Embedding Change - Team Development - Foster Collaboration

The Client

An external relations function within a medical research environment which had undergone an extended period of change affecting the work, structure, roles, staffing mix and growth in the scope of the group's activities.

The Brief

The responsible senior manager engaged HR Advantage to undertake team building with the group comprising 25 staff, organised into teams undertaking related work covering media, community relationships, communications, marketing, and philanthropy activities. 

There had been twelve months of significant change involving structure, new/added roles, staff changes, changes to the work being performed and how it was performed, changed leadership expectations, all requiring strong teamwork to achieve the group’s mandate.    

Due to staff movements, the group composition had shifted from long-standing employees to a mix of long-standing and new employees.  This suggested a need to invest in ‘gelling’ the group by building team relationships and focusing on a common, shared team ethos.

The senior manager also sought that the process used would contribute to the professional development of individuals, helping them to better appreciate their own working styles, while getting to know others better, and appreciating a diversity of working styles within the group.

Our Response

HR Advantage worked with the senior manager to develop a one-day offsite workshop using the Team Management Profile to support individual and team learning and development. 

The engagement included both pre workshop preparation and post workshop debriefing with the senior manager and other senior staff.  Before the workshop this ensured we were well briefed on key issues, outcomes sought and sensitivities within the team.  Debriefing after the workshop ensured key actions arising were able to be embedded into management and working practices.

The Results

The Profiles fostered self-awareness and awareness of working styles of others, valuing of differences between individuals, including different communication, information, decision making and organisational needs and approaches to work.  It also provided a high performing team model that gave a common point of reference for fostering teamwork and team ethos.

The feedback from both the senior manager and participants was overwhelmingly that the workshop had been an extremely positive experience helping staff to make new connections and consider new ways of working. 

HR Advantage was invited back several months later to again work with the group to help to integrate additional team members in the growing team and to continue to build on a positive work foundation, assisting the team to review and continue to elevate their collaborative team work, further embedding key team principles into their culture, and in their work practices.