Visit Scotland

Following a successful period of significant organisational change involving refocus of the organisation’s strategic priorities and realignment of internal management structures, the Top Team of Visit Scotland requested some external team development support.  This was to help the team continue to explore their leadership styles and team effectiveness from a fresh perspective as well as identify the development priorities for the team to support the change agenda.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was one of a range of developmental tools being used extensively throughout the organisation to support teams and individuals to enhance self-awareness, manage change effectively and to ultimately work more creatively together.  Due to the complexity of the agenda, our Lead Facilitator Gavin undertook a significant amount of diagnostic work in order to properly understand the specific issues and challenges facing the team.

Event detail

  • Venue: Visit Scotland HQ, Edinburgh
  • Style: Individual and team development
  • Format: Facilitation, experiential learning and discussion
  • Participants: 6 (Visit Scotland Top Team)
  • Duration: 1 day plus in-depth pre-event diagnostic and programme follow up

Objectives

The overall aim of this workshop was to provide an opportunity for the Top Team to refresh their knowledge of the MBTI tool and to proactively use the tool to enhance individual and team effectiveness.  Specifically the objectives were:

  • To explore the interpersonal factors associated with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
  • To provide a more in depth understanding of type concepts, allowing the team to appreciate preferred leadership, communication and working styles.
  • To provide a solid foundation and common language to empower the team to work more effectively with each other.
  • To understand and plan how MBTI can be effectively applied with their senior teams across the organisation.

Outcome

The content and style of the workshop were enthusiastically received by the Top Team and a number of challenging and thought provoking topics were discussed. The workshop was deemed a valuable use of time and energy and a number of developmental actions were agreed. These included:

  • Exploring a range of options to develop greater leadership visibility both internally and externally.
  • A commitment to balance strategic and operational decision-making and to ensure that decisions are communicated effectively.
  • A more corporate and systematic approach to developing talent internally.
  • Exploring ways how individual team members can be more candid with each other to improve team cohesiveness.
  • Exploration of own personal leadership development needs and develop personal leadership action plans incorporating MBTI principles

Feedback from Visit Scotland HR Director

Gavin did what we wanted and added value – all against little if any background knowledge of the team

The session “exceeded expectations

Very satisfied” that the key outcomes were reached

Delighted” with the relevance of session content to the organisation