We were approached by a publishing company looking for an experienced dynamic facilitator to work with a team of senior managers for a half day using behavioural tools.

After a series of telephone briefings and conversations about the team in question, it became clear that rather than using behavioural tools or personality profiles, the client particularly liked our idea of letting the team agree what was important to them and what approach they wanted to use for working together – and that this would be key to gain their buy-in to the importance of continually developing as a team, not just individually.

Our brief as a team facilitator was to help them:

• Explore why it’s important to feel supported in a team
• Share what they have to offer one another
• Document the strengths (and weaknesses) that come out, the profile of the group
• Start to build a team pact / commitment
• Help ensure balanced team meetings and decisions

To capture their progress working together as a team, we surveyed the group ahead of the day, asking them each individually how they think the team is working currently. We will then repeat that same survey again 3 months on to see if there’s any measurable improvement.

The survey included rating scale questions (i.e. score 1-10) such as:

• We have mutually agreed and understood aims and objectives.
• People express themselves openly and honestly and deal with difficult situations.

We also asked for more detailed insight, asking open questions like:

• What does your team do well? What could your team do better?
• Please identify a personal strength of yours that you think contributes to the team’s success. Why is it important and do you think others are aware of it?

In the workshop itself, we started out by exploring the team’s purpose (why the team exists, why it is needed) and culture (how the team works together and the values, norms and behaviours that are expected).

Participants reflected on these questions:

• What is our job as a team?
• What’s our goal?
• How do we know when we’ve done our job?
• What benefit are we bringing to the organisation and the world?
• What should our team stand for?
• What do we believe in?
• What are our unique strengths?
• What is our value?
• How should we present ourselves to the wider company?

We then moved on to use two frameworks to help organise the group’s discussions and insights: the User Manual and Team Canvas.

The workshop was well received by participants, who appreciated the chance to come together to reflect on their individual and collective strengths.

We have since worked with the same team on several more occasions to help them explore upcoming trends and strategic opportunities.