Team change and transformation conversations
Helping teams think about structure and new ways of working

We had a team that was working in a traditional model that was no longer fit for purpose. This was at a time where there was a huge increase in the demand for its services. We knew we needed to come up with a new plan. For the team, this was a real time of change and instability. 

There had been quite a bit of growth and change in the team over a short period of time. The team leader had left, and I was seconded from another role to take over in the interim. Meanwhile there were a lot of staff changes with new people coming in and others leaving. The team’s role within the organisation was expanding and needed a rethink – so overall a lot of change and stress for people all at once.

 The team structure needed to change so we knew we had some mahi ahead of us to understand what was needed for the team to be effective going forward. The big aim was to make sure the team had the chance to share and debate their ideas, and to make sure they felt like they had a say in the future – that it was being created with them rather than being done to them.

I recognised that I probably wasn’t going to be able to do this by myself. It was the ideal situation to bring in someone neutral from the outside to help us navigate some of these difficult conversations.

I’ve worked with Jo before and she’s great. Jo’s got a very, very nice nature about the way she engages with people. She’s not a threatening person in any way, shape or form. Jo brings a good level of imagination and positivity, woven into a well-structured facilitation session.

Jo and I spent a lot of time talking about how we wanted to work together to get the most from the sessions acknowledging this was a potentially hard topic – change. She really took the time to understand the context. She also spent time understanding what each team member wanted to get from their involvement.  We set clear expectations about what the team could and couldn’t influence so everyone knew the parameters. 

We held three half-day sessions over three weeks. Jo used a lot of small group and pair discussions to make sure everyone had the best chance to share and hear from others. We also did things like drawing, creative brainstorming and using images to help us think broadly, deeply and outside the box.

The key benefit was the team feeling like they had been listened to and that they were instrumental in shaping the way forward. I think overall this gave them a better sense of ownership of the actions that needed to be taken post the workshops. There’s no doubt that this helped with the overall change process that the team was going through.