Insights Learning and Development Vancouver

Background
The BC Summer Games are scheduled to run in Kamloops in August 2011.  Approximately 22 volunteers come together for two weeks of the Games to ‘showcase BC, support athletes, the teams, the parents, and  the coaches’.  The mission of the staff is to handle all of the logistical details of ‘putting on the games’

The Issue
This is a high pressure team environment, where they don’t have the ‘normal’ corporate environment and opportunity to ‘get to know each other first’ before the full action of the Games begin.  Senior leaders needed a way to ‘connect’ the team members in a meaningful way.

The Solution
Each volunteer (called Mission Staff) completed an Insights Foundation (including a Management Chapter) Profile; then, they completed 2 Insights Explorer Modules to familiarize themselves with the ‘basics’ of Insights theory.   The Explorer modules were presented over a 2 week period in May, prior to a Team Workshop – the first time the team would actually see each other face to face.  The modules were self-directed and self-paced, and gave the individuals on the team the opportunity to share pieces of their profile with other team members, if they wished.

How it was deployed
On Sunday, May 16^th, the team workshop was held as part of a two-day orientation for the team members.  Based on the desired learning outcomes from the Chef de Mission and Assistant Chef and the Mission staff, the workshop focused on team communication, leveraging the strengths of the team, and stress signals and solutions.  The analogy of formations of geese as ‘high performing teams’ – using the acronym GOOSE – was introduced.  (Goal, Organized, Overview, Support, and Encourage)

The results/next steps
Comments from the evaluation forms say it all.

“Wonderful session that helped me understand myself and others and the ability to communicate and function with diverse teams”  Slavka Haskova, Office manager.

“An insightful in depth session that was an effective tool for any of the 4 colour energies. Shauna shared an immense amount of knowledge with our team. Even after only completing 2 of the 8 modules. Looking forward to the follow-up session” – Katrina Galas, Market.& Sponsorship Consultant.

“It was an awesome experience working and learning the different colours. My experience completing the Insights Modules gave me information about myself, as well as some understanding of others, and how one can best communicate or work together, especially under stress! I highly recommend Insights course! Wish I had taken Insights years ago!” – Joy Fera, Team BC, Mission Staff.

For more information on Discovering Team Effectiveness or Navigating Team Effectiveness, contact Shauna Grinke at Insights Vancouver, or contact our office.