When “TeleCo” wanted to sort out its collaboration challenges, “trace was brought on-board and was briefed about the dysfunctional patterns that are obstructing the progress of many vital initiatives: leaders were focused on themselves and showed little care to what comes next in the chain and to what results they, and their teams, will achieve.

We knew we had the antidote and we wanted to make a lasting change that would impact “TeleCo”’s day-to-day operations long after our intervention is over. It was a clear issue of mindset, and no matter the number of skill building hours invested, nothing would make a difference until the mindset is where it needs to be. And so it was; we started changing mindsets by working on what the Arbinger Institute calls self-deception – not knowing or resisting the fact that one is part of a problem. Once a person realizes that they are part of a problem, only then they would use the developed skills to be part of the solution and impact the corporate culture positively.

Needless to say how tricky this work can get: working with layers and layers of resistance, inflated egos, dysfunctional leadership, monumental egos, and all sorts of collaboration-hindering obstacles. We knew it would be challenging, and we were determined to make a difference.

As mindsets were getting in shape, we organized gallery-walk-markets where teams would post both their needs and their best practices, pitch for assistance and get a match for the capabilities they are looking for. The results were tens of hours of renewed collaboration that we proposed to be punched in team passports and accounted for vs. agreed upon collaboration benchmarks. To make results visible, an intranet application would track progress, dissipate news and update targets and a huge clock installed in the main hall would tick away collaboration hours achieved.

That was not all. We designed a company-wide internal communication campaign with catchy designs and out-of-the box placements to refresh the learning, remind about the team objectives and their importance and have the key messages engraved in people’s minds.

Result: another success story of a “trace partner getting stronger than their challenges.