Case Study - Leadership Team Workshop

The Client

Founded by doctors, my client is a technology company that equips governments, partners and patients with a digital solution for every step of the healthcare journey.

Their mission is to transform primary care and to improve outcomes, by seamlessly connecting all parts of the health service with our end-to-end solution.

The Challenge

With a successful series A funding round under their belt, and already seeing strong growth in their target markets, my client had expanded the leadership team with a number of key individuals, selected to raise the bar and drive the business even further forward. However, the pace of growth meant little time to stop and take stock, and given my client's global footprint, opportunities to connect in person have been rare. As part of a critical week of strategic planning, my client’s CEO was keen to bring the whole team together in person - for a Leadership Team Workshop - to deepen their sense of connection to each other, check in on and address some tensions that were starting to arise, and agree a framework of values and behaviours that would carry the team and company forward to series B and beyond.

The Approach

The approach had two key stages:

  1. Pre-work - Individual calls / evaluation questionnaire - the aims of this pre work were as follows:

    1. To provide a baseline for how the team was performing

    2. To ensure that each person has space to share their views openly and safely - and identify if there are issues that may derail the group session

    3. To build trust and familiarity with me as a facilitator to further increase psychological safety

  2. Whole day team session - with number of core elements

    1. Building connection - each team member telling a story about them at their best

    2. Reviewing the data collected in the 1:1 sessions - checking in on how the team has felt, and how it could be improved

    3. A deep dive on Values - co-facilitated with my client’s Chief Operating Officer

The Result

While the team day was the beginning of the work rather than a conclusion (with a follow up day five months later) it had the following outcomes:

Intangible outcomes

  • Identifying where tensions - ingroups or factions - could start to emerge in the team, with actions agreed to address this

  • A team where the members understand each other better, and are more closely bonded together by that understanding

Tangible outcomes

  • Identifying and addressing a lack of clarity around ownership of certain specific decisions

  • Finding agreement on the key values that will drive the company forward while safeguarding elements of its culture, and taking a subteam with completing this work

  • Developing practical suggestions/actions to address some of the dysfunctions/inefficiencies in the team, e.g. meeting structures, responsibilities and preparation