People can be in the same team meeting at the same time yet leave with differing understandings of what took place. How does that happen? The key here is to understand how understanding works – It’ll give you greater control over your outcomes, be better each time you deliver a message, and become a team player who works in harmony with the others.
We all have different communication styles, there are loads of tools out there to help with identifying people’s preferences. But is there really enough time in your working day to check up on who’s who before every conversation? As humans, we are meaning-making machines – we see or hear something, and make it mean something.
Here’s how we can help …
Using the principles of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) we help teams to make sense of their perceptions, and how they can be harnessed for the greater good. When teams start with the foundation of trust, they can genuinely be transparent and honest with one another. From this foundation, team members can channel the power of productive debate, commit to shared goals, hold each other accountable, and deliver better results together.
This can be good at any time, and can be particularly helpful after a big change in your organisation such as; the departure of an established manager or leader, the arrival of some new recruits, and especially in the case of a restructure or the reorganisation after a business has changed hands.
Mini study – Pets at Home
The brief
Each team member was interviewed, as well as the two Directors, and used their quantitative and qualitative data to inform our approach, tailoring it to their needs. We combined different models, framed with storytelling and active learning exercises to deliver a foundation in understanding themselves and each other, as well as resources to build Trust, introduce Creative Conflict, and Collaboration. For this programme it was important to ensure time for discussion, realisation, and to make personal commitments to change.
The outcome
The programme was delivered across two days, one month apart, at the Pets at Home Head Office in Cheshire. Using the familiar surroundings, we had the team on their feet and exploring non-verbal communication, where meaning comes from, values & behaviours, and what it means for them to role model excellence in their communication and working together. Across the two days, as practitioners, we saw significant commitment and progress.
Here is what they said
“Thank you, Simon and Neil, for facilitating a brilliant cross functional team event with our Commercial and Marketing Teams, we were all super impressed with the content and style of the delivery. Our ask was to forge a greater sense of team, which Clan-Alchemy aced through combining modules around human understanding, storytelling, vulnerability-based trust, and team dynamics exercises, and we had fun along the way too. An added bonus was the summary pack they sent post training meaning we have the resources to hand for on-going learning and cascading to others. We know ourselves and each other better now. We look more like a team, it looks and feels different, and it’s being noticed. It was summed up perfectly by one delegate who said ’when we win, we both win’” David & Maddy, Pets at Home