Case Studies

Case Study 2

The Team
The team is a corporate finance team within a large multinational accountancy firm. They work in a high pressure environment under intense competition to “get deals” and a need to socialise and network outside of office hours to build contacts. Burn out is a major issue in this industry and the competitive nature of the business can create a dog eat dog culture and working for individual benefits rather than team benefits.


The Challenge
Team members were affected by symptoms of burn out and low levels of constructive interaction. They lacked creativity, focus and confidence and were unclear about their targets and the overall vision for the team. A silo/ lone ranger mentality existed and a new team member was feeling demotivated by the lack of positivity.

Our Solution
Our approach involved getting all team members to complete the confidential Team Diagnostic™ questionnaire, followed by a facilitated day off-site. Using specific exercises and feeding back the results of the questionnaire, the team recognised that a deep level of trust already existed within the team, but they were avoiding confronting certain behaviours and making time to get clear goals and strategy.
By exploring the roles played by team members, they became aware of the support that was available within the team and how some team members were not being fully utilised, and did not feel recognised.
As a result of the away day team members felt able to ask for help and went away with a greater understanding of the different functions and what they were all trying to achieve.
The leader became aware of his style of preaching at the team, and was able to find a way of inspiring the team that felt more acceptable
amongst the team.


Quote:
"The workshop achieved a lot in the day we'd allowed for it. We successfully appraised the team rather than the individuals within it, making good use of the quantitative feedback from the questionnaire. This highlighted the interdependencies that existed, broke down communication barriers and led to us articulating our team goal and how to work better towards it.

We were surprised at how much energy we had to (and wanted to) put in to the day but came away energised and have seen long lasting impacts in the way we operate as a team.

We got so much from the day because all members of the team opened themselves to the process- even thought this was sometimes painful / awkward.

Thank you." Director