Talent Dynamics Case Study from Workshop Productions

“Talent Dynamics Profiling was the first step, which has spearheaded and influenced every decision that has been made in the company since”
David Guest, MD Workshop Productions

Why we were asked to work with Workshop Productions

One of the north’s leading film production companies and based in Lancaster, Workshop Productions has a core strategic team of five, with a team of associated filmmakers and editors. Their goal is to make a contribution to creating and maintaining a British film industry, where the talent is grown and retained in the UK.

When we met back in January 2010, they were experiencing high growth and wanted to focus their attention on the development of the core Strategic Team, to allow growth to be maximised. Although it was a highly creative team, there were some real challenges around productivity levels and ensuring there was enough room for team members to feel they were making a significant contribution without impacting the speed at which projects could be finalised and produced.

What we did

In January, we ran the one day Talent Dynamics Understanding Primary Purpose workshop.

We put every team member through a Talent Dynamics Profile and shared the results prior to the workshop. On the day, we invested time for the whole team to thoroughly understand their own Profile and Profiles of other Team members.

We used creative and energetic exercises designed to illustrate and demonstrate the distinctions between the various Profiles. We also helped the team understand thoroughly the purpose of their organisation and to use their innate creativity to focus on some very specific actions they could take that could be turned into immediate commercial success.

We empowered them with a series of tools that they could effectively use to turn the value that already existed within the organisation into revenue in a much more conscious and strategic way.

Who we worked with

The core Strategic Team.

Programme timings

A one day programme in January 2010.

How the programme has impacted

Speed and productivity are the two major improvements that the Team have become aware of. This inevitably leads to increased revenue and a better bottom line.
Since the workshop, the team have been implementing specific Talent Dynamics strategies and productivity within the organisation has risen by 50%. Team communication has also improved dramatically.

There has been a much greater awareness about not just where their individual value and talent lies but how they can more effectively capitalise on each other’s talents to create improved results.

There is a greater sense of personal confidence and self-knowledge within the Team which allows new, exciting projects to be created. With a much higher level of trust, personal initiatives have been much more successful and have impacted on results much faster.

The team are now much more open to change. They feel much more connected to the purpose of the company and are able to contribute in a more satisfying and meaningful way.

Head in the Sand or Legs that run...

According to the HR Magazine, Employers fear their workforces lack of skills, will hamper their recovery.

We are meeting more and more employees who we find in a state of paralysis or fear over the economic situation and faced with job cuts and budget cuts, they feel less empowered to take action and are finding it even harder to see where they can add value. One option is to bury your head in the sand... Another is to create an environment where the team can get into flow and create some ideas to generate profit, that are ideas with legs...

This of course is the key to the success. Sometimes, just a simple discussion to get clarity on what would be of the most value right now, can have a dramatic impact on bottom line and more importantly, confidence to continue doing it!

Following just a one hour performance consulting discussion last week with one of my clients, who has been experiencing this paralysis, they were able to create a £100k action that can be implemented immediately, at no extra cost to the bsuiness, just by doing some simple accountability restructuring within the team.

So go on, have a conversation about it. Its not just about getting more training or developing new skills, sometimes its just about thinking differently...