Case Studies

Let’s not fight!

From “Too Nice” to Totally Aligned

  • A fast-growing startup was struggling to make decisions quickly enough to match its growth ambitions.

    • The founder wanted her team to stand on their own two feet so she could focus on strategic work rather than daily decision-making.

    • During discovery calls, it became clear that the common thread was niceness: the team avoided disagreement, leading to stalled discussions and circular meetings.

    • As a result, projects dragged on, decisions were delayed, and accountability was blurred.

  • A one-day team development workshop designed to strengthen communication and decision-making through constructive conflict.

    • Introduced principles from Patrick Lencioni’s work on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, focusing on building trust and embracing healthy debate.

    • Facilitated practical training on what productive conflict looks and feels like — helping the team separate disagreement from disconnection.

    • Ran a live exercise on a real, six-month-stalled business decision to apply the tools in real time.

    • The team resolved that issue in 43 minutes — setting a new standard for clarity and courage in discussion.

  • Six months later, both the founder and team reported transformational change:

    • Communication: Honest, constructive conversations have replaced politeness paralysis.

    • Decision-making: Faster, clearer, and more collaborative.

    • Leadership: Team members have developed confidence and ownership — described by the founder as “a team of leaders.”

    • Culture: Stronger alignment, defined processes, and a communication culture that supports sustained growth.

    • Business impact: Increased profitability and the ability to expand the workforce with shared ways of working and decision-making clarity.

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What are we doing?

Six Days to Shape a New Era of Marketing Leadership

  • A household-name FMCG brand had undergone a major restructure, forming a new senior marketing team made up of high-performing individuals who had never worked together as a team.

    • The team needed to align quickly to deliver ambitious 2025 targets.

    • They aimed to create a legacy of excellence, positioning themselves as the model marketing team in the FTSE 500.

    • They wanted to become a magnet for top talent — attracting, developing and retaining high performers.

    • Despite individual brilliance, early dynamics revealed silos, uncertainty, and competing priorities.

    • They also faced a reputation challenge: other departments saw marketing as difficult to collaborate with — and they wanted to be invited to the party, not treated as the gatecrashers.

  • A six-day team development overhaul designed to define their purpose, ways of working and collective identity.

    • Purpose definition: Worked with the team to articulate their unique role within the business — who they wanted to be, what they stood for, and the impact they wanted to have across the organisation.

    • Strategic focus: Clarified what success would look like in the next 12 months and developed clear criteria for how to prioritise against a heavy workload.

    • Collaboration and behaviour: Facilitated honest discussions around what each specialist area needed from the others, building understanding and interdependence.

    • Ways of working: Co-created behavioural norms and rituals that support both delivery and team cohesion.

    • Culture embedding: Supported the team through a major leadership transition — including the loss of their VP and onboarding of a new one — without losing focus or unity.

    • Defined team identity: A clear, shared purpose and positioning that connects business goals with personal motivation.

    • Cultural stability: The team remained cohesive and high-performing during leadership change — described by one member as “riding the waves without capsizing.”

    • Improved collaboration: Stronger cross-functional relationships across the business, shifting perceptions of marketing from “difficult” to “trusted partner.”

    • Sustained performance: Clear priorities and behavioural agreements have enabled the team to stay aligned and deliver against targets, even amid transition.

    • Attraction and retention: The team is now seen internally as a desirable place to work — a genuine example of leadership in action.

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Can we trust each other?

From Lone Visionaries to Collaborative Strategists

  • A Thought Leadership Corporation brought together 15 fast-paced, high-growth startups — each already valued at over £100 million — for an intensive eight-week accelerator designed to take them to their next level of profitability.

    • The cohort was full of brilliant but fiercely independent entrepreneurs — creative, bold, and used to leading, not collaborating.

    • The umbrella company wanted to accelerate collaboration so that participants could leverage each other’s expertise during the programme.

    • The challenge: get a roomful of risk-takers, visionaries, and “move fast and break things” types to slow down, connect, and think strategically together.

  • A targeted group development process built around high support and high challenge, helping founders recognise how their strengths could both enable and derail progress.

    • Used NLP-based frameworks to help participants identify behavioural patterns — “what you spot, you own” — highlighting both positive and limiting traits.

    • Facilitated structured conversations to build trust, vulnerability and mutual respect among entrepreneurs who were used to working solo.

    • Designed and delivered a real-time collaboration challenge: working from a minimal brief, teams had to co-create a business model under time pressure.

    • Debriefed on the experience to reveal a shared blind spot — a collective tendency to rush into action without adequate planning or reflection.

    • Shifted focus toward strategic thinking, teaching the value of pausing for clarity rather than defaulting to constant hustle.

    • Behavioural awareness: Participants recognised how impulsive execution was limiting long-term scalability.

    • Collaborative growth: Founders began to value input from peers and leaned into joint problem-solving rather than competition.

    • Strategic discipline: Many implemented structured reflection and planning time in their calendars post-programme.

    • Sustained business impact: Each company left with clearer strategic processes and a renewed ability to balance vision with execution — turning go-getter energy into grounded, profitable growth.

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We don’t play together!

From Fractured Brilliance to a High-Performing Leadership Engine

  • A fast-growing, private-equity-backed SME was on an ambitious trajectory to exit by the end of 2026 with a target valuation of £120 million.

    • The leadership team was exceptionally skilled and productive individually, but not operating as a true team.

    • Silos had formed, collaboration was minimal, and accountability was inconsistent.

    • Despite strong departmental results, their collective performance was slowing organisational momentum and limiting growth potential.

    • In discovery calls, it became clear that trust and psychological safety were low — team members hesitated to challenge each other or surface uncomfortable truths.

  • A leadership team development process focused on accountability, trust, and aligned execution.

    • Introduced Patrick Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” framework — disguised as a puzzle exercise to make discovery both engaging and revealing.

    • Facilitated reflective discussions on how each dysfunction (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, inattention to results) was showing up in their real dynamics.

    • Guided the team to self-identify gaps and agree on practical, observable behaviours to strengthen performance.

    • Established meeting disciplines to keep conversations strategic — moving from getting “stuck in the weeds” to keeping the shared vision front and centre.

    • Co-created accountability norms: clear priorities, behavioural agreements, and permission to “call it out” when commitments or conduct fell short.

    • Cohesion: The team began to see themselves as one unit — not six departments.

    • Accountability: Clear mechanisms for holding one another to account, both for outcomes and behaviours.

    • Focus: Meetings now centre on strategic goals and progress towards the exit, rather than operational minutiae.

    • Trust: Greater openness, candour, and willingness to challenge — without damaging relationships.

    • Business trajectory: The team has transformed from a collection of high performers into a cohesive, fast-moving leadership engine, accelerating confidently toward their 2026 exit goal

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We are just too busy to succeed!

Building Cohesion (and Sanity) in a Fast-Moving,
AI-Driven World

  • A household-name FMCG company was under intense pressure to adapt to AI transformation while keeping pace with business demands.

    • The global data analysis team was split between the US and India, working at high speed under complex cultural and communication dynamics.

    • Constant shifts in priorities from senior leadership created frustration and fatigue: teams were producing excellent work, but often not the right work.

    • Tension between perfectionism and pace led to delays — teams hesitated to act until everything felt flawless, then rushed decisions under pressure.

    • Trust was fragile across time zones, and team members struggled to use each other’s strengths effectively amid the chaos.

  • A tailored team development programme focused on cultural cohesion, clarity, and resilience in flux.

    • Helped the team step back to look at the bigger picture: their role in the AI-driven landscape, and how internal and external forces were shaping their work.

    • Facilitated conversations to define what success really looks like — creating tangible criteria for what “moving the needle” means in their context.

    • Mapped priorities and success indicators, making clear how to spot when work was truly advancing business goals versus creating noise.

    • Introduced frameworks for adaptive decision-making and change readiness, equipping the team to respond without losing direction amid constant disruption.

    • Explored behavioural patterns — particularly risk aversion and the “wait until it’s perfect” trap — and developed new habits aligned with the company’s fast-paced culture.

    • Created space for cross-cultural understanding, building empathy, trust, and appreciation for different communication styles and problem-solving approaches

    • Cultural trust: A cohesive cross-continental team with genuine respect for cultural nuances and working styles.

    • Strategic focus: Clear priorities and shared definitions of success, reducing wasted effort on misaligned work.

    • Agility: New tools and structures to stay on course amid flux — “buckled up” for the rollercoaster rather than thrown off by it.

    • Balanced pace: The team learned to act decisively without sacrificing quality, shifting from reactive to intentional execution.

    • Sustained clarity: Regular reflection practices ensure the team continually checks: Are we still on the right path?

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Thrive during hard change

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