Top Team Development

If you are looking for a facilitator to lead a discussion about boosting your team's performance, why not talk to our Director, Pete Ashby, about whether he might be the right person for you?

Over the past few years Pete has carved out a distinctive national role for himself as a leading facilitator for all sorts of business organisations and Government bodies. More and more of his client work now comes through Chief Executives asking him to support them and their team in improving business performance by letting go of unhelpful team behaviours.

Afterwards, CEOs always say that the process was "very challenging" - and needed to be!

Here are the words of one Senior Manager, Matt Johnson, after Pete facilitated a 24 hour event for 15 Directors and Senior Managers of an IT services business, following on from an initial session just for the Directors the previous month:

“I was very impressed with the event; slightly sceptical at first that it would be a "build a bridge from matchsticks" type session, but the approach was incredibly candid and useful in knocking down some long-standing issues. I thought it was handled excellently, with some very direct statements from Pete to both Managers and Directors – very refreshing."

Overnight events for top teams

Whenever Pete works with a leadership team, he usually spends two days with them, starting with a series of half hour one-to-ones. He then works with the whole team together from lunchtime on day one through to lunchtime on day two, with a private working dinner. The aim is to ensure that by the end of day one the most difficult issues holding the team back are in play.

On day two, Pete asks the team to concentrate on one or two of the most difficult challenges that they face and explore possible new ways forward. During this time, he comments on behaviours that seem to be getting in the way and suggests how they could be left behind.

Within a few days, Pete provides the team with a report recommending a series of ways to improve perfomance through changing behaviours. Each report is unique to that team.

We believe that if you take a risk on us we should take a risk on you - and so 2WayTrust offers a no quibbles money back guarantee. This means that we only send an invoice if a majority of the team feel at the end of their session with Pete that they should be able to improve their overall performance as a result of the process that he has taken them through.

So far Pete hasn't lost the vote, but we know there's a first time for everything!

An extensive range of clients

From 2006 to 2008 Pete led a series of one-day events for Chief Executives and Executive Directors on new ways of renegotiating leadership behaviours to improve team performance. CEOs from all sectors were involved in this series, and it led to Pete working with Boards and top teams across a diverse range of organisations, from the Directors for Europe, International Trade and Development in Government Departments through to Screwfix in the retail sector.

Pete's experience of working with the learning and skills sector makes him ideally suited for working with leadership teams across this sector. At the same time, his knowledge of leadership behaviours enables him to support all sorts of teams in "raising their game". In March 2010 he is supporting the Chairman and Non-Executive Directors of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham with maximising their Board's performance, and in June 2010 he is running an overnight Board Development event for the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.

Pete also has experience of working with local government especially with his local County Council in Devon. Over the past three years he has provided one to one mentoring support for one of its Directors, now the Deputy Chief Executive.

In addition, Pete occasionally acts as a mediator giving support with conflict resolution at CEO/Board level in situations where both sides need to engage an experienced facilitator who will support them in letting go of unhelpful "baggage" in a way that is absolutely confidential. This is why we don't name any of his clients for this sort of work!

Even though we don't generally ask for testimonials, we have received some - and here's a sample.

If you would like to talk to Pete about the possibility of him supporting your leadership team, please e-mail him at pete.ashby@2waytrust.com or give us a call on 01822 880317.

If you need support with an ideas-building event, please see this page.