“Matt brought a lovely, relaxed vibe to the whole weekend – facilitating a great balance of leading and sharing info, giving space for introspection, and our having the chance to interact with each other.” –Lara, workshop attendee

What I Do
I facilitate team building workshops to help teams operate more effectively, work better together, and get clear on their aspirations – as a team and as individuals.
CASE STUDY: Open Data Institute

CASE STUDY: Open Data Institute

THE PROBLEM:

London-based Open Data Institute (ODI)’s Startup Team had rapidly grown from 2 to 8, with plans to keep growing. The team leader wanted to help the newly formed team get to know each other better and work more effectively as a cohesive unit.

MY APPROACH: 

After a couple discovery sessions with the team leader, we decided to run a one-day offsite to address three core objectives:

  1. Understand how effective teams are built, and why it’s relevant for ODI Startup team.
  2. Get to know our teammates better and appreciate each other in new ways.
  3. Get clarity on and articulate our personal aspirations – inside and outside of work.

Before the offsite, I designed a 35-question survey to get a pulse on the team’s current effectiveness, based on Google’s research on effective teams.

The survey provided the team a baseline metric upon which to measure progress and future effectiveness.

At the offsite, I ran the team through a series of exercises to practice and understand certain elements of effective teams:

  1. Psychological Safety: Each person feels safe to take risks around their team members.
  2. Social Sensitivity: Ability to understand each other through non-verbal cues.
  3. Conversational Turn-Taking: Everyone in a group speaks roughly the same amount.
  4. Personal Meaning: Work is personally important to team members.
  5. Energy & Flow: Understand personal work preferences, what gives and takes energy.
  6. Team Gratitude: Expressing appreciation for each team member and their value.
  7. Dreams & Aspirations: Sharing personal aspirations, inside and outside of work.
THE OUTCOME:

The team left the session more connected, feeling more appreciated by each other, and gained a greater understanding of how to best work with each other.

After the workshop, I compiled a 10-page post-workshop booklet reviewing the session and providing further resources. I also compiled a list of 7 recommendations for keeping momentum and continuing team growth.

“Everyone agreed it was a great day and they really enjoyed it. Thanks again for your contribution!”
“Having a more intimate format was positive…it’s easier to discuss personal things and get to know people.”
“Enjoyed the balance between giving everyone the opportunity to speak and designing exercises so that everyone had to contribute.”
“Learned a lot about myself…new questions I never thought about.”

“Thank you so much for all of your work to make the weekend great, Matt. It can be incredibly difficult to manage different personalities and facilitate a workshop where every person feels like they can contribute and have their ideas heard. You did a great job of this.” –Ash, workshop attendee

Are you part of a growing a team you’d like to run more effectively? Get in touch.