Recently we have been trialing a new form of team development to improve our understanding and workflow. our Business Unit Owner decided to attempt a different strategy that is still ongoing due to its feedback and success in the form of a series of workshops. As a team, we did not know a lot about these going into the sessions and many of us had a preconceived idea or expectation of what this would achieve.

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So on the day of reckoning, we all made the journey into the office and sat down awaiting our team judgment day. Then a very interesting surprise was spring upon us. We were asked to introduce ourselves to the group and answer a list of questions very much about our personal lives and what we wanted to achieve within the company. I for one had the initial thought of "I have worked with these guys for a few years, surely this is some kind of trick", but I went with it, and to my surprise over the course of a few hours, really enjoyed the fact I was learning and seeing my colleagues in a completely different light. I think one of the things I came away from that session realising is that it's very easy to work with colleagues and not know a darn thing about them or what drives them.

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So in a follow up session, we began the real meat of development by taking a series of different personality tests, with the most accurate and very well created being that from mindtrackers which provided a very easy to read and clear summary of the types of people we were within the team, not to mention some really cool artwork and styling to the site. These types of website and methods are not perfect, and sometimes generalise the characteristics of a person, but it started to make sense as to what type of characters we had within the team, from advocates, to campaigners, to the peacemakers and researchers. What is great about this is it began to paint a picture into our team structure, who would be better at taking on certain tasks, who is more suited to a certain position and within the team comparison, I personally found it incredibly accurate. It also provided a small list of potential issues and solutions which I am hoping as a team we can adopt into our development cycle.

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After speaking with the Business Unit Owner, he explained that these sessions are coming from the book above by Patrick Lencioni and we are currently working on the first pillar regarding trust. After reflecting on this for a while, I think it's incredible how you can perform in a team with a reasonable output without saying you can trust your colleagues. How simple it is to dive into the gears of work without actually knowing them. So far we have had about three sessions and more are being planned for the future. I am certainly looking forward to more, and I feel that these have already shown a small impact in understanding between the team.

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