Facilitation

Improving Team Performance

“For any group of people to be successful working together, they need to spend quality time exploring ‘how’ they work together, not just the work”. - Penny Holden

Typical examples of requests…

Needs

“I have a team that is combined from two merged organisations and need them to be working together effectively and efficiently.”
“I have inherited a team that has strong personalities and very differing views. There is a lot of conflict that is unhealthy.”
“We need teams to view each other as internal customers and be more collaborative and agile in their work.”
“Our board spends too long in meetings off-target and lets differing agendas and ‘politics’ get in the way of achieving.”

How - key steps

1. Customising the approach and agreeing key outcomes

The approach will vary depending upon how the client wants the intervention framed up – e.g. ‘We have a problem’ or ‘ Let’s move to the next stage of higher team performance’.

It is usually essential to name any ‘elephant(s)’ in the room. When surfaced, it can be dialogued and resolved. I am skilled at ensuring a ‘no blame’ approach that is respectful and responsible.

Realistic key outcomes are agreed. This could lead to a one-off or a series of workshops, including coaching.

2. Building trust quickly and utilising a strengths-based approach

I work at the start to build trust so I can deal with the real (and frequently hidden) blocks to working together.

I use a range of personality-type tools to enable individuals to acknowledge difference as healthy and better understand how it can show-up in their colleagues and themselves. I come from a strengths-based behavioural approach. There are other mindset and behavioural tools I use to gain traction and motivation to work together.

3. Creating and/ or revising the group/ team processes

I will also explore with the team, processes that may be causing conflict such as work or communication processes. It is useful to use the organisational values, bring them to life and then identify behavioural descriptors.

Agreements will be made and grievances raised in the right way to allow members to move forward.

4. The leader as shaper of the team

Finally, I will always work with the leader so they are enabled to make the changes and create the right conditions for high team performance. We agree a sustainable approach where the leader feels supported.

GET IN TOUCH

Facilitating events

All events should have a ‘learning’ component maximising the valuable time bringing people together. I can facilitate an event for you with speakers or offer learning sessions as an outside expert and presenter. I have also facilitated events end-to-end, being both master of ceremonies and speaker.

AsureQuality

Field Technicians conference

Need: A two hour workshop where around 80 people can learn how to better have challenging conversations. Some individuals have been in the role a long time, some new. It needs to be very down-to-earth; these people work out on the farms and in rural areas.

How: I created an ‘event’. This involved short ‘sound bites’ of learning with simple how-tos so they could take away concrete actions. This was done through quick quizzes, group competitions, using experts in the room to share best practice and prizes. Through fun, energy and interaction, people learnt.

Feedback
“A quick note to say that I thought you did a great job this morning. You created a very authentic, supportive and fun atmosphere and I could see that people responded really well to the opportunity.” - Manager AQ
“I really didn’t want to attend this but it was surprising good. Informative and funny. Managed to reach some tough cookies out there.” - Participant

BNZ

Senior Leadership Team retreat

Need: Agree and achieve a Business unit’s strategic approach for the next few years and be ready to hit the ground running as a team. The team are diverse in all senses. There is a good mix of people - some brand new and those who have been here sometime. They need to work together and collaborate quickly with an agile mindset. Some have had little exposure to strategy and so need them to up-skill quickly.

How: We designed a 2 day event that would produce a strategy and bond the team together. This included a good mix of learning, workshopping and addressing keys to high performance including refining best practice leadership. There were opportunities for whole group dialogue and working break-out groups. Those who had less experience were safely able to get up to speed. Over the 2 days the leader and myself explored what different people needed and when and how to be flexible with the agenda and activities to hit the mark.

Feedback
“Penny is an excellent facilitator, which means that she was able to help us generate tangible results from a short strategic planning offsite. Feedback from the team was that it was one of the most productive and effective strategy workshops they'd ever done, and Penny played a big role in that. Penny has great insights into team dynamics and she thinks strategically about the capabilities needed in a team to deliver on its strategy. I found her feedback on our team after a relatively short time to be insightful and valuable. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Penny.” - Executive team member and leader of the team

MHAIDS

The Mental Health, Addictions & Intellectual Disability Service event

Need: A day event for a diverse wide-spread of support staff across the region (80-100), working in isolation with little opportunity to get together; some have been in the job a long time and some new. Should include a mixture of celebration, recognition, mindset shift to upcoming changes and sharing best practice.

How: We chose the theme ‘Our Growing Edge’. The 1 day event included lots of fun and humour through workshops on sharing best practice, learning sessions around change and why we resist, workshops to tackle blocks to change, understanding change preferences and many opportunities for group activities. I facilitated and ran all sessions.

Feedback
“I have to say I enjoyed your course very much , not only the content which has made me re-evaluate aspects of my job but your delivery style was very refreshing.” - Participant
“Very vibrant and engaging - loved learning off Penny.” - Participant
“Excellent delivery style. Very engaging.” - Participant

Mobil

The Mobil event: The Customer Synergy Experience

Need: An upskilling, motivational and informative event around new branding and improving customer service for all Mobil owners with their teams. It was important they buy into the new brand and see value in investing in their business and people.

How: Due to the large numbers and limited time available, a group consisting of myself and three colleagues created a high energy interactive event, which was fast-paced with soundbites and numerous activities. This included games, exercises, videos and prizes.

We ran two workshops concurrently for an hour and changed over. One focused around mindset shift and motivation, and the other branding value and customer service.

Lastly we bought the whole group together to highlight people and team leadership, talk through key actions and troubleshoot issues, ending on a high with work about creating motivation for their team and sharing best practice ideas.