Simplyhealth, an Andover based organisation that specialises in health and well-being insurance plans for both individuals and corporate clients has been working with The Colour Works for the last 2 years.

Recent acquisitions and re-structure had brought together 3 part of the business based in Andover, Leeds and Manchester. To facilitate the senior managers of the different areas working more effectively as a group, The Colour Works were requested to develop and facilitate a number of learning programmes were these managers would find out more about themselves, their colleagues and importantly how to use this knowledge to the benefit of Simplyhealth and its objectives.

Following the success of the above programmes and to further bond this management team, a one-day event was undertaken aboard racing yachts in the Solent. Unbeknown to the managers, the crews for each yacht had been put together based on their dominant colour behavioural preferences. 4 yachts had crews of one particular dominant behavioural type whilst 2 had mixed crews with all types being represented.

After an early morning briefing, the crews boarded their yachts and under the guidance of a qualified skipper headed out of the Solent towards the Isle Of Wight. The morning was taken up with getting to know the ropes, practising how to tack and jibe and importantly knowing each other and the skills individuals brought.

After coming ashore at Gunwharf Quay for lunch, the crews returned to their yachts for a competitive race in the afternoon. The race involved navigating a course around various buoys in the Solent in the fastest time and was aimed at putting to test everything that had been learnt in the morning. The Colour Works facilitators were on hand to observe the different behaviours exhibited, whether good or bad and the impact these had on the team as a whole and its performance.

The six yachts and crews fought an extremely close race in prevailing Force 5 blowing to 6 conditions before heading back to dry land. In the evening a business planning and de-brief session took place at a local hotel. When the results of the race where analysed, it was found that the yachts that came in 1st and 2nd place were in fact those crewed by a mixture of behavioural types – an interesting lesson to take back into the workplace when looking at putting together the most effective teams that make best use of different people with different skills.