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.

Are you enabling or preventing great performance?

Your Leadership Style has a direct impact on business results

According to the CIPD: “…before people can become successful leaders, they do need certain attributes… Self-knowledge, to understand their own strengths and weaknesses… these attributes will help to develop trust, without which, leaders will not command loyalty”

It is widely accepted that if you want to improve your Leadership capability and your business, a hugely important aspect to improve is yourself. When we are coaching leaders or working with teams, we often find that improving a leaders self awareness, through a Talent Dynamics Profile debrief or one of our 360 measurement tools, will have a dramatic impact on their and the team’s performance. Whether that be something as obvious as improving relationships with clients, understanding what motivates your team, or less direct blocks such as improving productivity or creating more efficient systems.

Sometimes leaders are trying to carry out a role in a leadership style that isn’t their most natural, which makes it harder to do. Other times, they are using their most natural style but finding it isn’t having the same ‘natural effect ‘ on their team as it’s a style the team don’t enjoy being led with…

Aware of your leadership style?...

Take the Creator Profile, we have been working with, who has been trying to lead the team as a Supporter. He has been so out of flow and finding it so challenging, not in the least bit enjoyable and guess what, neither has his team! Increasing his self-awareness is allowing him to start to play a very different role in the business, in a much more effective way and is allowing members of the team to do the same.

How can I improve my self-awareness?

There are a variety of ways you can gather feedback and increase your self-awareness… It’s not the tool you choose, it’s what you do with the feedback that's important!

Talent Dynamics Profile

We always start with the Talent Dynamics Profile Test , debrief and report, which gives you very specific self awareness and can be used in conjunction with Coaching to really drive your performance. It has a very specific strategy related to each of the profile's and so is extremely practical. Recently a leader told me as a result of, understanding his profile, becoming more aware and implementing some strategies, he saw a 20% increase in turnover…

360 degree feedback

Gathering some feedback from those you work with can be incredibly powerful. Why not try and ask your colleagues some specific questions like:

1. How am I doing right now?
2. What do you enjoy about my leadership style?
3. What do you find challenging about my style?
4. What should I stop/start/continue doing?
5. Where does my style create the best results for the business?
6. How does my style inhibit the growth of the business?
7. How can I enable you to be even more effective?

Even just asking these basic 360 questions will be a great start and you may get some very interesting feedback. You can add some specific questions of your own as well.

When you ask the questions, ask at least 5 or 6 people. Encourage peers, direct reports and leaders to give you feedback. Always ask one person who you know will give you some challenging feedback – remember, there’s a reason why they will be challenging and perhaps increasing your self awareness with that person could drastically improve that relationship!


Click here to see a short video on the benefit of Talent Dynamics Profiles