T-Systems

By 2018, T-Systems, a subsidiary of telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, faced a crisis that threatened the survival of one of Europe's leading digital service providers.

Five Years of Declining Profitability

Despite employing over 27,000 people across 20+ countries and maintaining prominent partnerships with Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, and Google Cloud, T-Systems had been declining for more than five consecutive years. Incoming CEO Adel Al-Saleh inherited the mandate to restore profitability through radical changes: layoffs, cost reductions, operating model overhauls, and product repositioning.

But Al-Saleh recognized that behavioral changes alone wouldn't be enough to turn the company around.

Command-and-Control Culture Blocking Change

The multi-national company operated according to strict hierarchy and traditional chain-of-command decision-making with multiple layers of management. "This old command-and-control and hard management of people was so prevalent, so pervasive across the organization," Al-Saleh explained.

The stern, top-down management style had created a culture where employees felt managed rather than empowered, controlled rather than trusted. Leaders saw their role as enforcing compliance, not enabling performance.

Pervasive Skepticism and Resistance

Years of command-and-control leadership had bred deep cynicism throughout the organization. "People were so skeptical about any potential changes possible," Al-Saleh recalled. "Nobody believed that the organization could change."

Employees had learned to protect themselves, justify their positions, and resist anything new. The skepticism wasn't irrational—it was a logical response to years of being treated as objects to be managed rather than people with insights and capabilities.

Communication Breakdown Across Leadership

The hierarchical structure created silos across the organization. Leadership teams couldn't communicate openly. Issues festered rather than being addressed directly. Collaboration was minimal because the command-and-control system rewarded individual compliance over collective problem-solving.

As one leader observed, the old dynamic prevented the open communication necessary to address the company's mounting challenges.

Al-Saleh understood the core issue: "It became very evident that without changing how we operate, how we work together, it would be very difficult to see noticeable results. The mindset, the cultural aspect of the organization, is 75% plus of that change. Because you can make the changes, you can introduce new things, you can take cost down. But if you don't change how people operate and how they work together and how they think about the business, it's not sustainable." 

Al-Saleh had read "Leadership and Self-Deception" twenty years earlier and described it as having a "phenomenal impact" on his understanding of leadership. The book helped him recognize how self-justification—always justifying problems against somebody else versus taking ownership—inhibits success both professionally and personally.

To address T-Systems' profitability crisis, Al-Saleh knew he needed to tackle the root cause: how people saw each other and their work.

Building Accountability with 200 Leaders

T-Systems brought together 200+ leaders from across the company, the catalysts who would drive transformation. These leaders attended an Arbinger workshop designed to establish a shared framework and language for developing an outward mindset.

The training helped leaders deepen their self-awareness and increase their capacity to see others more clearly. They were supported in rethinking their roles and responsibilities, expanding their job description to include their impact on others, not just their technical deliverables or compliance metrics.

The workshop provided the foundation necessary for a results-centered approach that accounted for the human element so easily forgotten amid the stress of major business changes. Leaders started asking different questions: not "How do I get compliance?" but "How can I help my team succeed? What do they need from me?"

Scaling Across the Organization

T-Systems invested in training ten strategically selected leaders as internal Arbinger facilitators, creating capacity to spread the tools and frameworks throughout the organization. This wasn't a one-time training event, it was building sustainable capability for ongoing alignment.

The approach gave leaders practical ways to move from command-and-control to collaboration, even while executing difficult changes like layoffs and cost reductions.

Applying Principles During Crisis

As leaders applied Arbinger principles to their teams and daily work practices, something remarkable happened. Even under the strain of layoffs and large-scale restructuring, employees reported being "amazed" at how interactions were changing.

Leaders stopped defending their positions and started addressing issues directly. Communication opened up. Problems that once festered were now resolved more quickly and with greater collaboration. The pervasive skepticism began to lift as people experienced a genuinely different way of working together.

The impact was felt immediately. "There was an immediate momentum around the concept," Al-Saleh described. "People were eager to take it to their teams."

The operating dynamics of leadership teams shifted fundamentally. People started communicating with greater openness. Arbinger principles enabled issues to be resolved more quickly and with genuine collaboration—a stark contrast to the defensive, siloed approach that had characterized the organization for years.

Within the first year, Arbinger training had impacted approximately 5,000 employees across T-Systems, with plans to more than double that number in year two. The company's reorganization efforts began showing positive effects. For the first time in over five years, T-Systems stopped its financial decline.

The transformation extended beyond Germany to T-Systems' subsidiary organizations in Spain, Romania, and Hungary. The approach proved effective across different cultures and markets—because the core challenges of command-and-control leadership, skepticism, and poor communication transcend geography.

Employees throughout the organization experienced the change, particularly during the most difficult moments. As Al-Saleh repeatedly heard: employees were "amazed" that genuine collaboration was possible even during layoffs and restructuring—times when command-and-control typically intensifies.

The shift created a culture of agility, collaboration, and willingness to change—indispensable qualities for an industry leader in the rapidly shifting IT landscape. The improved communication, reduced skepticism, and collaborative problem-solving positioned T-Systems to navigate future challenges with greater resilience.

T-Systems proved that command-and-control cultures, employee skepticism, and communication silos can't be overcome through behavioral mandates or structural reorganization alone. When 200+ leaders shifted from justifying problems against others to taking ownership for their impact, they created the foundation for sustainable turnaround. The result: reversed five years of decline, improved profitability, and an organization capable of thriving in a competitive digital services market. As Al-Saleh noted, addressing mindset accounts for 75% or more of successful change initiatives—making it worth substantial time and energy, especially when survival is at stake.