About The Exercise
Our client attended our webinar in September on the Power of Personal Values. She found it so valuable and thought it was just what their leadership team needed, an intervention to bring them back together. Since COVID-19 and working hybrid, it had created a disconnect and the relationships internally at leadership level needed attention. Each manager was operating in silos, the new members to the team hadn’t forged relations between their peers and it was time to come back to the office. Time to live the true value of who they were as people. I mean THEY SELL FUN. But life had become so serious and the individuals in this team were actually strangers. InterACT facilitated a journey of self-discovery with our client the largest children’s’ Toy distributor in Sub-Saharan Africa. We engaged with 11 members of the senior leadership team.
We set aside an entire day for the team session. Our client hired an awesome venue, and the mandate was to bring the team together, connect them all again and spend time creating a benchmark for their corporate values and have FUN while doing it!
We partnered with a specialist that uses strategic activities to connect and engage the Team to achieve the outputs that our client desired. The first half of the morning InterACT and the Clients Team spent building the Corporate Value Profile (CVP) then the second half of the day the Team spent with the TEAM BUILDER facilitator to join the dots of what we had designed and compiled in the morning.
The activities were designed to bring the whole team together, embrace their differences, get to know each other again and to value the contribution each individual bought to the table. We got the full commitment of each person that attended the intervention. A poster was designed with their corporate values with each of their handprints on the poster. They created their value statement that has been intertwined into their “glossary” of words and actions used in the business and made the values relevant to their unique environment.
One-on-one Personal Values Profile (PVP) feedback was provided to each person of the team and guidance given around the match report between the Corporate Values Benchmark (CVP) and the unique Personal Values Profile (PVP) of each individual. Though there were differences, it created dialogue and our coaching psychologist was able to plant the seeds for development discussions and recommendations on how to bridge the gaps.
The Outcome
It was evident during the feedback sessions that there was a divide between the employees who were employed longer and those who were quite new to the company. The newcomers were focused on innovation and creating a faster paced environment, while the longer serving individuals wanted to keep the tried and tested ways of doing things.
The individual feedback sessions on the Personal Values Profiles were not only utilised to gain self-insight, but also to impart knowledge about other behavioural styles and values and how individuals can modify their own styles to engage others’ strengths rather than weaknesses. The more we are able to understand the types of behaviour (DISC) that individual team members have, the easier it is to predict and understand how those people will react in certain situations. An inclusive workplace that supports different working and communication styles allows employees to perform at their best, while ensuring that everyone respects each other’s uniqueness.
In conclusion, the Toy Company team is now aligned, and engaged and they had FUN doing it!
P.s the follow up session has already been booked; keep an eye out for the next episode!