peers to ensure harmonization and best practices were maintained. The product owner would be focused on delivering the project output to the client (predominantly internal DB departments), one of the key objectives of the new structure being increased customer focus. While having no more influence within the project teams than other team members, the product owner is the public face of the team and sits on the main DBA Board.

In addition to the five elected ‘product owners,’ there was a sixth position available: The Agile Leader. This role covers the whole DBA and is the ‘people-focused’ role, in contrast to the ‘business-focused’ ones of the product owners, where the responsibility is to ensure that everyone is functioning well on an individual level as well as a team.

The six elected roles were advertised internally, and eleven people put themselves forward for them. Only staff members who nominated colleagues were eligible to vote, if you did not engage in the process you did not earn a vote. The election process was an iterative one, as people had put themselves forward for more than one role, but once they had been elected they were no longer able to be candidates for other roles, so the field of candidates dwindled as the election process progressed. However, all positions were contested, with no one earning a role by just being the last man standing.

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is,” said the baseball manager, Yogi Berra, in one of his many memorable aphorisms. One of the complications with the elected role approach is how it impacts existing pay and contract structures.

The DBA team decided amongst themselves and eventually gained Workers Council agreement, that the elected roles would be held for two-year periods. No one’s contracted salary would be altered by the roles, so those who lost leadership roles were not being negatively affected remuneratively by these changes. Those who took on additional roles as a result of the changes, however, were granted two-year ‘add-on’ contracts to augment their salary for the period they held the roles.

In addition to the new holacratic-style structure, the DBA staff have also instituted some new working practices. Most noticeable is the hot-desking, which not only requires everyone to clear their desk each evening but also compels staff to never sit in the same location for more than three days in a row. This mixes the teams up, and while adds an element of complexity, in that everyone, has to be disciplined in making themselves findable to others, performs a useful function in both breaking up silos and also adding to the sense of autonomy individuals have in planning and managing their days.

While this new regime has only been properly functioning for a few months, the impact of its implementation can already be seen. Perhaps the most significant aspect is that, when the DBA staff are working with their internal clients, they say there is a distinctly different feel to the conversations now. A heightened respect for what they are advocating, as they have ‘walked the talk’ in undertaking a transformation – and people now seek them out to ask their advice on how the process works.

Zeller is aware that the DBA's role in recommending change and adaptation, particularly in response to the digital transformation DB is undergoing, has been hugely beneficial in that the Academy has been seen to lead the change process in this way. “Walking the talk builds credibility with customers and build a relationship with them too”. So, the second significant benefit is that the team is finding itself, through these better conversations, closer to its customers than ever before, and they are consequently better able to respond to customer needs.