Working Genius - Team Verve

Team Productivity Unlocked: Refining Your Teamwork Model, Part 2

Team Verve — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 21:08:32 +0000

In Part 2 (Read Part 1 here) of our exploration of Patrick Lencioni’s Six Types of Working Genius, we dive deeper into how this model helps teams rework their teamwork models and regain team productivity and efficiency—especially in fast-paced environments like New York City.

NYC Team Productivity: A Day in the Life

How does the Working Genius model work, practically speaking?

Imagine a hypothetical NYC-based team working on a project. All six types of working geniuses are equally represented and actively contributing, and the team leader ensures that all three stages—Ideation, Activation, and Implementation—are used.

Here’s how the team meeting might proceed—

Ideation Stage: Wonder and Invention in Action

Wonder:

The team starts with questions like, What can we do better? or Is there a new way to solve this problem? This gets everyone thinking about necessary improvements and opens up true curiosity. Those with the genius of Wonder have a forum for their world-changing questions.

Invention:

Next, it is brainstorming time! Everyone shares their creative ideas, no matter how “outside-of-the-box” they might seem. Team members build on each other’s thoughts to produce a number of possible solutions. The Inventors get to be as constructively imaginative as they want.

Activation Stage: Discernment and Galvanizing for Momentum

Discernment:

Now, the team considers all the ideas on the table and chooses the best, most realistic, and impactful ones to work on now. The team’s Discerners will add to, subtract from, and tweak the new ideas to achieve workable plans.

Galvanizing:

Once the best ideas are discovered, the motivators in the group can come to the forefront to create excitement, set goals, and ensure commitment to the plan. Get ready, Galvanizers, to inspire the team to great heights of achievement!

Implementation Stage: Enablement and Tenacity for Results

Enablement:

At this point, the team can discuss the practical details, ensuring the correct tools and resources are available. Tasks and roles are assigned to each team player to bring the plan to life. Those gifted with Enablement are eager to cheerfully help the entire team reach the goal.

Tenacity:

In the final stage, the team strategizes staying on track despite possible obstacles. Team members will be tasked with measuring progress, staying on time and budget, and clearing the way. Tenacious teammates will make sure every box is checked on the way to the finish line.

Integrating a Team’s Genius into a Powerful Teamwork Model

The Six Types of Working Genius offer a framework for understanding and leveraging individual strengths within a team. By embracing the three stages of work, teams become more engaged and productive.

Jonathan’s Story Continued: Building a Culture of Team Genius

Our friend, Jonathan, eventually opened his own custom construction company just outside of NYC.

Based on his earlier experiences, he and his company’s hiring managers were proactive in bringing on talented team members who understood how to be great team players.

The firm built on this strong start by providing each employee with professional development opportunities that bolstered the entire team.

Building and Empowering a Strong Team

Every new hire learned about their working genius during onboarding and was empowered to contribute meaningfully. The model became part of the company’s culture—fueling innovation, boosting morale, and improving customer satisfaction.

The concepts of Working Genius were intentionally part of casual conversations and formal meetings on a regular basis—as part of the organization’s shared cultural language of teamwork and respect.

Jonathan’s employees even found themselves talking with their families and friends about their geniuses and how functioning daily in their areas of genius made workdays truly enjoyable.

In fact, the Working Genius model led to better team work overall at Jonathan’s company—and was especially evident during team meetings—as each team member’s gifts were consistently welcomed into the discussion and into their everyday work.

Innovative ideas flowed freely, and the best ones eventually became reality, all through the process of moving from Ideation to Activation to Implementation.

The Impact of a Well-Structured Process on Team Productivity

By intentionally applying the three stages of work, Jonathan’s team saw…

Fewer delays and frustrations
Stronger collaboration and morale
Improved project efficiency and client satisfaction
A shared language for solving challenges

High-fives became commonplace in the office and on job sites.

The field crews felt more engaged and motivated, knowing they were part of the entire process, not just the execution phase.

The sales reps were confident that the products they were selling could and would be delivered.

The designers were excited to see their plans come to life, and everyone on the team was enthusiastic about hearing from happy clients that the job was done well and on time.

Preparing for New Opportunities

Jonathan’s company continues to grow and serve his community. Lately, both he and his team have noticed they are running out of new ideas, making it tough to keep up with current market trends. He feels like the company might be getting stuck in a rut, just when they need to adapt to industry changes in order to stay relevant and serve customers well.

He is now focused on hiring team members with the Wonder and Invention geniuses to reignite the ideation phase, which had been waning in his company until recently.

He keeps a copy of Lencioni’s article in his desk drawer as a reminder that all six types of working genius are necessary on a team, and empowering team players to excel at their geniuses can create exponential growth opportunities for a company and a community.

Ready to boost your NYC team’s productivity?

Explore how our Working Genius workshops can help you build a high-performing teamwork model that leverages every team member’s strengths. Let’s unlock your team’s full potential—starting today. Chat with Matt.

The post Team Productivity Unlocked: Refining Your Teamwork Model, Part 2 appeared first on Team Verve.

Team Productivity Unlocked: Refining Your Teamwork Model, Part 1

Team Verve — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 22:04:25 +0000

What do busy teams do when they’re running full speed ahead—only to be brought up short by self-imposed barriers to their team productivity? Ideally, they pause, review their teamwork model, and implement a framework like the Six Types of Working Genius to get back on track. Let’s explore how one team did just that.

NYC Team Productivity: A Real-World Story

Just outside New York City, a family-owned construction company was ready to scale. They had three key strengths:

Visionary designers creating ideal products and solutions
Charismatic sales leaders with a winning process
Skilled installers delivering white-glove service

But despite these strengths, they faced a recurring challenge that hindered their team productivity.

The Persistent Challenge to Team Productivity

Jonathan, a seasoned installer with many years of experience, noticed a pattern that significantly affected team productivity: His crew often arrived on-site without the correct materials. These delays frustrated both the team and clients, damaging morale and profitability.

Why was this happening?

Jonathan enjoyed finding solutions, and he realized that their talented design team was exceptional at ideation, the process of producing creative and effective designs.

Meanwhile, the dedicated installation crew excelled at the implementation of those plans.

However, the entire team was missing a crucial middle stage of their overall project management.

Bridging the Teamwork Model Gap

Inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s project management insights about bringing projects from the idea stage to final completion, Jonathan had a light bulb moment—

This middle stage of the project process, described by Lencioni as the Activation Stage, was the missing component in his NYC team’s process!

Six Types of Working Genius: Unleashing the Potential of Your Team

Patrick Lencioni, a well-known author and leadership expert, introduced the Six Types of Working Genius model to help us better understand how teams perform.

Each person has two working genius types they excel in, two they’re competent in, and two that cause frustration.

This model helps teams recognize and utilize each member’s individual strengths for overall team success. And a team that actively incorporates all six types of working genius works together like a well-oiled machine.

A Practical Solution: Activation Meetings

According to Lencioni, the activation stage of project management involves two primary components: Discernment and galvanizing.

In reality, the office team needed to collaborate with the field crew supervisor before the installers constructed a project.

Jonathan’s team eventually instituted Activation Meetings for each project, which occurred prior to sending the installers into the field. These meetings included the following:

Joint plan reviews with the designers and installers in the same room together
Verification of materials lists and orders
Noticing and solving real and potential issues collaboratively

The team also needed someone to galvanize the installers, giving them the bigger picture for the project, getting them excited about the tasks ahead, and adequately preparing them for the work.

Sharing the activation meeting outcomes during the weekly installer huddles boosted morale and helped bridge the gap in their teamwork model.

The 6 Types of Working Genius

Wonder
The Genius of Wonder shows up as curiosity about how the world could look different. Those with this genius are comfortable processing new ideas and asking probing questions in the pursuit of finding innovative opportunities.
Invention
The Genius of Invention takes the form of creativity and problem-solving. Inventors enjoy generating innovative ideas and solutions. These outside-of-the-box thinkers and their “Eureka!” solutions are often labeled as the genius that drives progress to new heights.
Discernment
The Genius of Discernment involves making sound judgment calls based on pattern recognition and integrative thinking. Discerners quickly determine the merits of an idea or situation and suggest design improvements. Their insights are essential to pushing the best ideas forward to the next stage.
Galvanizing
The Genius of Galvanizing is about inspiring others to take action. Galvanizers use their gift of persuasion to effectively communicate the team’s exciting new plans. They excel at allocating resources, creating timelines, and keeping the team on task. Their energy builds momentum and motivation for the team.
Enablement
The Genius of Enablement is characterized by encouraging the team and meeting the practical needs of the project. Enablers are service-oriented, and they genuinely enjoy coming alongside projects and checking off the to-do list. They model consistent teamwork, and their support binds the team together.
Tenacity
The Genius of Tenacity is defined by consistent results and high standards. Those with this genius focus on seeing projects through to completion. Their perseverance helps the team achieve goals efficiently and effectively despite obstacles.

Want to improve your team’s productivity?

Explore how our Working Genius workshops can help you build a high-performing teamwork model that leverages every team member’s strengths. Chat with Matt.

Applying the Geniuses to Team Productivity

What are some of the team productivity benefits of having all six working genius types on a team and using those geniuses to cover the three stages of work?

Ideation | Wonder + Invention = Innovation and Creativity:

Ensures a constant flow of fresh ideas and innovative solutions.

Activation | Discernment + Galvanizing = Decisions and Motivation:
Ideas are carefully analyzed and refined, and the team is inspired to act efficiently on the making the best ideas a reality.
Implementation | Enablement + Tenacity = Support and Persistence:
Fosters an efficient, collaborative environment that supports the end goal with necessary resources and assistance.

In Jonathan’s story, the Activation aspect is missing from the team’s processes.

Continue with Part 2 of Jonathan’s story…

The post Team Productivity Unlocked: Refining Your Teamwork Model, Part 1 appeared first on Team Verve.

Three Steps to Build a High-Performance Team

Team Verve — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 21:56:48 +0000

How deep is your bench? What would it take to build a high-performance team at your organization? Does your hiring program intentionally look for team players? And help them get to the right seat on the bus? Let’s explore three steps needed for building a high-performance team!

Step 1: Hire Ideal Team Players!

In life, we work in teams. Why is this important?

This acronym came across my desk recently, and it resonated with my life and experience:

T – Together
E – Everyone
A – Achieves
M – More

Think about the teams you’ve been part of—family, church, community organizations, workgroups, leadership teams, and so on.

Which teams worked best together? The ones where one or more players appear to be in a free for all…or the ones brimming with team players?

In his book The Ideal Team Player, Patrick Lencioni identifies three building blocks of the best kind of teammates—

Humble: They share credit and celebrate the teams’ collective win. They are also comfortable being honest about their own skills and strengths.
Hungry: They are motivated and diligent. They go above and beyond to contribute to the team.
Smart: They are emotionally intelligent and exercise great judgment. They have “people skills.”

Using and developing all three of these building blocks forms us into ideal team players! Indeed, these three disciplines taken together can build a high-performance team!

“Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status.
They are quick to point out the contributions of others
and slow to seek attention for their own.

They share credit, emphasize team over self,
and define success collectively rather than individually.

It is no great surprise, then, that humility
is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute
of being a team player.”

– Patrick Lencioni

Get to the Heart of Being Humble, Hungry, and Smart

Taking it a step further for leaders, these three keys help identify others who could be ideal team players.

But, how do you get these ideal team players onto your bus (organization) and into the right seat (role) for them?

First, leaders must set an example of the Hungry-Humble-Smart model and develop a healthy work culture around these concepts. This may mean acknowledging improvements needed and seeking out coaching to develop the weaker skill(s).

Then, when hiring, look very closely at the candidates’ behavioral skills and attitudes, not just their technical know-how. Learn to hold better interviews by targeting the questions that get to the heart of being hungry, humble, and smart. Ask probing questions of your candidates and solicit honest feedback from others on their attitude tendencies.

Step 2: Put Your Players in the Right Seat on the Bus!

So now you’ve hired your ideal team player, who lives out the Hungry-Humble-Smart model in their daily work. The right person is definitely on the right bus.

But how do you know if they are in the right seat on the bus? And if they’re not, how do they move to the correct seat quickly for their good and that of the entire team?

This is where Working Genius comes into play! Teams find better fulfillment in their work and optimized performance on their teams when they learn to utilize the innate skills and gifts—or geniuses—of each teammate.

Each of us has Working Geniuses that are considered our sweet spot in work.
Using these gifts gives us joy, energy, and passion.

We also have Working Competencies that neither feed nor drain us.
We tend to engage in activities that require these skills fairly well with limits.

Conversely, our Working Frustrations are areas where we aren’t naturally skilled.
These tend to rob us of joy and energy.

Together the six working geniuses outline the full circumference of any project group—from the starting point of creating ideas and vision (Wonder and Invention) into the deeper dive of truly understanding the work and developing the project team (Discernment and Galvanizing) through seeing the project and the project team to the optimal end result (Enablement and Tenacity).

Teams must work together in a smooth process to achieve results! The tenets of Working Genius help overcome teamwork challenges while giving your team a better way to think about projects, meetings, and hiring.

Maximize Working Genius, Minimize Working Frustration!

How do you determine which ideal skills and gifts are needed in each role at your organization? And, how do you confirm all your employees are in the right seat on the bus?

In an ideal world you would have discerned the geniuses needed for your organization’s open seats prior to opening each hiring window, and every new hire’s areas of genius would fit into their role seamlessly.

If that step was left out somehow, don’t despair! Your team’s gifts and skills can be assessed at any time. An agile organization can shift their bus’s seating chart to optimize their team’s genius.

As you’ve likely guessed, there are tools available to take the mystery out of your team members’ geniuses! This makes it easy for people who work together to identify their talents and the tasks that help them thrive.

Step 3: Build Trust!

So, now we understand how to find ideal team players and how to plug them into the right roles.

But, how do we build and encourage a healthy work culture for the entire team?

One word: TRUST!

Many well-meaning, talented teams lack trust. They are likely afraid of conflict and would rather preserve artificial harmony than risk the healthy vulnerability that leads to trust.

Counter to conventional wisdom, the root causes of team dysfunction are both identifiable and curable.

A healthy, functioning team requires a foundation of trust, based on a vulnerability that comes from honest communication. This means creating healthy dialogue around both the things that make us nervous, like conflicting opinions or admitting mistakes, and the things we’re passionate about, like our years of experience or visionary gifts.

Being able to discuss teamwork honestly and come to clear conclusions about how to move forward keeps the entire team accountable to their mission.

This commitment to shared accountability leads to better, measurable results overall.

So, what can we do now to build a high-performance team? Making a team functional and cohesive requires intentional levels of courage and discipline!

Bonus Step 4: Support Your Powerhouse Team!

Ready to build a high-performance team? Putting humble, hungry, and smart team players on the right seat on the bus boosts teamwork and work culture every time!

Did you know that Team Verve Co. offers exciting team-building workshops designed to build on each other? These high-energy, engaging sessions are filled with world-class content and interactive learning for immediate and ongoing application!

Our Ideal Team Player, Working Genius, and Five Dysfunctions of a Team workshops work together to pack a power punch for teams hungry to grow! Your teams can target their most-needed workshop or take all three to maximize their team genius!

if you have questions about any of these tools, we are glad to point you in the right direction.
Chat with Matt!

Team Verve, NYC

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Master the Art of Productive Meetings

Team Verve — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 21:04:08 +0000

Many of us spend a lot of time in meetings. In fact, meetings may be the most important part of the work we do.

It is where we have important conversations, share ideas, plan our work, make decisions, build team relationships, and decide how to get work done.

Or not?

Some of us have also experienced meetings that severely lacked productivity and effectiveness, where no decisions are made, team members walk away frustrated, and everyone wonders if the meeting was just a waste of precious time.

As a leader, it is tempting to throw every sort of issue that needs to be talked about into one long, unproductive meeting – like a bad stew with too many ingredients. Put simply, is the lazy way of leading meetings and sets the team up for frustration and low productivity.

For people who dread meetings, one of my favorite tools to recommend is “The Six Types of Working Genius” because of its effectiveness at transforming meetings. In short, The Working Genius is a framework to improve productivity at work and get more done, especially in meetings. Here are three tips to master the art of meetings with Working Genius:

Determine the type of meeting needed.

Working Genius identifies four types of meetings with different objectives appropriate for each stage of work. As leaders, we must learn to recognize, value, and initiate different types of meetings to lead our team in productivity.

The following descriptions are partially excerpted from The Table Group:

Brainstorming or Offsite Meeting – This type of meeting is to step back and look at your market or environment. It is where we ask big picture questions like, “Are we solving the right problems?”, “Are we missing something”, “Could we serve our customers better?” These meetings are more conceptual at the highest elevation of work. It plays out a bit like ping-pong between wondering about important questions and inventing new ways of doing things.
Solutions-Oriented or Strategic Meeting – This meeting is where we identify specific problems and spend time tackling them with a strategic focus. The purpose is to address an issue, design a solution, and take time to tweak it. Here we ask questions like, “What is our focus?”, “How can we tweak our strategy?”, “How can we refine our solution?” This meeting requires invention with plenty of time to push back with concerns and discern the best path forward.
Rally & Tactical or Weekly Staff Meeting – This meeting is really about inspiring and equipping people to execute. We know our primary objective and we need to get the ball moving. Here we ask questions like, “What do we need to get it done?”, “Who needs to do what?”, “How do we move the ball forward?” This meeting rallies the team around the goals and assesses the resources needed.
Task Oriented or Daily Tactical Meeting – This is a brief meeting where we get updates on what everyone is working on. We ask questions like “What is everyone working on today?” “What will we get done today?” “What can we check off the list?” This meeting is about prioritizing and allocating resources to get the project to the finish line.

As we can see, different types of meetings have vastly different goals. Mashing all of these into one unorganized or unclarified meeting can result in a lot of frustrating conversation circles. Productivity is improved when the type of meeting is clearly defined.

Learn to regulate your working genius.

As leaders, we tend to make every meeting about our own preferred stage of the project. This is well-intentioned but disorientating. The process of all work has three necessary phases and always defaulting or leading to your area of strength can greatly frustrate the team and initiate confusion. It is important to understand where the team is in the process of work, be aware of your tendencies, and regulate when needed.

For example, some of us are idea machines. We love new inventions and ways of doing things. However, there are times when we have meetings to move a project to the finish line. This meeting is simply not the time to bring a new idea or solution. On the flip side, some of us enjoy moving things to the finish line more than high-level ideating. In these cases, we need to regulate in higher-level meetings, recognizing the value of big-picture questions without immediately pushing for
a decision, action plan, or details.

It can be highly frustrating if a team leader doesn’t regulate in different types of meetings or only values and leads one or two types of meetings. Productivity is improved when leaders recognize their tendencies and regulate for the good of the team.

Let your team know.

After you as a leader have determined the type of meeting and how you can regulate, it is important to get your team on board. The Working Genius assessment and training equips your team to use their own working geniuses, learn to regulate, and be more productive.

After your team knows the meeting framework, you can communicate quickly. This can be as simple as “Today, we plan to brainstorm ideas for Project X, no decision needs to be made we just need to get some possible solutions on the table.” Or during a meeting you may insert, “I appreciate that idea, but this project is in the final stages, so we need to stay focused on our current solution and getting to the finished line. You are welcome to bring your idea to me outside of the meeting
to consider for our next project.” You may be surprised at how your productivity in meetings drastically improves by clarifying and communicating expectations.

My experience with the Working Genius is that I have become better equipped to participate and lead meetings. I can confidently offer my strengths and then regulate when the meetings dip into areas that are not my favorite. At the same time, understanding the process of work has given me a language to keep meetings on track while encouraging teammates to collaborate in their areas of working genius.

Let’s bring clarity and organization to our team meetings!

Think the Working Genius would boost productivity on your team? Take a Working Genius assessment or Get Started with Team Training.