Heading the RWB engineering firm, which employs over 200 people in French-speaking Switzerland, Samuel Beuchat decided to organize workshops dedicated to the development of sustainable teams.
Text by Francesca Sacco
What important lessons did you learn about sustainable teams through this project?
I was impressed to observe the plurality of participants' thought systems, within a seemingly very homogeneous cohort. From this point of view, we have an undeniable diversity that I would not have suspected. Some people are very focused on control and mastery, others are more sensitive to human factors, and still others are particularly interested in processes and methods. Furthermore, the methodology we chose to use sometimes forced us to expose ourselves, and that is precisely what, in my opinion, allows us to co-construct a managerial approach that generates strong buy-in. As always in the field of managerial skills development, the theory is relatively simple at first glance. The considerable difficulty is being able to mobilize acquired skills in all circumstances, and particularly in situations where teams need them most, i.e., in cases of conflict, significant technical or economic pressures, or simply when they are tired.
What do you do differently today, following these workshops?
After just one session, an internal coaching duo between managers was able to be set up. This is an approach we had not yet experimented with. I look forward to discovering the results of this support model, which requires both humility and trust. The objective is to develop our teams' ability to mobilize knowledge from the field.
In broad terms, what was the project?
Originally, we wanted to give concrete tools to our managers, who are primarily engineers. They are attracted to technology and possess a natural aptitude for «hard» sciences, but do not have much knowledge of management, apart from empirical experience. Developing one's understanding of human sciences is essential, especially since we are facing a very marked resource shortage across our entire sector of activity.
The project in figures
1 burn-out awareness session
4 workshops initiated early October 2022
20 executives trained
2nd cycle of workshops organized between October and December
3rd cycle to be planned in 2023
The Group in brief
The RWB Group employs over 200 people. Its history dates back to 1938, with the creation of the civil engineering firm in Porrentruy. Over time, the firm evolved and expanded under the impetus of Serge Beuchat (Samuel's father), with the opening of several companies in the French-speaking cantons and the acquisition of new entities. The Group was certified SN EN ISO 9001 in the late 1990s and ISO 14001 in the following decade. It continues to open branches and reorganize by regions and areas of expertise to now cover all of French-speaking Switzerland.
The CEO's philosophy
After an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a start to his career in social work, Samuel Beuchat joined the RWB Group as CEO and Secretary of the Board of Directors. He is driven by a conviction: «The manager's ability to mobilize - some speak of engagement - is decisive. Our role is to support employees, to assist them daily, and to establish a climate of trust, in a stimulating and humane atmosphere. The manager must be humanly appealing. This is absolutely essential. Moreover, I feel that the burden of proof has shifted. For illustration, before, an employee had to wait a year to potentially get one day of telework per week; today, it is up to the employer to demonstrate their ability to trust, to give meaning, etc. It is the manager's responsibility to communicate clear objectives to the teams and to give them the freedom to achieve them as they wish, within a defined framework.
