From functional experts to one operational team
Situation
While the organization had a clear strategic direction from senior leadership, this vision did not always translate naturally into day-to-day operational reality. The operational leadership team consisted of experienced managers from Supply Chain, Quality Control, Manufacturing and Scientific Support spread across multiple locations. This created additional distance between teams, communication styles and ways of working. To improve collaboration and better understand the underlying team dynamics, I initiated a Discovery Insights assessment process.
Challenge
The assessment showed a strongly result-driven leadership team with multiple highly decisive personalities. While this created energy and execution power, it also made alignment and collective prioritization more difficult. The operational culture strongly favored immediate action and problem solving, sometimes at the expense of reflection and structured alignment.
Approach
In collaboration with Dutch Leaders, we organized a multi-stage team development process combining behavioral insights, strategic alignment and practical team exercises. The sessions focused on improving mutual awareness, understanding individual working styles and translating the broader company direction into a shared Operations mission across functions. Practical exercises subsequently exposed behavioral patterns under pressure. One important realization was that the team’s “action-first” mentality often resulted in premature execution without sufficient alignment, both during exercises and in daily operations. The process also highlighted the importance of avoiding assumptions regarding personal comfort zones and participation styles within diverse teams.
Result
The sessions created greater transparency regarding team dynamics, roles and expectations during a period of organizational complexity and change. More importantly, the process established a shared operational mission and improved mutual understanding between leaders with different behavioral and communication styles.
Leadership Dimension
Focused on building alignment rather than hierarchy, helping experienced functional leaders better understand both their own behavioral patterns and those of their colleagues. The experience reinforced an important leadership lesson: sustainable operational performance requires both execution strength and reflective alignment.