Context: Building lasting leadership capabilities and strengthening HR’s strategic impact

At Intelcom, managers work in a fast-paced operational environment where the challenges they face are immediate and practical. For a development initiative to be truly useful, it needs to connect directly to their day-to-day reality and quickly translate into action.

The organization had already launched a leadership development program for its operations teams. But even after experimenting with bite-sized content and different learning formats, one challenge remained: how could they create an experience that truly reflected what people were dealing with on the ground?

An approach built on collective intelligence

Co-development offered a particularly strong fit. The approach is simple: one person brings a real challenge to the group, and the others listen, ask questions, share perspectives and help identify possible courses of action. The facilitator guides the process and supports the quality of the conversation without having to provide all the answers.

Intelcom and Boostalab designed a learning journey for 14 HR facilitators, split into two cohorts: one French-speaking and one English-speaking.

The journey began with a three-hour virtual workshop focused on preparing participants to facilitate co-development sessions. Participants experienced a session firsthand to get familiar with the method, while also exploring key facilitation principles and the mindset needed to guide the process effectively. An online course on coaching techniques rounded out their preparation. They also received a complete toolkit that included a presentation with facilitator notes, a self-assessment of their skills, and practical tips to help them prepare for and lead their first co-development session.

Each participant then received one-on-one support from Emmanuelle De Vigne Blanchet, Learning Experience Facilitator at Boostalab. Before facilitating their first session, they had a coaching conversation to help them prepare and strengthen their understanding of the approach. Emmanuelle then observed the session they facilitated and followed up with targeted feedback.

This support before, during and after facilitation helped participants build confidence, refine their approach and strengthen their skills through real-world practice. The entire process was part of a certification pathway.

For Mélissa Barrett, Director, Leadership, Development and Culture at Intelcom, this support played an important role in helping facilitators build both confidence and capability.

“It was really valuable to have Emmanuelle there to coach the facilitators, observe them and then give them feedback. I think that was a key part of the process.”

For Tasneem Mousa, Organizational Development Coordinator at Intelcom, who was experiencing co-development for the first time herself, the experience was eye-opening. “We really learned from one another,” she says. Beyond finding solutions, she saw a sense of connection emerge among people who did not always know each other and rarely had opportunities to bring their different perspectives together.

Creating the conditions for success

Before the first sessions took place, the project raised a few questions. Why ask HR teams, who were already very busy, to facilitate the sessions rather than operations trainers? How was this approach different from the previous program, from coaching or from traditional training?

The team refined its communications and clarified the role of co-development. Unlike traditional training, the approach did not rely on predetermined content to be taught. Its value came from the process itself, the quality of the questions and the diversity of experiences in the room.

Intelcom also chose to roll out the initiative gradually, starting with selected areas and small groups. This made it easier to learn from the first sessions and adjust the approach along the way.

Tasneem played a central role in coordinating the rollout of the co-development sessions at Intelcom. She managed everything from setting up the sessions in Workday to sending Outlook invitations and preparation materials. She also made sure participants had the right access and supported those who were less familiar with virtual breakout rooms.

This careful coordination was much more than logistical support. It was a key condition for success. By anticipating technical issues and setting clear expectations from the outset, Tasneem allowed both participants and facilitators to focus on what mattered most: the quality of the conversations.

The first sessions quickly showed the potential of the approach. One participant had been trying to resolve a challenge for three months. In about an hour and a half, a conversation with eight colleagues helped surface a concrete way forward.

Results observed: richer solutions and stronger connections

Before the launch, some people were concerned that supervisors might participate very little or attend the sessions without really engaging. In practice, participation was stronger than expected.

“We didn’t expect such strong participation,” Tasneem notes. Some participants even said they would like to take part again.

A five-question survey was sent out after the sessions. Early results and comments were very positive overall, and the full data will eventually provide a clearer picture of the impact.

But the benefits went beyond participant satisfaction. The groups brought together people from different parts of the organization, giving them an opportunity to discover shared challenges, useful practices and internal resources they did not always know existed.

“A really strong sense of connection develops very quickly,” Mélissa observes. In her view, the diversity of perspectives leads to richer solutions, while the method itself changes the quality of the conversations.

The process encourages the group to resist the urge to immediately offer an answer. Participants first need to listen, ask questions and try to understand the situation more fully. By slowing down the problem-solving process just enough, they are able to surface richer ideas that are better suited to the reality at hand.

This structure also creates more room for people who may be less likely to speak up spontaneously. “More introverted participants felt they were being heard more,” Mélissa notes. That quality of listening helps create a sense of connection within the group very quickly.

Facilitators also discovered that by following the method and trusting the group, they could create a meaningful learning experience without having to provide all the answers themselves.

Making co-development a habit

The initiative is now continuing at Intelcom. Looking ahead, the goal goes beyond organizing one-off sessions. The organization wants the 14 trained facilitators to gradually develop the habit of initiating sessions themselves and help introduce the practice to other teams.

“What I’d really like is for people to get into the habit of doing it on their own,” Mélissa explains.

That kind of autonomy fits well with Intelcom’s reality. Teams are action-oriented, time is limited and people are looking for practical solutions. Co-development gives them a framework for slowing down just enough to listen more carefully, bring their experiences together and walk away with ideas that fit their day-to-day reality.

The experience is a reminder that organizations already hold much of the knowledge they need. The key is to create the right spaces, share the method and put the right conditions in place so that collective intelligence can circulate.

Key takeaways

→ Development initiatives are more relevant when they start with real situations and lead to ideas people can apply right away.

→ Facilitators do not need to have all the answers. A structured method and the right facilitation mindset make it possible to tap into the expertise of the group.

→ Hands-on support, observation and feedback help people adopt a new practice more quickly.

→ Co-development can help solve concrete challenges, share knowledge across the organization and strengthen connections between teams.