PlayCore Unlocks the Advantages of a Cohesive Team Using the Five Behaviors Model

PlayCore Unlocks the Advantages of a Cohesive Team Using the Five Behaviors Model

Industry: Recreational Facilities and Community Building

Location: Nationwide

Tactic: Unlocking the Advantage

Results:

Unlocked personal insights that lead to cohesive teams
Experimented with building integrated solutions for the market
Identified team collaboration commitments

About PlayCore:

PlayCore helps to build stronger communities all over the world by advancing play through research, education, and partnerships. The company comprises a family of brands, each with its own specialty, including outdoor & indoor play equipment, outdoor & indoor fitness, climbing equipment, bike storage, dog park needs, recreational surfacing, and aquatic services.

With a comprehensive collection of recreation products, PlayCore enhances play, creating solutions to match the unique needs of each community served.

The Challenge:

Each year, PlayCore hosts the Aquatics and Fitness Annual Leadership Meeting in San Marcos, Texas. At this annual conference, leaders from each brand and business within the PlayCore Aquatics family come together for team-building, strategic alignment, and planning. This year, the teams from AquaWorx, Colorado Time Systems, Fountain People, Spectrum Aquatics, and Water Odyssey traveled from around the country to discuss the future of PlayCore Aquatics and Fitness.

After undergoing multiple acquisitions across the country and expanding its product and service offerings, PlayCore’s aquatics division hoped to deepen relationships across the distributed brands and cultivate a more cohesive team. They invited Bridge to help.

The Solution:

Learning the Five Behaviors of a High-Performing Team

Bridge proposed using The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team — an assessment based on Patrick Lencioni’s bestselling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The Five Behaviors Model suggests a model for teamwork that focuses on 5 key elements: building trust, engaging in productive conflict, commitment to decisions, holding one another accountable, and focusing on achieving collective results. By completing a personal Five Behaviors Assessment, participants can gain valuable insights in a personal report to understand how they approach each of the five behaviors.

During the session, participants explored their personal Five Behaviors Assessment report, exploring their results for each behavior, ranking their values, and engaging in discussion and reflection. They delved into each behavior, gaining self-awareness and exploring how their patterns impact the broader team dynamics.

After studying and reflecting on each behavior, participants voted and ranked actionable tactics deemed most crucial for fostering trust, productive conflict, commitment, accountability, and results within their team. For instance, they prioritized actions such as:

Embracing openness and authenticity
Offering trust rather than making assumptions
Seeking input and assistance from colleagues
Acknowledging weaknesses and mistakes openly

Following the voting process, the team engaged in discussions, assessing how they could enhance trust through genuine interactions and by respecting each other's strengths. This comprehensive dialogue enabled the leadership team to identify strategies for becoming a more effective unit.

Cultivating Creative Solutions

Next, Bridge had the team test their findings through “The Advantage Competition,” a simulation that prompts teams to problem-solve together.

Participants were divided into seven teams and selected one of the nine scenarios presented by the companies' General Managers. They were asked to analyze each realistic customer scenario and develop a creative solution, applying the team's behaviors and capabilities.

Each team filled out a pitch, defining the customer’s problem and describing a solution. They storyboarded the solution, naming the cost if they were to do nothing, determining the potential for market differentiation, and defining what is needed to mobilize the solution at scale. Then, they presented their pitches, with three teams earning awards for “Best Overall Solution,” “Most Creative Solution,” and “Best Teaming Approach.”

Collectively, the teams explored seven major challenges they faced and presented seven bold solutions to improve collaboration, bold solutions, and customer value. Then, in the coming months, PlayCore will have two check-in sessions with Bridge to help them apply these new behaviors and advance their new collaborative innovation skills.

The Result

By the end of the session, participants reviewed their shared commitments as a team and established personal commitments for growth. Also, through their post-session surveys, participants reported growth in understanding of the materials. In fact, one participant shared, “The content was relevant and insightful. I left feeling empowered with ideas on not only how to personally communicate more effectively, but also with ideas on how to invite and encourage co-workers to communicate effectively.”