How RX's Greater China Team Built Performance Gains That Lasted

The Challenge

RX's Greater China leadership team was not a team in trouble.

This was an established, high-performing senior team with long tenure, based across China and Singapore, and delivering in a demanding market.

But high-performing teams face a problem of their own.

Years of success can lock in routines that are rarely questioned. Busy schedules, customer commitments and a blurred boundary between work and life leave little room to reflect on how well leaders are actually performing, or what it is costing them.

And most leadership development has a well-known weakness. The energy is high at the end of the programme, but within weeks old habits return and the impact fades.

The question was simple:

Could an already high-performing team raise its productivity further, and make the change last?

The concern was not capability.

The concern was sustainability.

Leading From Experience

The engagement was sponsored by the President of RX Greater China, who had completed OwnLife's Per4RM® programme himself earlier in 2024. Having experienced the difference first-hand, he wanted his whole leadership team to benefit in the same way.

The team went through the nine-week programme together, combining performance tracking, personal reports, one-to-one coaching and team workshops.

Every member of the team committed to the programme, and every member completed it.

What Emerged

By measuring the factors that drive cognitive performance, leaders could see clearly what was holding back their 'form'. Sleep, nutrition, caffeine, energy slumps and the lack of a clear line between work and life all came to the surface.

As one leader reflected:

"Through the program I reexamined some of my routine activities... cups of coffee I drink, the time to go to bed, the boundary between work and life... It has improved my connection with my family and peers and helps me make better decisions and create better relationships."

The Results

Leaders recorded an average 10.3% increase in productivity, with improvements across every key leadership area:

·         Time spent highly proactive and engaged, up 12.5%

·         Relationship management, up 10.3%

·         Situational leadership, up 10.3%

·         Listening and communication, up 9.8%

·         Time for quality deep thinking, up 8.5%

·         Quality and timeliness of decision making, up 7.9%

Every participant rated the programme as very or extremely valuable in giving them the skills to perform more sustainably.

The team's response exceeded OwnLife's own benchmarks:

·         100% reported a permanent change in mindset (benchmark: 86%)

·         100% described the programme as transformational (benchmark: 78%)

·         100% would recommend it to colleagues, with a Net Promoter Score of +88

"This programme has meant so much to me, it's shown me I can change... I have more 'me' time, I go to sleep earlier and am more productive all round."

The 90-day test

The real measure of any development programme is what is still happening once it ends. So, 90 days later, OwnLife brought the team back together.

It was striking that every leader could share something meaningful that had stuck with them. The language of 'form' had become part of how the team talked, and leaders spoke openly about lasting changes to their sleep, nutrition, exercise and, in some cases, their ways of working.

"I am now always aware of my form... it helps me decide what to take on."

"I have permanently changed when I eat my evening meal, which has improved my sleep dramatically."

"I am still tracking... my sleep score was at 55, is now 75+ and often over 80."

"I have had two surgeries recently. What I changed from the programme has meant I have felt no change in my energy levels, even during recovery."

The shared experience had also brought an already close team even closer. About half had already shared what they had learned with their own teams, with positive results, and the others committed to doing the same.

Long-Term Impact

Following the 90-day review, the President set out his ambition to cascade the programme further within the team's own organisations.

The outcomes confirmed that Per4RM® can be offered to global, regional and country leadership teams and relied upon to improve productivity by more than 10%, while reducing burnout and attrition risk and helping busy leaders balance their lives.

Because the true test of a development programme is not how people feel on the final day.

It is what they are still doing 90 days later.