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Telecom Company Creates StrongCross-Functional Links

The Need

This company had a relatively new group of managers on their leadership

team – many of whom were recently promoted into their positions.

Although the group was having some great successes and had survived and

thrived through a major change effort, a “silo mentality” existed between

market channels and departments. The leader of this team knew that he

needed to do something to eliminate the myopic “my department only” 

thinking and build a true team of leaders to enable the organization to

succeed in their highly competitive market. He wanted to create an

opportunity for his team members to gain a better understanding of each

person’s role on the team and to identify what linkages between

departments needed improving. He also wanted to strengthen the personal

relationships on the team.

The Adventure Associates Process

After interviews with both the leader of the team and several other team

members, AAI partnered with the planning group to design a two-and-a-

half day program with evening sessions. Participants were assigned some

pre-work prior to the session to enable the group to hit the ground running

when they arrived.

The program began with an Myers Briggs Type Indicator session to help

participants learn more about their own work styles as well as the work

styles of each team member. Team members appreciated learning more

about what made their colleagues tick and strategies to better speak the

language of team members with different preferences. True to the

Adventure Associates’ Way, outdoor team challenges were integrated

throughout the session to give the group opportunities to practice effective

teaming, taking into consideration people’s different personalitypreferences.

Each team member came prepared with handouts detailing his or her key

priorities, challenges and support needs from other teams. Presentations

were scattered throughout the multi-day session and helped to create a

sense of greater interdependence.

The first evening program gave participants an opportunity to share a little

bit about their personal life. Each person brought 5 – 10 items that were

symbolic of what was truly important to that individual. Many peoplereported that in a two-hour period, they had learned more about one

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another than they had in years of working together. The second evening

program gave everyone an opportunity to appreciate each person’s

contribution to the team.

The other major component to the program was a "start / stop" activity to

prioritize key strategic improvement efforts for the team. Each participant

brought three things that the leadership should start doing and three things

that it should stop doing that would contribute to improving the

organization’s effectiveness, productivity and morale. The group shared and

prioritized their ideas and then broke into sub-teams to create action plans

for implementation back in the work place.

The Results

The team immediately implemented several ideas including sending out

weekly information blasts over voicemail that highlight company newsupdates and wins. Each person on the team is taking ownership for the

different improvement strategies and the work is moving forward.

Team members reported that there were a lot more conversations going on

between departments after the meeting. People are making a greater effort

to keep each other in the loop and they are asking for help from one

another. The silo mentality is breaking down. The focus is switching from

competition to collaboration. As one team member reported, we came to

the session as a group of individuals and we walked out of it as a team.