Team Building
Case Studies:
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Two departments from a local authority were coming together with
a section from central government to provide a seamless service
for a particular client group. Senior managers had concerns about
different cultures and management styles impeding effective working.
Exploratory discussions identified a need to:
• reduce the potential for conflict in the new team
• understand their preferred way of handling conflict if it
occurs
• understand their preferences for management style
The intervention happened over four months and took the form of:
-
A one day session with the manager and the three supervisors
using the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument and the Myers
Briggs Type Indicator to establish preferred styles and
discuss implications.
-
A half day follow-up coaching session. Both 1 and 2 took place
prior to the new team starting to work together.
-
A whole day’s team building with their staff of 21, shortly
after they started working together, to do the Myers Briggs Type
Indicator, particularly focussing on understanding their own and
others’ communication styles. The staff worked on the exercises
in many different groups to encourage the breaking down of barriers.
-
A half day follow-up coaching session with the manager and supervisors
looking at progress, and setting goals for what still needed to
be achieved.
2.
A marketing firm had concerns about personality conflicts affecting
work. I took all twelve staff for a team building day, based on
the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to give participants an understanding
of each other’s preferences for working style and communication.
The majority of staff had, as one might expect in a creative business,
preferences for extraversion and perceiving. They had difficulty
understanding the minority who had preferences for introversion
and judging, yet whose skills complemented those of the majority.
An appreciation of their own and others’ preferences helped
significantly in reducing conflict in the team.
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