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.