Annual Leadership Conference for national retailer.

Over many years we have developed a strong relationship with the John Lewis Partnership working with over five of their major stores. This time the Norwich leadership team wanted a different approach to their annual leadership conference. So starting with the key concepts and principles and working through a detailed planning process we constructed a fun thought provoking day around the concept of “leading owners should feel very different from managing employees”.

Through our “workmat” concept each departmental team worked through the key elements of teamwork, this process stimulated vibrant debate with each person encouraged to contribute their thoughts. By recording all the key elements of conversation the team began to build a record of the day as this was going to support later discussions.

Overcoming the fear of conflict (unfiltered open passionate debate) is still the main inhibitor to progression towards becoming a more successful team. Each person in the team completed the online team assessment report and this output was then debated with the team leaders encouraging each person to share their perspective. The outcome was clarity around which of the five dyfunctions the team was most susceptible and what as a team the action they were going to take.

After discussing the individual elements of contribution the group participated in a teamwork competition where they had a 128 piece jigsaw to complete. The picture was of the building blocks that supported their key principles.

The main portion of the afternoon concentrated on creating a focal point for the next three to six months (thematic goal) the remainder of time looked into their own personal contributions to the success of the thematic goal.  The group was challenged to be very specific around their own contributions and how they might measure their success.

At the end of the day each department had a completed “workmat” which portrayed the journey that they had completed as a team during the day. By encouraging each person to contribute with the pen the “workmat” was populated with individual thoughts, conversations and outcomes. All of this data then provides a focal point for their success as a department and store going into their busiest time of the year – Christmas.