Building an Agile & Strategic Partnership Using Whole Brain® Thinking

Overview

Developing a strategic partnership

AND Digital and Herrmann used Whole Brain® Thinking to build an agile, dynamic, and strategic partnership - laying the groundwork to develop and fast track Stop & Think, the Microsoft Teams app which helps users access tools to leverage cognitive diversity within their teams.

This experiment in cross-organisational collaboration proved that thoughtful and engaged vendor partnerships can be cultivated by intentionally integrating Whole Brain® Thinking into the team development process.

The client

About Herrmann

Herrmann’s vision is to help organisations unlock the value of cognitive diversity at a global scale by using Whole Brain® Thinking to create a better future of work, learning and life.

Herrmann and AND Digital both share a spirit of partnership and empowerment - putting clients and collaborators in the driver’s seat to make the best decisions for their business.

With cross-company synergy and well-aligned philosophies, it made sense for Herrmann to team up with AND Digital to tackle a new product development opportunity. The organisations committed to partnering on an ambitiously-timed project that would span three months, and to use Whole Brain® Thinking to build a high-performing, cross-functional project team with representatives from each organisation.

The newly formed team used HBDI® results from all key participants, as well as their team HBDI® profile, to guide their collaboration. Using Whole Brain® Thinking helped inform the team’s communication, decision-making, and problem-solving processes from the outset.

Key Outcomes

Looking back at Herrmann’s partnership with AND Digital, it’s clear that the use of Whole Brain®Thinking at the outset of the project contributed to the team’s development and the success of this collaboration overall.

Collaboration 71% of the team members expressed feeling good or excited about their collaboration in the pre-survey.
Highly Valued 93% felt their contributions were valued or highly valued in the post-survey.
FUTURE FACING 94% of team members indicated they would use Whole Brain® Thinking with future teams.

The Challenge

Purposeful Team Development

Navigating Challenges in Collaborating Effectively Across Diverse Teams

It’s difficult to get teams from the same organisation to work together effectively, especially for businesses like AND Digital and Herrmann that make a point of recruiting staff from a diverse talent pool. This challenge is even more pronounced when vendor and client need to work together under tight timelines. It makes purposeful team development even more critical.

Yet it can be difficult for vendors and clients to put team development at the centre. Instead, the temptation is always to jump straight to project management, skipping the groundwork needed to help diverse team members generate a shared appreciation for each other’s differences and figure out how to work together most effectively and inclusively.

Add to that the inherent risks that arise in any vendor/client relationship - mismatched company cultures, ambiguous rules of engagement, unclear roles and expectations, and lack of process and you have a situation where it’s essential to get the team dynamics right.

The Solution

Integrating Whole Brain Thinking

How Herrmann and AND Digital used Whole Brain Thinking to improve their collaborative process and develop an innovative solution

Herrmann and AND Digital applied the Whole Brain® Model not only to the Stop & Think application they were developing together but also to how the joint team worked together.

At the beginning of the engagement, the project team comprising both AND Digital and Herrmann members participated in a team HBDI® debrief that revealed and explored the thinking composition of the group, in addition to setting the tone, expectations and starting point for the project.

The core project team reasoned that by using the Whole Brain® Thinking methodology early in their collaboration, the team would benefit from a shared appreciation of each other’s thinking preferences and gain a deeper understanding of how Whole Brain® Thinking solutions could be incorporated into Microsoft Teams. As it turned out, they were right in both cases.

The Result

A successful collaboration

How Whole Brain® Thinking Helped Foster Team Development and Drive Success in a Partnership Project

It’s clear that the use of Whole Brain® Thinking at the outset of the project contributed to the team’s development and the success of this collaboration overall.

On time delivery

Whole Brain® Thinking contributed to the successful on-time delivery of the Stop & Think application in Microsoft Teams.

Impact on team development

Surveys conducted before and after the project showed quantifiable evidence of the impact of Whole Brain® Thinking on the team's development.

Client engagement

AND Digital now includes the HBDI® assessment and team debrief as part of their standard client engagement process.

Case studies

See our impact elsewhere

More successful digital transformation projects...

Want to learn more about the work we do with clients? Take a look below.

How AND Digital and Herrmann used Whole Brain®Thinking to build an agile, dynamic, and strategic partnership.

Developing a strategic partnership

About Herrmann

Key Outcomes

Purposeful Team Development

Integrating Whole Brain Thinking