Designing the Future
This success story and the invaluable insights shared were made possible through the expertise of our esteemed TMS Associate, Kasia Kondas. Explore more about Kasia, including her wide range of services, impressive qualifications, and glowing testimonials by clicking here.
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Challenge
"We were experiencing the inevitable challenges that come with a fast growing team."
TVS is a Brisbane-based architecture and interiors firm with over 75 years of practice. They focus on applying the best design principles of today, while future proofing for society's expectations of tomorrow. TVS works across many sectors, including commercial, retail, multi-residential living and mixed-use developments.
Like most businesses in Australia, as the economy slowed during COVID lockdowns, TVS ran into unchartered challenges. In 2022 the company emerged from that period as a high-growth business, quickly bringing on new staff. This growth highlighted the need for a solid succession pipeline to develop associates into future partners.
As a highly technical group of individuals, the senior leadership team also saw an opportunity to develop the team as a whole. To partner with their clients, the team needed to be able to build strong relationships. TVS also identified a need for greater leadership agility to continue to evolve with changing client and market needs.
TVS measures its success by delivering projects that are built and used in a highly engaging and functional manner. At the core of their approach to design is the client purpose. Ensuring they meet this purpose requires the team to build strong connections with their clients.
Approach
In order to enhance the capability of the senior leadership team and the customer centricity of the organisation as a whole, TVS partnered with leadership expert, Kasia Kondas from Mindful Energy, to create a customised leadership agility program (LEAP). The program incorporated the Team Management Profile (TMP) as a foundational tool throughout the process.
"The training with Kasia began at a very timely point for us. It was very valuable for the synergy of the team to have the whole team working together with a common approach and team language."
The leadership agility program consisted of six half-day sessions: one per month. The first session introduced the TMP and focused on team engagement, dynamics and improving self-awareness.
Each subsequent session introduced a new theme that connected to the TMP. These sessions focused on leading self and others, team engagement and culture, developing others, leading change and resilience, and team and individual performance planning. The overarching goal of the LEAP program remained focused on developing leadership agility and a client centric approach across the business.
The whole organisation was put through the LEAP development program, including directors, senior architects and junior staff.
Outcome
Mindful Energyís leadership agility program, tightly integrated with the TMP, produced excellent results for TVS. Participants developed a richer insight into their own preferences and those of their coworkers, which has led to notable enhancements in relationships, teamwork, and cooperation. By acknowledging the unique preferences of each team member, a new-found mutual understanding has nurtured flexibility, empowering individuals to work more effectively as a team with a client-centered focus.
As new team members were on-boarded into the business, they each completed a TMP debrief and were added to the Team Role Overview. This allowed them to understand how their preferences complemented those of their colleagues and how best they could contribute to the team.
Functionally, the TMP helped the team to develop a Team Charter and establish clear goals for the year. It also highlighted opportunities for improved role clarity and communication. From this initiative, a new approach to linking evolved, with the team now conducting more frequent agile meetings.
When analysing the distribution of role preferences on the Team Management Wheel, the TVS team observed a bias for action. This clarified that they had the right mix for a growing business, and highlighted which roles might be required to enhance their teamís performance in the future.
An additional outcome of the LEAP program has been increased self-confidence of individuals, which has led to greater proactivity and stronger relationships with clients. This has enabled TVS to ensure all key parties involved in new projects play their part from start to finish in a flat organisational structure, ensuring a more successful delivery of their service with improved control of costs, time and quality."
"The LEAP program with Kasia has helped develop our team and culture much more quickly than it would have organically. We have so many new insights about each other and a clearer picture of how to work together effectively."
Michael Kisluk,
Managing Director