Our approach

A leadership intervention is a bit like hitting the cue ball in a game of snooker. 

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You know what you want the cue ball to do - but you often miss the results you expected.

Professionals use training balls - like the one shown here - to help develop the absolute precision needed for each shot.  

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​Over the past decade, we've never stopped learning - from the best in the world - as we've hit thousands of practice shots.  We've run enough Top Team sessions with enough teams from enough organisations, that we're confident in 2 things:

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1. we can handle whatever comes up

2. we can achieve your goals, no matter how the balls are lying. 

 

A typical assignment starts over a call with the CEO.  What we most commonly hear is a variation of:

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"I just want to get the team properly connected."
"We need to build trust, and get to know each other as human beings."
"We've got a huge reach ahead of us.  We can only do it if we leverage the true power of the team."

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Then we start to peel the onion.

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People often experience their pre-event interview as a major intervention in itself.  

"Such a relief to be able to talk openly about this"
"Wow, that was like therapy - you've got so deep into the problem already"

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It's the quality of our questions and our ability to listen that starts to set us apart.  It also informs the unique design of your in-person sessions.  

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We'll design for you a bespoke journey - your own Top Team Expedition - via a series of carefully chosen key landmarks (the outcomes we'll reach at different points during the workshop).  Unlike many consultancies (and we've worked in firms from boutique to Big 4), we know you don't need us to hustle you through a model.  So we won't.

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Once we're in the room with you, you'll then find us adapting seamlessly, on the fly, to whatever you bring.  We pride ourselves on the ability to create space for precisely the conversations you most need to have - be that about unresolved tensions, value creation and priorities, or landing change across your complex organisation. We stay very light on models and frameworks, but can dip at will into the best thinking and research on leadership and top performing teams as it serves your needs.

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By the close of Day 2, you'll also have experienced our quality of synthesis - the ability to capture and distil the range and complexity of extended top team discussions into a clear, simple, action-focussed framework.  Your next steps may be bold and system-wide.  More often, to begin with, they'll be in the form of individual experiments each leader can commit and be accountable to.  Expect the question: "What's good enough for now, and safe enough to try?"  Your collective insight will inform surprising answers.

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