Creating Transformational Moments that Inspire Leaders

Thompson Machinery, a leading heavy equipment provider in the southeast United States, looked to Thrivence for support in driving an annual organizational leadership summit to fuel the next year and season of its growth. With a partnership grounded in co-creation, Thrivence guided the company by infusing creative thinking with its leadership training and engaging its leaders in impactful ways over a two-day event.

Client Situation

Thompson Machinery sought to enhance its annual manager’s meeting and needed a partner who could help inspire its 100+ leaders and reinforce its values, mission, and vision with the leader’s outcomes. Thompson serves the broad range of needs for customers in a geographically diverse territory, which encompasses construction, forestry, mining, industrial, governmental and agricultural operations. Additionally, its Thompson Power division serves trucking, marine, and power generation businesses throughout the area and beyond. The organization has a heavy focus on legacy, mission, and values, and needed a partner who could contextualize the problems they solve with the lives they touch along the way.

“We are a relationship business. We wanted to sit down with someone who could cater our meeting to our outcomes. We wanted our managers to know that we are on the same team, to know our mission, our values, and when we talked to Thrivence, they got what we are about and they became our partner,” said Brette Shelley, director of marketing for Thompson Machinery. “They were there with us in planning the meeting and in making sure that we not only told our managers what we wanted to say, but they ensured that our managers experienced everything we wanted them to learn.”

The Thrivence Approach

Our strategy involved two full-day engagements with over 100 of Thompson’s leaders across the organization. Thrivence employed immersive leadership experiences, including hands-on problem solving, real-time assessments, and a bicycle build benefiting local families in need. These strategies helped align leaders across the company and tie the company’s mission to their day-to-day interactions.

Value Delivered

Thrivence was an active partner throughout every stage of the experience, from planning to execution. Our approach of co-creation embedded new problem-solving capability within the organization, helping equip the leaders with tactics they can use every day. Rather than being told the end goal, the leaders were engaged, excited, and guided through an experience. Ultimately impacting over 100 leaders, our work helped to solidify a critical success factor for transformation: the ability of leaders to internalize and operationalize the company’s mission, vision, and values.