Case Study · RightShip · Maritime risk & sustainability · Developing a global team to learn as one
RightShip developed 83 of its people across every timezone and function, and a business scattered around the world started learning as one connected team.
RightShip developed 83 of its people across every timezone and function, and a business scattered around the world started learning as one connected team.People developed across the business
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from vetting superintendents to sustainability analysts and data engineers, across Melbourne, Singapore, Malta, London and Houston
2 cohorts
every workshop run twice, for APAC and for EMEA and the Americas, so the whole company could be in the room
8 themes
across 14 months, from influence and collaboration to leading change and navigating conflict
1 shared language
built across functions that rarely meet: vetting, sustainability, data, commercial and people
Executive Summary
- Sector
- Maritime risk, safety & sustainability technology
- Buyer
- Director, Talent & Development
The Brief
RightShip helps keep the world's shipping safer, cleaner and smarter, and it does that work through people spread right across the globe and across very different functions, from the superintendents who vet and inspect vessels to the analysts who score their emissions and the engineers who build the platform. As RightShip scaled, it wanted to develop those people not one office or one function at a time, but as one connected organisation: a shared way of working, and a real network across a business where colleagues in Singapore, Malta, London and Houston rarely meet.
The Outcome
Over 14 months RightShip developed 83 of its people as one community across every timezone and function. Every workshop ran twice, once for APAC and once for EMEA and the Americas, so a vetting superintendent, a sustainability analyst and a data engineer worked the same real problems in the same rooms. They came out of it with a shared language for how they work and a network that now runs across the business, with people reaching for a colleague in another office rather than solving alone.
From the leadership
As an L&D team, we wanted to develop our people as one global business, not one office at a time, and that is exactly what this gave us. 10X built the programme around RightShip and the real challenges our people actually face, and ran it across every timezone so colleagues from Singapore to Houston could genuinely take part. The most valuable part was watching people who rarely meet, across vetting, sustainability, data and commercial, learn from each other in the same room. It never felt like training that gets left behind; our Performance Partner was part of the business, reachable between sessions and working on real problems, so the skills landed in the day job.
It has given us a shared language and a far more connected team than we had a year ago.”
Ziyaah Shaikh
Head of Learning & Development, RightShip
01 / A global company, developed as one
RightShip's people keep the world's shipping safer and cleaner from offices scattered across the planet. It chose to develop them as one connected team.
RightShip sits at the centre of global maritime safety and sustainability, vetting and inspecting vessels, rating their emissions and building the platform the industry runs on. That work is done by people in very different roles, in very different places: a vetting superintendent in Singapore, a sustainability analyst in London, a data engineer in Malta, a commercial lead in Houston. As RightShip kept scaling, it recognised something many global businesses only notice once silos have set: a company this spread out, across both distance and discipline, does not become one team by accident. It chose to build that connection deliberately.
The challenges RightShip wanted its people to be ready for are the real ones of running a busy, always-on global business. Leading and communicating clearly across timezones and cultures, in a workforce of many nationalities where even a shared language carries different tones. Collaborating across functions that see the same problem through different lenses and measure success in different ways. Navigating constant change and a relentless flow of urgent requests without losing the thread of what matters. These are the problems already on its people's plates, in Melbourne mornings and Houston afternoons alike.
So the brief to 10X had two halves, and both came from RightShip's own ambition rather than any shortfall. Give its people a shared, practical set of skills for leading and working well, grounded in their actual world rather than a textbook. And use the programme itself to connect them, so a global, multi-function business that rarely gets everyone in the same place starts to learn from itself.
02 / Built for a 24/7, global business
Not an off-the-shelf course. A programme built around RightShip's world, and delivered around the clock.
10X did not arrive with a fixed programme to install. The work was shaped around RightShip: grounded in the maritime risk and sustainability world its people actually operate in, from vessel ratings and vetting to the always-on service the industry depends on, and built for a company that never sleeps because somewhere a ship is always waiting. So it was delivered follow-the-sun. Every workshop ran twice, once for the APAC cohort and once for EMEA and the Americas, so a colleague in Singapore and a colleague in Houston each learned it at a civilised hour, and the whole company could genuinely take part rather than just the half awake at the time.
How it worked
An embedded Performance Partner, and a rhythm of learning put straight to work on real problems.
Rather than a trainer who turns up, delivers and leaves, RightShip had a 10X Performance Partner embedded across the engagement, known across the business, reachable between sessions and working on the real problems already on people's plates. Each theme was tuned to what RightShip's people were actually grappling with, so the examples in the room were vessel ratings and cross-cultural client conversations, not case studies from someone else's company.
And the programme ran as a deliberate rhythm rather than a series of one-off talks. A theme was taught, then people took it back to the job and tried it, and for the early themes the group came back together weeks later for an Elevate session to troubleshoot what had actually happened, working each other's live problems. The skill was never left in the room; it was put to work and then sharpened on real experience.
Step 01
Learn the skill
A theme taught in a Prime workshop, grounded in RightShip's own world
Step 02
Put it to work
People take it straight back to the real problem on their plate
Step 03
Troubleshoot together
The group comes back to work what actually happened, peer to peer
And again, twice for every theme, once per cohort
The loop ran twice for every theme, once for each cohort, so learning was always paired with doing and then sharpened on real experience, not left on a slide.
03 / The room was the teacher
The most valuable thing in the room was the room. Functions and timezones that rarely meet, solving the same problems together.
The point of mixing the cohorts was that people learn fastest from each other. 10X's principle is that the answers a business needs are mostly already inside it, held across its people, and a company as spread out as RightShip rarely gets to use them because the people who hold them never meet. So the rooms were built to cross-pollinate, not to lecture. A vetting superintendent worked a live problem next to a sustainability analyst and a data lead, and saw how differently the same challenge looks from another seat, and how often someone three timezones away had already cracked it.
It showed in how the rooms ran. Quieter cohorts opened up; people built openly on each other's points rather than waiting to be asked; and across a workforce of many nationalities, colleagues turned cultural difference from a source of friction into something to be curious about. The Performance Partner's job was to draw the answer out of the room rather than hand it down from the front.
The programme opens people's minds to what experiences others have had when building professional relationships. I also realised the true value of storytelling when pitching to potential new clients. It's a simple, powerful tool that should be used more.
Tim Spragg, Commercial Director, RightShip
The language they now share
- Assume positive intent
- Seek to understand before being understood
- Us versus the issue, not me versus you
- Is it actually urgent?
- Impactful conversations, not difficult ones
By the end RightShip's people had built a shared language they actually use, the kind of common reference points that only form when a global, multi-function team learns something together.
04 / What they worked on
Eight themes, plotted as one course, each one taught and then put to work on a real RightShip problem.
Waypoint 01
Influence Through Storytelling
Making a point land and stick, and realising a story can be more persuasive than the data alone when pitching to a client or carrying a room.
Waypoint 02
Building Positive Professional Relationships
Building allies and a network on purpose rather than only at the point of need, and reading the cultural difference in a multinational team as something to learn from.
Waypoint 03
Lead Change & Innovation Projects
Leading change by understanding the why and the genuine concerns behind resistance, with shared models like Kotter and ADKAR to give a messy process structure.
Waypoint 04
Collaborate with Purpose
Working across functions that measure success differently, assuming positive intent, and protecting the space for quieter voices to be heard.
Waypoint 05
How to Diffuse Conflict
Turning a clash into a conversation by naming the facts without blame and treating it as us versus the issue, not me versus you.
Waypoint 06
Communicating with Impact
Being clear, concise and considerate in writing and across cultures, and pausing before firing back, so a message lands the way it was meant in any timezone.
Waypoint 07
Make Quality Decisions & Solve Problems
Weighing speed against quality, getting to the real root cause, and accepting that good enough beats waiting for perfect information.
Waypoint 08
Time Management Essentials
Telling genuine urgency from noise in an always-on business, and managing energy and focus rather than pretending to manage the clock.
The first themes were each paired with a live Elevate session, so the skill was practised on a real problem within weeks of being learned.
05 / What changed
The clearest proof is in the work, and in the network that now runs across the business.
Because the early themes were paired with Elevate sessions where people brought their real problems back, the programme could see what actually changed once they returned to the job. The proof at RightShip is not a single number. It is the specific things its people started doing differently across the world, and the way the business now reaches across itself.
What changed in the work
Networking on purpose
One leader took a peer's tip from the room into a major industry conference, set themselves a target and made the first move to introduce themselves at every table, and came away with a set of new connections and shared contacts they would not otherwise have made.
Turning difference into curiosity
Another, leading a team of many nationalities, started a regular ritual of colleagues sharing food and traditions from their home countries, and watched genuine interest in each other grow across a group that had simply worked side by side before.
Leading change person by person
A third leader, running a real change across their team, stopped enforcing it flat and began adapting it to each person's circumstances, leading the change one conversation at a time rather than one announcement.
Partnering, not chasing
Another stopped only chasing colleagues who were running late and started showing what they were doing to help, so a deadline reminder landed as partnership rather than pressure.
Questioning the urgency
And one began interrogating whether each incoming urgent request truly was urgent before dropping everything, protecting their team's focus in a business where everything arrives marked urgent.
And what lasts
Underneath the individual shifts is the change RightShip most wanted: connection. People who had never met now share a language and a habit of comparing notes, and a vetting superintendent, a sustainability analyst and a data engineer describe good work in the same words. The relationships built in those mixed rooms are social capital that now runs across offices and timezones, not just within them.
That is the change that compounds. Experience that used to stay inside one office or one function now moves around the business, and someone facing a problem is more likely to reach for a colleague three timezones away than to solve it alone.
In their own words
Hear it from the people in the rooms.
“Excellent information for building networks and really interesting tools for identifying priorities. 100% recommended. It's helped me improve my own skills to communicate and present better.”
“Short, to the point and filled with key learning points. A brilliant reminder of the importance of networking and building relationships, not just internally but also externally.”
“The workshop gave me practical frameworks for leading change. The inclusive approach, where there's no right or wrong but different options, really helped me think more openly.”
“Really enjoyed the presentation, which was interesting and well-organised. The live discussions and brainstorming were great. Using soft skills is a never-ending learning path and we should all strive for it.”
“Great to understand the power of storytelling in communication. Conveying your idea through a story can be equally or even more impactful than just the usual way of talking.”
“Fast-paced, engaging and easy to follow. The facilitator allowed interaction without forcing it. Clear and easy steps to take straight into your daily work.”
06 / Start here
If you run a global, distributed business and you want your people to work in one consistent way and actually learn from each other across offices and functions, rather than developing one location at a time, that is the work we do. The same is true if you operate in maritime, risk, safety or sustainability and want development grounded in your real world, not a textbook.
Every partnership between 10X and a client is entirely bespoke and unique. Book a no-obligation call with one of our Development Experts to scope how we could support you and your situation.