The Client - A Series A Healthtech Scaleup
Founded by doctors, the client is a technology company that equips governments, partners and patients with a digital solution for every step of the healthcare journey. Their mission is to transform primary care and to improve outcomes, by seamlessly connecting all parts of the health service with an end-to-end solution.
The Challenge
With a successful series A funding round under their belt, and already seeing strong growth in their target markets, the client had expanded the leadership team with a number of key individuals, selected to raise the bar and drive the business even further forward. However, the pace of growth meant little time to stop and take stock, and given the client's global footprint, opportunities to connect in person have been rare, and that some specific pain points were starting to emerge:
The CEO feeling frustrated with levels of urgency and accountability, particularly around the product roadmap
Insufficiently open and robust discussions in the leadership team
Tensions emerging in the leadership team between product/tech and ops/sales
The CEO was keen to bring the whole Leadership Team together in person for a workshop to address these issues, and to agree a framework of values and behaviours that would carry the team and company forward to series B and beyond.
The Approach
The approach had two key stages:
Pre-work - Individual calls / evaluation questionnaire - the aims of this pre work were as follows:
To provide a baseline for how the team was performing
To give space for the open and safe sharing of view - identifying tensions that might be exposed in the group session
To build trust and familiarity with me as a facilitator to further increase psychological safety
Whole day team session - with number of core elements:
Building connection - each team member telling a story about them at their best
Reviewing the data collected in the 1:1 sessions - checking in on how the team has felt, and how it could be improved
A deep dive on Values - co-facilitated with the client’s Chief Operating Officer
The Result
While the team day was the beginning of the work rather than a conclusion (with a follow up day five months later) it had the following outcomes:
Intangible outcomes
Identifying where tensions - ingroups or factions - could start to emerge in the team, with actions agreed to address this
A team where the members understand each other better, and are more closely bonded together by that understanding
Tangible outcomes
Identifying and addressing a lack of clarity around ownership of certain specific decisions and actions
Finding agreement on the key values that will drive the company forward while safeguarding elements of its culture, and tasking a subteam with completing this work
Developing practical suggestions/actions to address some of the dysfunctions/inefficiencies in the team, e.g. meeting structures, responsibilities and preparation
Learnings
Without individual support for team members, momentum gained in the session might have translated into greater behavioural change outside it
The session exemplified some of the traits it was trying to correct - a tendency to talk through ideas without converging on action. This allowed for some useful feedback and challenge to the team, but also contributed to the lack of follow through on more structural challenges (such as a lack of clear, shared responsibilities)
The approach did not address issues with the structure and composition of the team i.e. did the team have the right remit, was it the right size, and were all the members sufficiently capable for their role
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