Making it fair: creating teams of leaders at Fairtrade
Knowing when an organisation is striving to be fair from the inside out is always encouraging.
At a time when one too many businesses are making inflated claims about their culture, followed by the inevitable “gotcha” moment in the form of disgruntled employees and damning press coverage, it can be hard to know who’s talking the talk and walking the walk.
Working with a facilitator is a good litmus test. If an organisation is taking active steps to create a collaborative and positive company culture, that’s a big green flag.
A shining example is Fairtrade. Fair by name and fair by nature, the internationally trusted sustainability label wanted to establish a strong, positive, and efficient team culture for its new partnerships leadership team. I was asked to help them join the dots and create a sense of cohesion and collaboration.
Here’s what happened.
Designed to achieve
Fairtrade’s partnerships leadership team was considering how its internal strategy should take shape. The new team consisted of two merged teams led by a newly-appointed Partnerships Director. The teams knew each other but had never worked together.
They knew they needed to rethink their differing approaches and establish a strong foundation to optimise their shared expertise. I was asked to design a strategy day that would bring them together and help them reach that all-important light bulb moment.
From 10 am until 4 pm, I worked with the group of seven to build a strategy that fostered alignment, connection, vision, mission and values.
Learning to achieve
All good leaders want the best for their team. As a facilitator, it’s my job to ensure the leader’s vision aligns with the needs and wants of the wider team.
Before the strategy day, I spoke in depth with the Partnerships Director, followed by a 30-minute 1:1 discussion with each team member to ensure all parties were on board with the proposed goals and outcomes.
It’s common for people to have different opinions at this stage. By having these 1:1s beforehand, everyone had the opportunity to air concerns and build a rapport with me ahead of the event, setting the tone for a more informed and productive group discussion.
One team member was unable to attend the event in person, so we agreed that a hybrid event was the best option, subject to a few key ground rules:
The team members in the room were aware that the individual was present and knew how to communicate with them.
The individual was allowed to jump in at any point (even if they couldn’t receive social cues about when it was appropriate to jump in).
The tech was installed and audited to ensure the smoothest experience possible.
When it came to break-out rooms (in pairs or threes), the remote individual was always included, and two people stayed in the virtual room with them.
How did we create a smooth event?
No cliched ice-breakers or panic-inducing instructions like “Tell us a fact about you”.
Using clean language (a theory developed by psychotherapist David Grove). E.g. I’d ask, “How was that for you?” not “What did you enjoy about that?”. The latter presupposes the individual enjoyed it, while the former invites a more open and honest dialogue.
I asked three questions that brought the participants into the room, but got them to write the answers down so they weren’t influenced by each other:
If this meeting were to go as you would like it to go, how would it go?
What would you need to do for this meeting to go like that?
For this meeting to go like that and for you to be like that, what support do you need?
The last question, in particular, can spark brilliant responses. It gives the participants agency to ask for the type of support they need to fulfil their potential, whether it’s from me or other colleagues in the room.
The achievements
There’s a delicate balance to strike for strategy sessions like these. You have to be flexible with the agenda and follow the energy of the room while ticking off the objectives within the timeframe. The goal is to make everyone feel that all outcomes have been achieved without it seeming like we’ve gone through a long, tedious agenda to get there.
Thankfully, the Fairtrade partnerships leadership team achieved just that.
“Phil [took the time to] really understand everyone’s perspectives beforehand to ensure he built a bespoke programme that was going to deliver what we needed. He was also prepared to tweak and adapt as we went through the day to make sure we stayed focused on our desired outcome.
My biggest takeaway was the energy and can-do approach throughout – it felt like nothing was too complex for us as a group to work through.
We now have a clear new approach to our partnerships work and are operating as a really strong and effective leadership team. The day Phil organised was the springboard for that, and this has had a really positive influence over our day-to-day operations.”
- Kerrina Thorogood - Fairtrade Foundations Partnership Director
The outcomes at a glance
The session was a springboard for making the internal team more effective, leading to stronger partnerships, such as with Greggs.
It resulted in a mini internal restructure of the team. Everyone came away confident in their new roles within the two merged departments and how they’d work together.
We created new blends of teams and sub-teams and mixed up who was managing who to achieve optimum productivity, collaboration, and results.
Thanks to the success of the strategy day, I was asked to support a new project with the entire directorate team.
We did this work live in one day. The team members had to be super honest about what they wanted and needed to thrive in this new environment.
Before the day, the team was wondering how they were going to get everyone on the same page. But by the end of the day, everyone was confident in the plan of action, happy in the knowledge that we’d achieved the outcomes while respecting individual preferences.
There’s no limit to what people can achieve if they’re honest, advocate for their needs, and consider different perspectives. It’s all about creating the right environment for these breakthroughs to take place.
Let’s chat if you’re wondering how to take your team dynamic from fragmented to flawless. Together, we’ll roll out a plan of action that keeps everyone on the same page while achieving your organisation’s goals.
