DNA of STRONGER Teams Tool

Dr Samantha Sharpe

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Head of North Wales Specialist Tier 3 Adult Eating Disorders Service (CAEDS)

I found the resilience tool did exactly what it said – it assesses team resilience and is a fantastic and worthwhile starting point in helping teams to discuss their resilience in an honest and open way. It was easy to use, thought provoking and very useful in generating valuable discussions in the team that are unlikely to have happened without it. It is well worth the money and I would definitely use it again. Since the discussions, we have starting addressing what we feel we need to take forward

Overall, the team found the actual process of completing the questionnaire very different to what they expected in a positive way. They felt it was more in depth, and really managed to get to the core issues around team resilience. They found the feedback very interesting, although not unexpected which

surprised me (the ever pessimist!) and found the discussions that were generated very interesting. Other comments from the team include:

• “First hand it seems easy to use – with visual imagery to help convey messages”.

• “I liked the tool Harry used, it was clear the characteristics description clarified what was being scored. Question areas / scores clarified what was being scored. I thought Harry’s explanation with each section, made the questioner clear and interesting”.

• “The tool was easy to do and interesting to find out how resilient we are. I don’t have any negatives really”.

• “I was surprised that the questions in the questionnaire were more emotional and focused more on nurturing and togetherness rather than typical work based questions on areas such as hard working, work challenges or communication methods etc”.

• “I thought the model and the DNA strands of team qualities was really good. It was easy to follow and understand and really made me think about things more. It was a useful exercise and questionnaire for me to do and helped me reflect on myself and myself within the team as a whole”.

• “I think the only thing I was a little unsure on was how to classify the answers to the questions in the questionnaire itself e.g. ‘Strongly Agree’ or ‘Agree’ – I guess there is some element of personal interpretation in these answers and I thought with a small team every answer effects the overall score. I think I had some thoughts about what ‘Strongly Agree’ means compared to ‘Agree’ and is everyone measuring along the same lines. It might have been helpful to have the actual questions there in front of us during the discussion so we could discuss it as a team and maybe bring up things that people thought when answering the questions when they completed it online”.

• Very useful questionnaire and generated very interesting conversations. Easy to complete and provided a good summary of the teams strengths as well as suggestions on how we could improve as a team.

I also have their views on what they took from the day and how they want to use the information going forward if you want to see that?

In summary, it was a fantastic experience and one that I would highly recommend to teams.

Warm wishes, Sam

Testimonial from Fiona Barnes, & Mandy Staples, Director of Nursing, N ICB

On behalf of the Quality & Safeguarding Team at Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (N ICB) we would like to thank Harry & Sukie for their supportive work with our team.

Initially, Harry & Sukie worked with our team as part of a ‘team building’ day that was considering our roles, responsibilities, values, culture and behaviours. This day was positively evaluated by our Group and allowed us to set objectives to aid our team development.

From this day Harry & Sukie gave us the opportunity to utilise the ‘STRONGER’ survey, as part of a ‘Building Resilience’ session.

The survey was prepared for us by Harry & Sukie and was unique to each group (Quality team and Safeguarding team). The instructions to complete the questionnaire were straightforward, and the questionnaire was positively evaluated by our group. The questions were easy to understand, simple to answer, wasn’t time-consuming and our staff felt confident to complete it.

Harry & Sukie met with our Group to share the findings of the questionnaire and facilitated a 2-hour feedback session on the results.

We could have had longer for this session, but this was our time-constraint, not Harry & Sukie, who provided the results in a straightforward format that allowed us all to understand the findings.

It has been a very worthwhile exercise to consider our ‘STRONGER’ findings and we would like to thank both Harry & Sukie for allowing us to utilise the survey and for their facilitation in enabling our Group to identify our ‘next steps’.

Testimonial from Louise Young, Deputy Chief Officer (People and Workforce)

Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland (LLR)

Integrated Care Board (ICB)

A huge thank you to Harry and Sukie at Ararna for supporting the ICB 'Operational (Directors) Delivery Group' to consider their resilience and opportunities to build further collective team resilience through the tool. 

The survey was easy to complete, and like all surveys, there is an element of how you feel on the day, but these questions felt intuitive to complete. These results were shared by Ararna at a subsequent development session with the operational directors.

It was great to see the results for our team, which gave us an opportunity to consider our strengths and identify areas for further development.

As part of the package, we had a facilitated session, which really focused discussion on ourselves as a team, the way we engage with one another, and areas for future development. 

A great tool

Thank You

Testimonial from Hannah Stroude, AHP Ambassador

Coventry and Warwickshire Training Hub

'I would like to say thank you to Harry and Sukie at Ararna for introducing our team at the Coventry and Warwickshire Training Hub to the Ararna Building Resilience in Teams tool.

The survey was really quick and easy to complete, the questions felt intuitive to complete. Once the results were compiled by Ararna they were shared at a team meeting. 

It was great to see the results for our team, which gave us an opportunity to celebrate our strengths and identify areas that we could look at to improve.

We are a team with diverse backgrounds, all working virtually, so it was interesting to take the opportunity to look at how we operate as a team, effective team working being central to the provision of quality services and care. 

Within the package, we had a facilitated session, which added real value to the exercise and offered an objective view. We discussed the outcomes from the survey and are able to create objectives that help us maintain our team cohesiveness, productivity and the way we engage with one another, as well as work on areas for future development. 

It would be really useful to repeat the tool in the future or after any changes occur to offer further evaluation. I can also see value in the tool being utilised for recruitment to showcase and evidence the benefits of working in the team or organisation. 

The overall team exercise utilising the tool felt practical, applicable and authentic.