The idea of teams itself was being challenged by the introduction of new sets of values and leadership expectations that were focused towards building readiness for the future.
This outlook proposed a major shift from the erstwhile inorganic growth of the business through the critical acquisition of key properties in different geographies that were allowed to retain their own identity, outcomes and enterprise.
The transformation introduced re-organisation, re-prioritization and re-structuring towards creating a new equilibrium where people had changed roles, mandates and identities coming together to work with re-defined teams across multiple geographies.
As the pandemic forced people into their homes, the new normal impacted trust or rather denied opportunities to interact and assess one another. People felt at sea because their instincts were not getting enough data points to form an opinion. With the new normal, it seemed, we needed to find some threads of continuity; a common language, to allow people to start stitching their story together.
Insights and Expedia Group co-created a bespoke ‘Team Effectiveness’ solution that borrowed from various Insights modules; including the Insights Discovery workshop, Team Effectiveness workshop, and the Leadership workshop. It built upon these to arrive at a unique and customised design for Expedia Group. A complete function within the organisation was taken through a unified experience as a test case.
Every individual who took the evaluator was provided pre-work to familiarize them with the framework behind the four-color model. The learners received their Insights Discovery Personal Profile ahead of the session with a request to come to a two-hour team effectiveness workshop with some understanding of their personal preferences.
When in flux, faced with ambiguity and change, a common meaning becomes an instant binding force. Personification of the team wheel highlights unconscious biases hiding between individuals and teams. It initiates a deliberate shift to create a common ground for voicing concerns and amplifying the less represented. Each one finds an expression; in that connection an entity is born! A team!
When this conversation finds a link to the leadership dashboard and connects with the on-ground impact the team is recording, the use of psychometrics in peoples’ mind becomes strategic. It finds a seat at the table as a value addition, a critical datapoint in impacting the bottom line of business.
We still need to measure the behavior change this experience is creating or the habits it’s manifesting in our teams but the intention of embedding the language of colors across Expedia Group is a long-term commitment.
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– Alissa Salmon, Strategy & Planning Director, Expedia Group
