Client Case Study: First Flight Venture Center

Getting To Know New Team Members and Aligning People To Projects

Who

The Client

First Flight Venture Center is North Carolina’s original science, technology,and business incubator. The support the launch of bioscience, life science,medical device and information technology companies by providing the tailored resources, guidance, and connections required for sustained commercial success. 

Needs

The problem and goals

I met Krista, the CEO at First Flight through The RTP Rotary Club, whereI had the opportunity to speak on StrenghtsFinders. Krista, also a fan ofStrengthsFinders, and I decided to meet and talk about her team. With some newer members, and a robust strategic plan for 2023, she wanted to not only get some insights on assigning the work to be done, but also ensure their culture and values were well established.

Solution

What we designed

Krista had scheduled a team retreat to recap 2022. The time was slotted to review 2022 and budgets, set the strategic direction, start to operationalize the plan, and some team building.

We discussed two key items:

·      Team building: time for the the team members get to know each otherbetter to help onboard the new individuals, and stress their culture ofcommunity and cooperation. 

·      Helping her learn more about each individual. Getting a sense of theirpassions and aspirations are in order to better align people to the work.

We decided on our Wine & Design with Personal Branding experience toachieve her goals.

Specifics

Event details

Each team member was given a link to StrengthsFinders (SF) to complete as well as a values assessment prior to the retreat. Once I had the results I prepared outputs for the team, including an analysis of their team using their individual SF results. Additionally, they each chose a wine based on a brand profile of the grape varietal. 

During our workshop we had good discussion on the results; building a better understand of their teammates, as well as discussions around how the team is likely to approach work and decision making.

They then completed a personal branding worksheet, leveraging their values assessment. Reflecting and building a brand purpose, including how they want their brand to evolve led us to the next stage of design.

They each designed a label that expressed their brand, while sipping on a unique wine variety and a blend. I wanted to reinforce the uniqueness of the team, and how blending produces something amazing.

Taking turns, they presented on their wine, weaving in the prompts from the worksheet and what their label design represents. 

Not only did the team learn more about each other, but there was a section around how the team could help each other to evolve their personal brands. It also helped Krista to learn more about each person’s passions and the type of work that keeps them energized and engaged. That information was helpful in not only assigning people to projects based on their past experiences and skills, but also to help them continue to grow.

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