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Strategy refresh and leadership team alignment

Aims and desired outcomes

  • To establish the foundations that lead to team success.

  • The LT have reflected on their recent experiences of working together and have started to understand their strengths and potential blockers for their development and success. 

  • The LT have formed their Central strategic question and have started to answer it.

  • The LT are individually and collectively committed to working on removing their blockers. 

Team Formation

Review of key members and what they bring

Team Identity

Clarity on team purpose and values

Team Vision

Strategic thinking, measures of success, value of proposition

Team Exicution

Strategic goals, enablers, find and remove roadblocks, priorities

Team Effectiveness

Expectations, strengths, mindsets, behaviours, routines, feedback, learning

Team Commitment

Core message, stakeholder engagement, review and renewal

Team Members' Expectations and Ground Rules

Expectations

  • Team bonding/deeper relationships - comfortable with each other - social bonding

  • Transparency/alignment on strategy

  • Learn more about strengths/blockers & blind-spots of the team 

  • Newbies getting to know others

Ground rules

  • Be open/build trust -Critical friend but with solutions. Respect confidentiality - "Chatham House" rules

  • Value diversity of thought - there are no 'stupid' ideas.  Create a trusting environment

  • Be inclusive – Everyone has an equal voice

  • Be present - Stay focused/avoid emails

  • Have fun

The team collectively defined their purpose…

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To lead the business in creating, developing and delivering the strategy to meet the aspirations of all our stakeholders.

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We work together, enjoy what we do, and create a long lasting legacy, by creating a high performance culture to motivate, empower and inspire our team to succeed

The Central Question

What do we need to do now, and in the next 24 months, to give us confidence and momentum to achieve £75M EBITDA by 2025? 

The Team’s Mindset and Behaviour

  • Each team member completed the Mindset Advantage psychometric before the workshop.

  • During the session the team collectively discussed the Team’s Growth Mindset profile

  • The team highlighted their collective strengths to achieving the central question and also any potential blockers or blind spots

Team Growth Mindset Results

This chart shows the spread of results within the group based on the Low, Medium, and High ratings against the benchmark.

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High: A high rating indicates that the person was in the top 25% compared to the benchmark.

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Low: A low rating indicates that the person was in the bottom 25% compared to the benchmark.

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Numbers may not add to 100% due to rounding.

The team’s potential strengths/enablers…

Trust is high

Information flows across SLT

Calculated risks

Open opportunity to learn

Performance rated more than academic

We seek feedback

Agile/adapting

Driven/persistent

Open/

collaborative

Calculated risk takers

Broad experience/knowledge

There is very strong trust in the team (re-inforce no blame culture)

Potential over pedigree - we are excellent at using expert external advisors. We know what we want. 

91% believe showing initiative = reward

55% do not explore irrelevant ideas = good at being selective. 

Willingness to learn new things.

No fear of failure: willingness to adapt. 

No blame culture 

As a team we have to collaborate, and we do

No glory hunters/no politics

Actively seek change to improve. 

The team’s potential blockers/blind spots…

Prefer old methods - 64%

Leadership is a talent - 64%

Don't reward learning

Don't seek new people/teams - 55%

Ideals feed to relevant and lose ideas

Egos - smartest in the room

Judging/write people off/write ideas off

Definition of Kevin's role?

Not dealing with roles/boulders that exist

Not having a coaching mindset

82% believe the organisation does not reward learning. 

55% do not explore ideas unless they immediately appear relevant

Change - 64% prefer existing ways of working. 

All prefer more than 1 project = spinning plates = we don't finish things, we love starting things. 

EMB of three are individually competitive - does this stifle others' ideas?

Rushed decision making on complex matters. 

We tend to judge people as fixed mindset too easily

Poor/weak appraisals - inconsistent managers. 

Humility: do we listen enough? No - we have not created safe environments. 

Lack of knowledge of other departments e.g. Talent and challenges = silos. 

The team committed to actions to improve the likelihood of them using their strengths and avoiding or overcoming their potential clockers or blind-spots

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Reflection & learning about our ways of working...

At the end of the day the team reviewed how they had worked together...

What worked well

  • Open and honest

  • Equal and full contribution (x2)

  • Practicing challenging conversations. 

  • Creating safe space. 

  • Active listening/productive conversations (x2). 

  • Small group discussions - more of a voice. 

  • Proud we created the team's purpose - joint effort. 

  • Growth mindset - have overcome cynicism.  

  • All leaned in. Good participation (x2)

  • Awareness of benefit of time to team. 

Even better if…

  • Recognise we need a facilitator/structure.

  • Share groups MA results ahead of time. 

  • More time on MA results and team data (x2)

  • Mix groups more. 

  • No 1:1 feedback before today. 

  • Change of environment/activity - change the scene or silly task to re-energise. 

  • Different venue. 

  • Recognise this will take time - will need to evolve. 

  • Outputs/outcomes/deliverables. 

  • Start next piece by building on this. 

Key actions/discussions to carry over to the following day were…

  • The team planned to discuss and develop their vision and strategy and clarify their priorities (key projects)

  • Team members have prepared ‘what they bring’ to the team and committed to share this with each other

  • The team agreed to discuss and agree the role of the Chairman in the team

  • The team agreed to discuss if the competitiveness between the established inner-circle within the team was potentially having a negative impact on the team’s effectiveness

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