Team Development at GKN Aerospace
Team Development at GKN Aerospace
What is it?
In 2017, as part of streamlining performance within Programmes it was identified that one of the teams needed to be realigned into a different and single reporting line.
The team had not had a dedicated line manager for over two years and were each working to individual Value Stream Managers. This often led to members working in isolation and feeling unsupported. They were to be pulled into one team under a Functional Lead rather than to individual business units.
Challenge
The major challenge was to build the collection of dedicated and passionate individuals into a new team focused on delivering high performance through supporting each other.
Solutions
John Garland of Growing Vision initially met with the client to identify the specific behavioural outcomes that were desired. Together they identified the core objectives of identifying exactly what high performance would be for the team, and what it would look like, as well as the core behaviours required to be consistently delivered.
It was critical that the process would be collaborative so that it role-modelled the exact behaviours desired in the team moving forward.
Working with the Growing Vision Team Canvas model, the team identified and fine-tuned:
- their focus (vision, mission and common goals)
- their underpinning values and behaviours
- how each individual would relate to each other
- their individual roles and responsibilities and where one person’s responsibilities would start and finish and another’s would start
- what was in it for each person and what they would like from each other to stay engaged
- what the team was strong at and not so strong at
- what specific actions they would need to deliver on to deliver consistent high performance
“Both my team and I attended John’s ‘Think Leadership’ training. We all enjoyed the training and developed a connection with John. Therefore when I took a new role leading a very disjointed team which had not had a manager for over two years, I asked John if he would be able to create a bespoke workshop to help bring the team together, with common and shared objectives and values. The fact that John already knew our business and its challenges very well helped give a very tangible spin to the conversations we had, and the team finally started behaving as a team. In difficult situations, the team was able to refer back to the simple core values identified during the workshop and to recognise the team’s identity and its purpose. John also supports our business with 1:1 coaching sessions and I can see the positive impact that these and the workshop are having on myself and many colleagues around me.”
Elena Addis
Senior Programme Manager
GKN Aerospace
Outcomes
The one-day intervention supported the team to reorient themselves into one mutually supportive team with new ways of working. They identified their core focus and common goals; key behaviours that each person agreed to exhibit; core values of quality, accountability and accountability; how to support each other in both asking for and giving help in the best way; a clarity on what they as a team were strong at and not so strong at, and an honest sharing of their own individual strengths and development areas (which allowed each person to be able to support each other); key actions at a specific and detailed level to deliver a high performance team.
As the team delivered over the months the Leader reported that they delivered the desired increase in performance and where they faced ‘difficult situations, the team was able to refer back to the simple core values identified during the workshop and to recognise the team’s identity and its purpose’.
