“During the away-day sessions, Jon Jacob made us feel very comfortable with him, and in turn with each other. We have never been together as a whole team but I think he successfully made us feel more like a group with the same aims. I’m already seeing the effects today.”

During a two-day team development project in South London in late August 2018, sixteen team members and senior management from an internationally renowned London college came together to get to know one another for the first time.

They explored new ways of thinking and communicating. They challenged one another to develop sophisticated ideas to realise their digital strategy.

From commission to completion, the project took 3 months to deliver.

Delegates finished the two days exhausted. The feedback included on this page illustrates the positive impact this bespoke experience had on all who attended.

“Jon is insightful and gets great results by stealth, avoiding the many uncomfortable cliches of team away days – a really productive and pleasant experience.”

Specific Requirements

To facilitate a series of bespoke sessions over a two-day period that raised awareness, built connections between 16 team members and senior managers, and enabled rich conversations that explored exciting ways to realise a new department-wide strategy.

This was a higher education environment combining multiple disciplines including IT development and support, digital content production, and music education.

What it entailed

  • Research into the strategy, current team dynamics, and management needs
  • Design, build and test of training and development solutions
  • Activities developed communication and listening skills amongst team members
  • Personal storytelling tasks brought team-members closer together
  • Identifying team and individual strengths and developmental opportunities
  • Group discussions around current working practices and team needs
  • Reflection exercises which promoted peer support
  • Challenging conversations in an unfamiliar environments that elicited new thinking
  • Invigorating idea generation, development and presentation sessions

RESULTS

Delegates reported an increased awareness in thinking processes, a closer connection with some previously unfamiliar colleagues, and a deeper understanding of one another’s motivations. They also commented on how tired they felt at the end of it (always a good sign of investment paying off).

From a facilitation perspective, it was necessary at various points during the two days to go with the energy in the room, to ascertain from the group as a whole how they wanted to proceed from one session to another. In some cases, original plans were amended to accommodate the consensus in the group.

“I left with a greater sense of purpose in my role and a feeling that I was valued and in turn valued all of my team.”