With over thirty years’ experience in the industry, Blue Chip provide the IT infrastructure behind many of the largest brands in the UK. From hardware and hosting, to software and support, they keep businesses running all over the world.

The Challenge

Improve the customer experience by developing inter-team collaboration and self-awareness

Having restructured its Client Services department into self-managing regional teams, Blue Chip highlighted a need to develop both individual and team self-awareness and inter-team collaboration in order to continue to provide an exceptional customer experience.

The Approach

Engaging teams through 360° individual and team feedback and facilitated team development workshops

Blue Chip chose to work with us as they felt that our ethos, culture and approach were a good fit. They felt our emphasis on clarifying objectives linked to their Business Strategy at the start and giving practical solutions to move them forward, made us stand out from the competition.

We developed a bespoke 360° survey based around their own TeamQ™ and leadership framework, which incorporated individual and team statements and feedback sessions. In order to gain the maximum engagement, we ran awareness briefing sessions which resulted in a very high completion rate of 93%. We then developed and conducted facilitated team development workshops.

Employees were motivated to make changes to their behaviour and the outputs from the 360° feedback and workshops gave them the tools to make improvements to the way their team functions and delivers its business objectives.

The Results

The programme’s impact has been felt across the business, with communication more open and honest, leading to better collaboration and conflict resolution, and greater appreciation of the value of difference. It has made people feel part of their team, and happier. As well as a more harmonious working environment, considerably fewer issues have been escalated to the Senior Managers.

Sadie Nesbitt, Human Resources Director remarks, ‘There is more consulting, more discussion, more consideration of each other now. It’s ‘we think’ rather than ‘I think’ - this is the norm now. Meetings are more focused, with a greater sharing, discussion and evaluation of ideas, leading to greater clarity on actions, including how things will move forward and any stakeholder management required.

The recent TAPs (Team Action Plans) were very good, impacting business-wide strategy; transformational rather than transactional. The teams have gone from focusing on task, to focusing on what will have the biggest impact on the customer,’

Improved communication and greater trust have led to some team members feeling more respected and that their contribution is more valid. Quieter people now feel able to come forward, and people feel more comfortable expressing their opinions, challenging and pushing back where previous they had struggled.

Claire Underwood, L&D Advisor at Blue Chip adds, ‘We’re so impressed with TLC, especially their flexibility, responsiveness, and respectful challenge and commitment to our vision. There have been many occasions where their team have gone the extra mile to understand our business and our people’.