Team Development Within An Online Gaming Business

A leading gaming business was going through a leadership restructure for their online business. Although the online team was a main driver of growth for the overall business, they were significantly underperforming in a highly competitive market. This led to them falling behind the curve in innovation as well as their financial targets.

As a result, there was a need to accelerate the team’s effectiveness in order to:

• Determine a clear focus for the team in line with the vision and objectives
• Create a sense of shared purpose
• Understand how to leverage individual and group strengths
• Break down silos and establish an effective way of working to increase innovation
• Increase resilience in a fast changing and competitive market.

YSC facilitated a two day team event for fifteen leaders in the online business:

Day 1 – Increasing team effectiveness: The team was functioning in a way that was isolated and siloed from the rest of the business. This led them to lose sight of the market and their competitors. Using YSC’s High Performing Teams (HPT) Model, emphasis on ‘Focus’ and ‘Execution’ was made to fine tune the team’s agenda and clarify key delivery objectives. This included an exploration of key metrics, customer feedback, reframing their relationship with the rest of the business, and how to collaborate in an agile and innovate way.

Day 2 – Building resilience: Given the rate at which change was happening in the market, there was a need for leaders to reflect and discuss how they were going to lead that change in a highly pressurized industry. Prior to the event, leaders completed YSC’s Resilience Profiler online. Their results and the elements of YSC’s Resilience Model were discussed to support the team in building their resilience, flexibility and adaptability to change.

The team event provided a safe environment where members of the team could speak their ‘truth,’ address the real issues, and find a way to create a sense of togetherness. This was a cathartic experience for all leaders involved.

By refocusing on how to drive the business forward, the team unearthed their purpose as a team in simple, straightforward language that everyone understood what their role was individually and as a team. They also left with tools and techniques to frame their leadership to support their direct reports in a fast changing and competitive market.