February 2012

Take a fresh look at how Team

Management Systems is

developing leaders and teams

worldwide. Read about insights

on post-merger teambuilding

with a global IT services leader

in Belgium and an innovative

take on energising teams with

a ‘top four’ bank in South

Africa. Be inspired by

volunteers using the Profile to

kickstart inner-city programmes

in the UK. Plus updates and

new resources for TMSDI

network members.

TotallyTeamwork

®

Page 2 | www.tmsdinetwork.com

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

Rudy Vanheygen, Learning & Development Director EMEA

& Senior Consultant at Right Management in Belgium,

talks about one of his most memorable experiences of using

the Team Management Profile...

Every once in a while we are confronted with a situation we

think would only happen on television. This happened to me

when running a programme for a large multinational client in

Rwanda.

In the management team, composed of four different

nationalities, there was hostile opposition between two team

members from different Rwandan tribes who would only

communicate through a third person. Imagine the challenge

when preparing for a session on teamworking!

The Team Management Profile helped me approach the

situation in a very neutral way. By clearly explaining roles and

preferences, I was able to emphasise that the total functioning

of the team needed each team member. With such a mix of

nationalities, I asked the team to self reflect and define any

cultural specifics that reinforced or influenced their individual

role within the team, sharing their answers on Post-it® notes

stuck onto the Team Management Wheel.

In doing this, the team started to appreciate that their

individual roles and their distribution on the Wheel actually

transcended any differences in cultural behaviours. So they

agreed to focus on the complementary nature of their roles

and their individual experiences, and to unanimously set the

criteria for efficient and effective teamwork. Every member of

the team was satisfied with the results and engaged to make it

work.

Two months later, I received a progress update from the

General Manager. All was well, but most surprising was the

difference in the relationship between the two team members

from opposing tribes. Out of the whole team of managers and

directors, they were the ones working closest together, both

during and outside working hours.

Many factors played an important role in this transformational

process, but the Team Management Profile was the ideal tool

to take some distance from the tensed reality and to make

neutral – yet empathetic – moves towards a complementary

team functioning and spirit.

Transcending tribal differences

“

”

+44 (0)1904 641640 | Page 3

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

The power of diversityAs the UK’s leading business lobbying organisation, the

Confederation of British Industry (CBI) speaks for over

240,000 companies. Having worked with their HR team for

over seven years, Lisa Williams of Syzygy knew the best

way to introduce team profiling was to link it to the practical

realities of everyday work.

Lisa explains, “Traditionally, every directorate tended to have

its own way of doing things, so a key objective was to

create an appreciation of the benefits that difference can

bring and increase cross-functional working.”

Head of HR, Elaine McFarlane adds, “We wanted to make

the process grounded and real: how does your Team

Management Profile help you do what needs doing? What

can the different roles bring to the team? Lisa briefed the

teams, shared Profiles and let them decide how they would

find it useful day-to-day.

“This organic approach worked well, word spread and

within six months over half of the CBI were profiled. We

were keen not to link it into formal processes and

transferring ownership has resulted in some amazing

breakthroughs.”

Lisa continues, “The Policy Directorate had a 62% skew

towards Exploring and the Resources Directorate a 62%

skew towards Controlling. That unexpected finding has

helped bring the organisation together - the Policy Team

now ask the Resources Team for help with budgeting and

other tasks for which they don’t have a natural preference.

“I also ran the Pins and Straws exercise with over 80

people. The Thruster-Organiser group completed their tower

first, and the Controller-Inspector group came last, although

they did develop comprehensive plans! Of course the teams

with a combination of roles were the most effective. It was a

real eye opener for everyone. We've also found that people

need to be more flexible in their work roles, as reflected in

the high number of split wheels in our team data: 23% out

of 123 colleagues profiled to date. At the CBI, Elaine can

see every day that the Team Management Profile is helping

them to turn this diversity into a real strength and business

advantage."

Page 4 | www.tmsdi.com

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

One of South Africa’s ‘Top Four’, Nedbank Pty Ltd is the

country’s green bank, with a mission to look after the

environment and become a more caring and responsible

institution. Operating primarily in the corporate and domestic

arena, it’s 2200 staff work in a number of clusters within and

across the borders of South Africa.

Pierre Botha, Nedbank’s Organisational Development

Specialist, runs programmes that encourage cross-cluster-

pollination. “There is a strong need for people to work across

the organisation, so our development, teambuilding and

career coaching work focuses on building a more

interdependent and sharing culture.”

Focus on high performance

Pierre believes that African states have traditionally been

disadvantaged from a training and development point of view.

“At Nedbank, we focus strongly on people, and high

performance is embedded in our culture. We encourage a

bottom up as well as a top down approach, involving both

our Group Services and our Corporate clusters. This is in line

with our strategic objective to develop the best place to

invest, bank and work.

Team-based culture

“The Team Management Profile helps us to focus energies on

a common goal, look at gaps, identify barriers and set action

plans. It’s a framework for transformation.”

Pierre supports the sharing of Profiles to encourage

transparency and openness through the organisation. “Our

approach works well with the African concept of meaning

through others, and our open and community-focus helps us

to cross boundaries and develop a team-based culture.”

Assessing energy levels

TMS Master Trainer and consultant, Professor Joppie van

Graan, has been working closely with Pierre for many years

to translate the normative research behind the Team

Management Profile into visual aids that help the team assess

its energy levels.

Generating team energy at Nedbank

Joppie explains, “We chart the strengths of individual

preferences within the team and calculate the ‘means’ for

each Team Management role. A country comparison of high

and low ‘scores’ shows them where they need to focus. We

then use this composite data to produce an energy print of

the team based around the eight Team Management roles.

This is a blueprint for the team to understand what they will

get if they optimise each function, how they will get there and

who will take it forward – in other words, what they need to

do to manage their energy and achieve their desired end-

result.”

Team charter

This action plan is used to compile a team charter detailing

the end-result of the team, their vision, identity and code of

conduct. Each team member uses their Profile findings to

identify five expectations they can bring to their team. The

charter is revisited and revised regularly so it becomes

central to the team’s frame of reference.

“It’s all about ownership,” enthuses Joppie. “Team leaders

take forward the process for themselves. Once we know the

spread of preference in the team, custodians are appointed

for each role. This ensures that no area is neglected and the

team is balanced for high performance.

Gestalt energy

“Just as important as covering the roles is how they work

together. That’s the job of the linker or team champion. We

coach each team leader intensively in the linking skills they

need to optimise each function within, and between, the

different types of work. This allows the energy to flow

optimally. The end-result: Gestalt energy – more energy than

you would generate by simply adding the functions together.

You can see when the team energy is flowing - there’s a

different vibration.”

Pierre’s work with teams is ongoing and evolving,

“Transformational team leaders keep the process alive. They

revisit strategies and common goals and take these onto the

next stage. Looking to the future, there’s so much work to be

done. There’s a constant flow of new team members to be

inculcated into our high performance culture.”

enquiry@tmsdi.com | Page 5

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

Network members gathered in London for another

energising network forum. The day started with a ‘getting to

know you’ activity – who would have guessed we had a

belly dancer, a world record breaker and someone who was

almost captured by an Amazonian tribe in our midst!

Sue Blow, Management Learning & Coaching Ltd, kicked

off the day outlining how prior knowledge of a person’s Team

Management Profile can help a coach phrase questions

more thoughtfully. Learn about Sue’s Finding the Right

Question tips at www.tmsdinetwork.com

The second session saw Colin Jones-Evans, Virtua, share

his experience of working with teams in a major

broadcasting organisation and explore ideas about how to

keep the language and practice of TMS ‘alive’.

In an exhilarating and uplifting post-lunch energiser led by

Drum Cafe, network members formed an orchestra creating

rhythms and beats on Djembe drums and boom whackers.

Lots of laughter and creativity set the scene for our

afternoon sessions.

Marc Renard and Marc Uyttendaele from inmotion

Consulting in Belgium brought an international flavour to the

day. They captivated the audience with their tale of how one

phone call from the CEO of BNP Paribas Fortis asking them

to ‘do something different, but not too different’ with his

Board of Directors led them to use the Linking Skills Profile

with 300 participants and over 3000 respondents.

The day ended with an enlightening insight by Naysan

Firoozmand, ASK Europe plc, into how the organisational

strategy of prestige car company Bentley Motors Ltd is

changing in line with the new CEO’s vision and strategy.

Naysan explored how the Team Management Profile is

helping teams to work more cross-functionally and have a

greater appreciation of individual differences, which in turn

has led to increased effectiveness.

Our next network forum is in central London on Tuesday

15 May 2012. To book your place – £115 + VAT – please

contact Susan Mowse on +44 (0)1904 464506 or

smowse@tmsdi.com

Networking with TMSDI

Page 6 | +44 (0)1904 641640

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

www.tmsdinetwork.com | Page 7

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

Network forums are just one of the ways in which we support

network members and keep in touch with current issues.

TMSDI’s Janet Leonard and Mark Gilroy travelled to Norway to

meet up with TMS agents, Right Management. “We shared

ideas, resources and techniques for delivering accreditation and

also gave a session on the Linking Skills Profile,” explains Janet.

“The aim was to support the team in the way they use the TMS

tools.”

Mark also attended the international Excellence and Talent

Management Conference, Barcelona. “Purpose was definitely

a buzzword at the conference,” comments Mark. “Everyone was

talking about how giving individuals a clear understanding of

their purpose within an organisation, and how they can make a

difference, can be a better motivator than remuneration –

powerful stuff!”

At the Psychometrics Forum Coaching Teams for Effective

Performance using Personality Measures event Mark gave a

high-level overview of the TMS approach to understanding high

performance and motivation at work and also presented some

of the very latest TMS research.

Co-presenting with Mark, network member Sue O’Boyle

delivered a case study on how the Team Management Profile

can be used to support long term growth and development

initiatives.

TMSDI’s Sue Marwood joined 300 delegates at November’s IOD

Women as Leaders Conference in London where the

importance of getting the best out of your people was a key

theme. Orange Business Leader of the Year, Ruby

McGregor-Smith of the MITIE Group, emphasised that in order

to “make your company really tick” you need to be able to

communicate and motivate teams. She said having "the best

possible team" around her has helped to grow MITIE’s revenue

to nearly £2 billion.

And at the annual CIPD conference in Manchester Mark Gilroy

watched former Tesco CEO, Sir Terry Leahy, present his

inspirational opening keynote - 9 People Management Lessons

and Drivers of Growth - to a packed auditorium.

Which events have inspired you? Share your insights with the

TMSDI network via our Linkedin group or tweet us

@energyforteams

Out and about for inspiration

Tackling inner-city engagementChapeltown Youth Development Centre (CYDC) uses

sports, and wider community initiatives, to make an effective

difference to the lives of young people and adults in inner

city Leeds in the UK. One way the Centre achieves this is to

develop and train volunteers to become qualified Youth

Workers and Community Workers so they can deliver

life-enhancing educational and motivational programmes.

“It makes sense that if you’re engaged as a youth worker,

you need to understand yourself before you can help

others,” explains Gerry Broadbent, coaching consultant and

a Director of Community Pathfinders. “TMS has given our

coaching a real kickstart. By using the Team Management

Profile, we can better equip and empower our volunteers to

determine how they can run their projects more effectively.

“Both groups we’ve profiled so far have their own reasons

for volunteering – and their own expectations. The focus on

work preferences gives people an objective approach to

understanding how and why they work differently to each

other. Everyone has really taken their Profile on board. Now

we’ve got the first step right, and we know it works, we can

move on to the next stage.

“Working with volunteers has been a real eye-opener for

me. They can be absolutely brilliant at what they do, but

may never have had a chance in life. Now they’ve put all

that behind them and want to give something back to the

community.”

The Centre plans to use the Team Management Profile as

the platform for staff to review and set their own qualitative

objectives, based on feedback from co-workers, so they

can take a more focused approach to how they work.

“At CYDC, we’ve been in the process of reviewing where

we’re going as an organisation,” adds the Centre’s

Chairman, ex-professional footballer, Lutel James. “If we skill

ourselves up, using tools like the Team Management Profile,

we’ll be able to determine our own direction. Our

organisation will have the skills, abilities and confidence to

take us to where we want to be.”

Page 8 | enquiry@tmsdi.com

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

+44 (0)1904 641640 | Page 9

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

When Atos Origin Belgium merged with Siemens IT Solutions

and Services to become Atos Belgium, a new senior

management team was created in the Brussels-based office.

“Suddenly everything changed,” Dirk Supply and Gerda

Herbots of HRExpert.be explain. “There was a new company

and a completely new team, with no time to get to know each

other. Atos wanted help to accelerate the functioning of the

team so we proposed using the Team Management Profile.

“The programme started with the Create Your Own Restaurant

exercise. We grouped together people with similar Profiles and

asked them to draw up a business plan for a new restaurant –

this demonstrated the different outputs of a structured team

and a creative team. On receiving their Profiles, people

understood that in real life it is better to have a spread of team

roles to give a more balanced business plan and better

performance.

“We then introduced a fun element by asking team members to

choose a Smurf character which they related to. It was funny to

see senior managers reveal something about themselves with

humour, and a good way to lead into discussions. We followed

on with the Line Up and Pacing Tips exercises which were very

visual and had a lot of impact.

“We ended the day by displaying the team’s role maps. This

resulted in a long silence. People became aware of the huge

importance of role balances on the functioning of teams.

“New teams of senior managers are not always the easiest to

work with,” admits Dirk, “but feedback has been amazing. For

us, it was particularly positive as this was our first programme

using the Profile. We had a lot of support from TMSDI and the

exercises on the website were invaluable.”

Accelerating team synergy

Page 10 | www.tmsdi.com

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

Personal Discovery Workbook update

Now available in even more languages - Danish, Dutch,

English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish

and US English – we will soon be launching a Norwegian

version of the Personal Discovery Workbook and will post

an update on www.tmsdinetwork.com and our LinkedIn

Group when it’s available.

The Workbook is designed for use alongside the Team

Management Profile, and to support this we have also

introduced a free new presentation based on the same

content – available in all of the above languages. To obtain

a copy, contact network@tmsdi.com

Kindle Profiles

You can now read Team Management Profiles on your

Kindle, as well as on an iPad. Contact support@tmsdi.com

for more details.

Making connections

To help you make connections with our global network,

exchange ideas and explore best practice...

join: TMS Development International Network Members

follow: @energyforteams

subscribe: energyforteams.wordpress.com

Read all about it!

Have you subscribed to our blog yet? Our learning &

development team share key thoughts from recent

conferences and events, and give insights into leading

themes from industry experts. Fellow network members

reveal how they use TMS Profiles with individuals and teams

in their organisations. Plus we reveal more of the science

behind TMS and pass on tips for getting the most out of the

Profiles. Subscribe now - energyforteams.wordpress.com

New resources for Network members

TMS stories online

Multimedia is an engaging way to tell a story and hear direct

from network members. We’ve added three new web

videos to the network member and corporate websites:

l Why choose the Team Management Profile?

l Using the Team Management Profile with teams

l How TMSDI supports you after your accreditation

View them now at www.tmsdinetwork.com and

www.tmsdi.com

Better team communication

If you are familiar with our Pacing Tips foldout card you will

know what a useful reminder this is for individuals who wish

to understand better the work preferences of other team

members. In addition to the printed version, a presentation

is now available in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German,

Spanish and Swedish, with more languages to follow. To

order a supply of English Pacing Tips cards, or for a free

copy of the presentation, contact network@tmsdi.com

Which website?

www.tmsdinetwork.com

Password protected site exclusively for accredited TMSDI

network members. Supports your ongoing use of the TMS

Profiles. Download exercises, view support materials, and

search for stories and ideas.

www.tmsdi.com

Our main website giving overviews of the TMS approach,

accreditation programmes and Profile applications. Includes

case studies and videos.

www.tmsdiquestionnaires.com

For programme participants wishing to complete

questionnaires online from the multi-language options.

www.tmsaccreditation.com

All about the Team Management Profile accreditation

programme.

www.energyforteams.com

Online brochures with a complete overview of the

Margerison-McCann approach to high energy teamworking.

enquiry@tmsdi.com | Page 11

© TMS Development International Ltd, 2012

Make geography history! Stay where you are and enjoy the benefits of live webinar accreditation. Four 90 minute modules are delivered online by our own expert programme leaders. Fast paced and interactive, TMSDI webinars save time and money, and still offer real time discussion and knowledge sharing and the same physical resources as our on-the-ground event.

Contact us to book your place on an open programme or learn about tailored options for multi-site groups. Telephone +44 (0)1904 464515 or email our learning & development team at development@tmsdi.com

Making Geography History!

M k h hi t ! St h d j th

WebinarAccreditationfor the Margerison-McCann Team Management Profile

• Stay-where-you-are learning • Live and interactive • For individuals, small groups & dispersed teams

TMSDIWEBINARS