FIRST ONSITE | High Performing Team Program Review

The “High Performing Team Program” was sponsored by Eric Hecht, Regional Vice President, BC. The Team Leads were Kyle Sigouin, Business Operations Manager, BC Region, and Todd Savage, Operations Manager. The program participants included over 30 project managers and leaders from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada.  

The program was facilitated by Stephanie Koonar and Louann McCurdy, Co-Founders of PeerSpectives Consulting. Both Stephanie and Louann are Gallup Certified Strengths Coaches.

The Team Leads had previously participated in a Gallup Strengths training program and had experienced many benefits both personally and professionally from knowing and understanding their Clifton Strengths profile. As a result of this previous training, they were convinced that bringing a Strengths Program to their team would reap similar benefits. 

The Team Leads chose the image of a professional race car pit crew to convey their vision for the team – with everyone working together, communicating, and delivering their best work.

Goals were established for the program by the Team Leads:

• To raise self-awareness and be more conscious of our own behaviour
• To bring our best self to work every day and use our talents effectively
• To assess and continuously improve our teamwork
• To increase trust between team members
• To have more frictionless collaboration
• To be more productive and focused
• To be able to perform at a level to maintain a reasonable work-life balance

The High Performing Team Program included four in-person workshops held at the Surrey office, access to the e2grow learning platform, online learning activities, and a Strengths coaching session for each participant to review their Strengths Assessment. 

Each participant was enrolled in the learning platform, which was accessible via laptop and mobile phone. The platform provided a place for the Team Leads to access all of the team members’ profiles in one place and included scheduled activities between workshops to help participants fully understand their Strengths.  In addition, team members could see and learn about the Strengths of fellow team members and were introduced to the 5 habits of High Performing Teams.  

The program introduced and developed five habits of High Performing Teams: Aim, Reflect, High5, CoffeeSync and Progress Huddle.

Connecting the value of a High Performing Team to the business vision. Discussion and learning on what great teams have in common, a short introduction to CliftonStrengths, setting of personal goals for the program.

Understanding Strengths of self and of others on the team was a key element of the program. Participants had previously taken the Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessment and at the session learned more about their Strengths and the Strengths of the team, portrayed on the Team Grid.  Introduction and discussion of the Aim and Reflect Habits.

Deeper Understanding of ones’ Strengths, and what each Strength brings and needs.  Recognizing the Strengths and contributions of team members through recognition or High 5’s. Introduction of CoffeeSync alignment conversations to talk about what they love about being part of a team (green box) and what they dislike about the team (black box). Each team member left the workshop with a poster of recognition (High 5’s) from other team members.

The final workshop featured a mock Progress Huddle where team members identified positive factors (boosters) and negative factors (killers) to their work week. As a group, they determined the key areas of focus for the next three months and signed a personal commitment statement toward fulfilling that commitment.

Two surveys were distributed to the participants to gather their feedback. During the workshops, the Team demonstrated a sense of common purpose, and each member was willing to work toward achieving program objectives. Participants were engaged, phones were down, and there was a sense of comradery.

Respect was shown for other points of view. Differences of opinion were encouraged and freely expressed. All interaction among team members occurred in a comfortable, supportive, fun atmosphere.

At the conclusion of the program, participants were asked whether the High Performing Team helped them to achieve any of the program goals. 

95%
agreed that the program helped them to:

• raise self-awareness and be more conscious of their own behaviour
• be more productive and focused

85%
agreed that the program helped them to:

• bring their best self to work every day and use their talents effectively  
• assess and continuously improve our teamwork
• increase trust between team members

90%
agreed that the program helped them to:

• have more frictionless collaboration
• be able to perform at a level to maintain a reasonable work-life balance

Participants were surveyed on the impact of the new habits that were introduced of High Performing Teams.

82%
agreed that
the AIM Habit had a positive impact on their personal well-being and performance.

70%
agreed that
the REFLECT Habit had a positive impact on their personal well-being and performance.

81%
agreed that
the High 5 Habit had a positive impact on their personal well-being and performance.

65%
agreed that
the CoffeeSync Habit had a positive impact on their personal well-being and performance.

Team Lead: Kyle Sigouin

My main goal in this session was to have the team learn about themselves so they can better serve our customers both internally and externally, this will assist them in making strong changes towards working better together.  I believe these sessions gave each team member perspective into what they do without thinking about it good and bad and provide them tools to understand why things happen the way they do. The high 5 is a great reminder that we all like praise even if we like it only a certain way and this should remind everyone that so do our peers in our team.

“Personally, I’ve learnt a lot about myself and my colleagues throughout this journey. The HPT workshops encouraged me to learn more about myself. Why I do things/think a certain way in life, and especially my work life.  I’ve learned that my team members are all driven differently and commonly most have the same traits. Being different from the others isn’t a bad thing and that we all have roughly the same goal but just different ways of getting there.  Positive feedback and reinforcement is important to team development and growth. Everyone takes compliments differently and that it’s nice to know how to give or deliver certain compliments to certain individuals. Steps I’ve taken to become better. I’ve learned that getting into a better flow really helped. Especially what triggers to avoid and obtain to be in flow. Becoming a better colleague, knowing how to communicate or knowing how my colleagues are really helps”.  Andy T 

“I definitely use my strengths and have noticed them being used a lot more. I can see as a team we all are trying to figure out how each one of us works and I think just with that we have started to work better as a team. I took away that as a team we all can turn our talents into strengths which will help us work better together.” Kendra O

“Gave me a better understanding of myself, my habits & my traits which informed me on how to handle others and my own workflows and a work/life balances. Relator also helps as when I relate to an Insured I find the project goes much smoother and the Insured is much happier.”   Derkan W

“Learn how to work with each other using our own strengths and weaknesses along with learning how to interact with others and their strengths and weaknesses.” Tim H 

Over the course of the 4-month program, team members became more self-aware, learned to recognize and appreciate their colleagues, and developed habits to work together better so they can better serve their customers. They identified and committed to working towards areas of focus to continue their trajectory of team improvement. The in-person workshops, with phones and laptops mostly turned off, led to a high level of engagement amongst participants.  The printed workbooks allowed team members to remain off-screen and focus on participating. 

A few participants dialled in via Zoom. While we were able to engage these participants and gather their input and feedback, the in-person format allowed for more interactions and team building with participants.  

In regards to the e2grow platform, on average, participants completed 30% of the learning activities in the e2grow program. The platform provided an opportunity for participants to connect with each other and receive feedback from the coaches supporting the development of new habits. 

The focus for next quarter Jan-Mar 2023, was determined at the T4 workshops called the Progress Huddles. The Team Leads participated and gained insight into the area focus for this next quarter, as determined by the team.  The team members identified the area of focus to be Accountability in order to improve performance and outcomes. 

It is anticipated that there will be continued demonstration of the new habits, such as setting a weekly Aim and end-of-week Reflection. In addition, team members stated that they had embraced the habit of giving feedback (High 5’s) and had set goals to have alignment conversations with others, aimed at working better together (Coffee Syncs).  

The Team Leads stated they identified areas of opportunity for coaching and supporting these new habits. For instance, the Team Leads shared with Louann and Stephanie the “Situation Behaviour Impact” (SBI) format, and this could be shared with the team members, providing a guide when having challenging conversations. 

Access to the e2grow learning platform is available to all participants until the end of the annual subscription in mid-Sept 2023.  The platform will continue to provide team members access to all profiles and information on how to work with each person based on their strengths. Other resources on the platform include videos, articles, access to online coaches and additional learning activities. 

Louann and Stephanie are most pleased with the progress made. The pre-workshop meetings with the Team Leads provided direction and insights, resulting in the highest quality of workshop delivery.  In addition, the participation and insights shared by the team were invaluable to the growth and development of others in the room. The investment in the High Performing Team Program, with a focus on understanding one’s Strengths from both a professional and personal perspective, will have lasting benefits for the participants.

PeerSpectives Consulting Inc, based in Vancouver, Canada, empowers purpose-driven individuals and organizations to be their best.  Our consultants bring a strong background in industry, adult learning, a commitment to excellence, and a drive to help companies succeed.  PeerSpectives Consulting is the first company to bring e2grow High Performing Team Program to Canada.

Stephanie Koonar is a community connector that believes in the strength of teams and personal development, with experience collaborating with international teams from Dublin, Milan, Guadalajara, New York, London in both profit and non-profit organizations. An award-winning instructor with 20 years of experience in Higher Education, Certified Career Educator, coaching people to unlock their potential to be their best. Mentor of the Year. MBA, BA Psych. Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach.

Contact Stephanie:  sk.peerspectives@gmail.com  | (778) 987-3137

Louann McCurdy is an ICF-Certified Coach, specializing in CliftonStrengths. Louann has lived in 5 countries (Canada, USA, Singapore, France, India), and has worked as a Mining Engineer, I/T developer and Business Analyst, coach and facilitator.  B.Sc. (Engineering), B.Ed. (Adult Ed.). Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach. 

Contact Louann:  lm.peerspectives@gmail.com | (778)-847-0901