A team reset after a period of change.

The Student Entrepreneurship team at City, University of London had recently welcomed a new Head of Department. It had also had a changeover of staff, and was recovering from the impact of the pandemic. In order to support the transition and build social cohesion, the team reached out to me to organise a two-day retreat, with a third follow-up day.

As well as focusing on ways of working together and collaborating, the team was keen to gain a deeper understanding of their student body and stakeholders, and how teams might engage them.

To build relationships between the team, I designed team-building exercises to help participants understand one another’s journeys. We also looked to the future through a ‘shared vision’ workshop. Each participant explored what success might look like to them and what they’d like to achieve, not just as an individual department, but as a whole body within the context of the university.

We explored idea generation, helping participants work out what they could and might do next as a department, this was then mapped out in relation to the university’s wider purpose and values. During our follow-up session, we looked at effective team working methods to help them be more productive and work best within their unique skill sets.

Participants developed better relationships, and ended the session with a much stronger understanding of each other’s roles, of their team’s values, and how they work together. They also gained a clearer understanding of their audience’s personas and developed a clear action plan for moving forward.