Developing a cadre of internal team practitioners

Technology Industry

6TC was approached to propose a solution for a global software company on the best way to develop a cadre of internal team practitioners capable of working with leaders and mission critical teams to enable enhanced performance outcomes aligned to the organizational agenda. 

The internal team practitioners ranged in experience from novice to seasoned L&D and OD practitioners.  The selection of a team diagnostic and an effective approach to enabling team performance was a critical decision for the organization as it would be implemented across the entire company.  6TC was chosen as the preferred strategic partnership because of our empirically validated diagnostic and track record in the field.

Challenges

• Newly formed internal team that needed to assimilate a new methodology and skill set quickly and in real time;
• Team needed to provide support for a voluminous number of identified mission critical teams;
• Develop an internal center of excellence capable of supporting leaders and interconnected teams;
• The organization was going through a transformation and reorganization and team development interventions were necessary and at the same time resisted.
  

Action and Results

• We developed a customized program for c.50 practitioners, with 6 of the 50 progressing to Master Practitioner Level;
• The core team responsible for leading the team effectiveness initiative underwent a 10 week team coaching program with two 6TC master practitioners to 1) reflect that they were a new team and support the design, launch and coaching of the team around the 6 Team Conditions; and 2) to gain direct experience of a team development intervention as a learning experience and a felt experience of what they would be inviting other teams to do.
• Ongoing support included facilitated action learning sets to support live case work, and development of practitioners with real case work;
• 5 master classes were provided by our leadership team members, Ruth Wageman, Krister Lowe and Melissa Sayer to address key topics relevant to the themes emerging from team interventions in the organization;
• Partnering an internal coach and a 6TC master to coach a mission critical team to a stable state and unlock the team’s potential.
• More than 60 mission critical teams were positively impacted in the first year.  Identified high leverage areas such as team leader transitions, leadership teams and mission critical teams where the team coaches could create the greatest impact on the business.