Stanus Cloete and Annette Gray
"Creating one team that respects one another and enjoys coming to work" A review of Annette Gray’s Case Study from InterAction Volume 3 Number 2, November 2011 In this great case study, Annette has done a wonderful series of workshops creating a cultural change in a professional services firm in Australia. Her study focuses on the first workshop with the team. The management team of twelve high achievers was behaving in a “dysfunctional and competitive way” as described by the General Manager of the business unit. Her team was rated lowest across the entire business on the Employee Engagement Survey score at 27% against the average score of 40% across the rest of the business. Three months prior to Annette being contracted the team facilitated their own problem focused workshop without any measurable success. Annette’s approach to the challenge is a great example of excellent Solution Focused work. First of all, she proposed to engage the discouraged General Manager in individual coaching sessions, where she was transparent about the fact that she uses Solution Focused tools and philosophy. She argued that the General Manager had a role to play in the culture change and was the actual expert on what needed to be done. The intent was to co-operate with the General Manager in co-constructing the solution as well as enabling the General Manager to model the approach in continuing the work long after Annette was no longer part of the process. Secondly, Annette engaged the General Manager in setting the stage for the team sessions and sharing her hopes for the future.