Listen | Understand | Share — Cecilia Hermansson

A team of magicians

Cecilia’s capacity for coordinating multiple consultancy projects comes from having worked at Symetri since 1997. She has progressed through a variety of roles, and with each one has added more depth to her ability to get to grips with customer challenges. Now, Cecilia is a planner ‘extraordinaire’; the anchor point for a consultancy team of ten.

“Symetri’s commitment to challenging people to work smarter is more than just a customer-facing promise”, says Cecilia. “It is a belief that frames our internal culture, where everybody supports everybody else. Our team is full of individuals, all bringing their own perspective to how we can do things better. When you put all that together it adds up to a team of magicians. Throw a problem at the team and they’ll solve it. Give them a new challenge and they’ll explore every aspect of it, often finding new opportunities for improvement along the way. It all makes for a very inspiring environment to work in”.

Inspiration goes both ways. How the team often works together as a cohesive unit—as well as every individual working on his or her own customers’ challenges—brings fresh energy and insight to every challenge. Cecilia’s role is to channel the constant flow of ideas to where it’s needed most for each customer project, from the smallest to the most ambitious.

Flexibility is the key to personal growth

Cecilia started her career in construction, working as a building engineer, and joined Symetri after a friend who already worked at Symetri suggested she’d thrive in the company. “I met with people from Symetri (it had a different name back then) and the connection was instant. I loved their enthusiasm, and listened to great stories about the way the company worked. I felt I wanted to be part of it; fortunately, they also felt I should be”.

Cecilia says that that feeling has never gone away, which explains why she has been with Symetri ever since. The encouraging atmosphere throughout Symetri immediately made her feel part of a community from the moment she joined. The feeling persists today and Cecilia is as likely, on any particular day, to be collaborating with colleagues in the UK as well as closer to home, across the Nordics, and within her own team.

“I feel that every person in Symetri is like a power-house of capability because we all have the combined, global talent of the entire company behind us; an ‘ecosystem’ you can call on to share and problems whenever you feel that finding the perfect solution may be just beyond your own comfort zone”.

Cecilia considers herself as much a resource to the consultant team as she is to customers. “The team makes me feel valued. This is always the way at Symetri. Everyone is allowed the flexibility to develop their own ideas and to be themselves. For me, that is all about helping others and being open to new ways of looking at things.

The more flexibility you give a person in their role, the more they feel empowered to explore and to express their own opinions and ideas. I think this is where personal growth comes from. It’s the key”.

No hard sell

Back when Cecilia was a building engineer, she had been a customer of the company that became Symetri. She knows how a customer views the type of service they receive from Symetri, what their expectations are, and the reassurance they find when Symetri people really listen to their requirements rather than just try to sell them something.

“The ‘hard sell’ does nothing to build enduring relationships with customers. It has never been part of the Symetri culture. Our consultants help with training and across every aspect of a customer’s projects or long-term goals. We are about smarter working, and that’s a belief—not a product. Building relationships is about listening, understanding, and sharing. Those three words pretty much sum up my job description”, says Cecilia.