Team Building

The challenge

Following Argos’ acquisition by Sainsburys, a new senior leadership team was created for central operations. Acquisitions always have an effect on company culture and goals, not to mention the longest-serving team member had only been in post 18 months. As a result, the newly formed team was made up of talented technical experts who didn’t know how to work together. They had very different approaches to almost everything: leadership, achieving goals, how to conduct meetings, how to carry out activities. They recognised the need to forge a new, common identity and to improve how they work together.

Team diagnostic tool in practice

In advance of a team building workshop, the group used teamSalient® diagnostic tool for teams. It generated crucial data on how the team worked (or didn’t) that allowed the team coach to hit the ground running when the workshop started. The insights provided by teamSalient® paved the way for substantive discussion and helped the team clarify its core purpose and identity.  It revealed team strengths and brought clarity where needed to key roles, allowing the group to identify and empower leadership. teamSalient® also allowed the group to benchmark its profile against other teams in similar ecosystems.

The outcome

Thanks to the team building workshop, the team agreed on specific actions to improve its ways of working. It published revised team objectives and updated individual goals and development plans. The team learned to communicate more openly, allowing members a greater understanding of interpersonal dynamics and forging the way for better working relationships. The team re-evaluated different roles and developed a contract to work together better. As a result, the team’s self-management improved markedly and it started hitting the targets it set for itself.

Client quote

“The format of teamSalient® enabled the team to engage in a lot of open and honest discussion on issues that we hadn’t discussed in the past. It helped us learn a lot about each other’s motivations – and team performance – more than we thought possible. This allowed us to understand why team members approached situations as they did.”  Director, Central Operations, Sainsbury’s Argos.