Late last year, we were contacted by a local government team who was experiencing issues with the way they were working together. Once we understood more about their situation, we suggested using the Zenergy FACTS model as a diagnostic tool. This enabled them to see where the gaps were and decide on next steps. You can read more about the Zenergy FACTS model on Page 140 in the Art of Facilitation. In a nutshell it explains how Freedom, Alignment, Congruence, Truth and Synergy combine as the essential ingredients of a co-operative team in an organisation. The work was carried out by Akasadaka and myself, with support from Dale.

Firstly we conducted 20 minute one on one interviews with each team member. The information was confidential and shredded once we had consolidated the feedback. The feedback indicated that the Congruence & Truth areas were in most need of attention and to this end, we facilitated a two day off site workshop just before Christmas. This focused on firstly creating a safe environment which enabled everyone to share their Truths about how they were feeling and what their requests were in moving forward. Most of these requests fed into a robust discussion on Culture (a key element of Congruence), which is now clearly defined and bought into by all team members. The team also managed to generate a team Purpose, but the real juice came in the conversation about what the team is and what isn’t. This had appeared to be an area of uncertainty in the past and was probably a cause of factions in the group who were working to different agendas. The team went away feeling much more positive about 2017. The key now is to sustain the change by staying connected with their Purpose and Culture and developing the behaviours to continue their growth as a co-operative team.

This is a great tool for generating co-operative teams in organisations. If your team needs assistance in this area, please feel free to contact us.

By Kelly Townsend