Our work with one of the worlds leading financial institutions.

In the last year Bramley Lakes has been working closely with one of the Worlds leading financial institutions (the Blue Eagle) on two programmes, Management Team Development and supporting their quarterly “huddles”.

This relationship started primarily with a team development programme following the principles behind The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, a bestseller written by author Patrick Lencioni.  By completing the online team assessment and understanding the key concepts the team immediately grasped the key elements. Making this stick requires persistence, discipline and courage. The team made good initial progress in developing their skills demonstrating vulnerability and seeking clarity. As time progressed doing this on a consistent and frequent basis proved more challenging when balancing it with a very hectic business agenda.

During any team development process it takes a few people to cross the emotional chasm – will this really work, is it worth it, what does it mean to me, but once there the teams can make tremendous progress. Team development is a journey process and takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight.

After nine months of support and encouragement the team is making great inroads to reducing their susceptibility towards any of the dysfunctions. The leader plays an important role in this process by driving the pace, through demonstrating vulnerability, checking clarity and being results focused. Their leader has all these characteristics. It is a team effort and they certainly have the drive to succeed.

For two quarters we have been asked to help with the design process and delivery of the “huddles” which are essentially a global team meeting. The difference is that each one has challenged the norm by trying to be bigger and better than the last. It is a true testament to teamwork that they have been executed flawlessly. Although looking like a graceful swan on the surface there has been a back stage team paddling like mad to keep it all together.

From original concept to final delivery each “huddle” has incorporated different elements to engage the audience in the Strategy and Vision, Planning and Service Delivery. We have worked closely with the company to provide some innovative solutions. We used the key concepts and looked at different experiential learning methods. These ranged from jigsaws to workmats. Each engaged the audience in an element of team participation.  The jigsaws focused on teamwork, not just each table but the whole group.  The exercise was only complete when the last of the ten tables was finished. On the jigsaw were the values of the team as a reminder.  The workmat drew out changes and improvements to the behaviours that supported the values.

The “huddle” came to a dramatic conclusion with a Dragons Den. Each team was tasked with presenting their business ideas to a team of high powered dragons from within the company. There was a serious undertone to this exercise as it was focused on trying to find some innovations to service delivery. We briefed the team on the Medici concept, getting them to consider different perspectives, reverse assumptions and break down some of the associated barriers. This was all driven through an experiential learning exercise which involved matching breakthrough innovations together.