Team Building & Facilitation
StrengthsFinder teambuilding and strategy for 40 people at DMS
National Science Foundation
The challenge
The NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences wanted to strengthen a 40-person team and, at the same time, make progress on strategy.
Leadership needed an approach that would build understanding across individuals while still surfacing the organizational challenges standing in the way of the division's goals.
The solution
As a subcontractor to Copia Leadership, MTI ran three planning meetings with the organizing leadership team to clarify goals and objectives, and chose StrengthsFinder as the assessment.
Participants completed the assessment in advance so results could be used live in the room.
The morning covered a team introduction activity, an overview of the assessment, individual and team-level results, and teambuilding activities that connected personal strengths to the team's profile.
The afternoon moved to strategy: current vision, the wider NSF challenges that threaten it, then breakout conversations, anonymous input and large-group dialogue to generate and prioritize responses.
Results
- Individual and team StrengthsFinder results understood and applied
- Stronger cross-team understanding across a 40-person division
- Named challenges to the division's strategy, in the team's own words
- Prioritized actions across multiple challenge areas
- Anonymous input channels that let quieter voices shape the outcome
- Post-session evaluation of effectiveness and outcomes
Relevant service
Team Effectiveness & Facilitation
High-impact team retreats and facilitation for alignment and conflict resolution.
Related courses
- SDI Teambuilding3 hours
- Five Behaviors of a Team3 hours
- Influencing Up, Down and Across3 hours