Case #1: Regional Divisions Hinder Best Practices

A consumer products firm was in the process of rolling out global best practices for the Financial Division around the world. In the process of doing so, they discovered that the European Division, divided between cities in the former West and Eastern parts of Europe, had very different attitudes and values, and little progress had been made in reconciling the two very different points of view and in improving communications. The company contracted with ITAP International to provide team development exercises using the Global Team Process Questionnaire™ as a diagnostic.

At a meeting of the group in Budapest, the consultant utilized the Global Team Process Questionnaire™ to provide a series of communications sessions which helped the separate teams confront issues of internal competitiveness and to begin the process of working through their long-standing differences to create a unified Finance Division for Europe.

Within a matter of months, this regional division was created and the "Best Practices" approaches rolled out to that division, which later won awards as best worldwide implementer of several of the practice areas.

Case #2: Team Process Issues Hobble A Corporate Leadership Team

A corporate leadership team with functional responsibility for all the operating companies of a worldwide healthcare conglomerate was severely hobbled by team process issues. The initial Global Team Process Questionnaire™ results uncovered the underlying problems, chiefly goal clarity, roles and responsibilities, communications, conflict resolution, and problem solving. Team members were provided with the results before a team meeting and asked to prepare to discuss them. The internal consultant who facilitated the discussion commented that "Everyone came prepared having read the reports ahead of time. They got a lot out of it. They were able to accurately pull out the issues and they were clearly moved to want to do something about the results. [The GTPQ] positioned me nicely to begin the work and I went prepared based on the analysis." A Team Charter was created at the end of the meeting which outlined the goals and behaviors the team wanted to strive for.

The second set of GTPQ results showed marked improvement. The discussion of these results at the next team meeting produced the following comments when team members were asked how they had improved:

• We increased our communications with each other since the last meeting
• We're willing to listen to what happened when someone misses something rather than blame
• We really listened to each other more and we are getting better at having respect for the other's world
• We talked out of real data which shifted from a focus on emotions to a much healthier area
• We feel like a winning team