1. Case Study – Thebes Group
July 2014
Snapshot – impact of Psychometric Profiling from
GrowthAccelerator
• A senior team communicating more openly with each other
than ever before as a result of expert facilitation and a safe,
structured environment
• Immediate understanding of how to use individual profiles
to explore personal and group effectiveness and enable
high-performance teamwork
• A clear picture of how to take learning back into
the workplace and a decision to extend the service’s
value through further work to match team dynamics to
collective objectives.
About
Founded 10 years ago by Managing Director Mike Hall,
Thebes Group is an industry-leading provider of consulting,
IT, software and outsourced business solutions which
enable clients to solve business challenges, improve their
competitiveness and achieve their goals. It is an Assured
Outcome Provider (AOP) with a unique approach centred on
sharing clients’ risks and focusing on outputs such as quality
service and ROI rather than inputs. It does this by fitting
skills to needs, not job titles, augmenting its workforce with
enthusiastic professionals from its Academy programme and
remaining flexible as clients’ needs change.
The business challenge
Having established a reputation for producing game-changing
results for some of the largest organisations in the financial,
insurance and media worlds, Mike knew his business had
enormous potential. He also knew that to achieve the 300%+
growth he was targeting he would have to find a way of
unlocking exceptional performance in the leadership team.
Already aware of the power of psychometric profiling, he
turned to GrowthAccelerator’s service to, ‘Try to get the best
out of everyone by knowing what makes them tick, and by
making sure that we are all going in the same direction and via
the same route. Some might take the A1 or decide to walk, and
I want them on the M1!’
Sector: IT services
Employees: 45 (plus 65 associates)
Turnover: £9m (2013/14)
Location: Milton Keynes plus offices in London and Jamaica
Growth Manager: Lotwina Faradoye
Service used: Psychometric Profiling
Psychometric Profiling provider: Howard Scott, The Colour Works
How Psychometric Profiling has helped
Howard Scott of The Colour Works led an interactive
half-day workshop which set out to explore the general
issues of personality and perception before getting
senior management involved in structured, engaging
exercises that analysed their individual ways of thinking
and behaving. The Insights Discovery®
psychometric
behavioural profiles, created in advance of the workshop,
allowed the team to identify what each behavioural
profile meant in reference to how they work with one
another. As Howard explains, ‘The workshop provides an
opportunity for very capable and talented people to find a
competitive point of difference. By addressing the issue of
their different behaviours and preferences, they can each
play to their strengths and operate as a team in a highly
collaborative and cohesive way.’
The workshop introduced the Thebes team to a model,
language and context for doing something that’s vital to
the business but often neglected in everyday life - talking
about themselves. By the end, the team began to discuss
with openness and commitment the implications of their
new knowledge, and how they might use it to improve
their effectiveness as individuals and as a team. In fact,
the potential impact of the workshop was considered
so significant that Mike and the leadership team asked
Howard to facilitate a second session. Its objective will
be to drill down into those behaviours that are helpful,
those that can get in the way, and how the team can
harness this understanding not only to function as a
high-performance unit but also, specifically, to deliver
the company’s growth goals.
‘Psychometric Profiling has been very interesting and
challenging and will help us in many areas, from better
teamwork to more focused action, as we work together
to get to what I call our ‘landing zone’, when we are in
a position to sell the business,’ says Mike. ‘The value of
profiling in a management team is personal reflection,
understanding and transparency. For me, it all comes
down to dedication and commitment, so I now want to
take things further with a second workshop to create a
roadmap for the next 24 months with toll gates every six
months to make clear where we are along the route to our
destination and if each of us has done what we promised.’
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