The Colour Works proudly partners with like-minded organisations who want to go the extra mile for their clients. On this occasion, Dragonfish invited us in to deliver a morning’s workshop with their forum of HR and L&D professionals.

Dragonfish is a full-service employee communications agency that creates customer value from the inside out by building customer-centric cultures. They blend inspiring employee communications with razor-sharp customer insight to help companies place their most valued customers at the heart of everything they do, bridging the gap between employee engagement and profit.

With the Dragonfish ethos of ‘putting people at the heart of an organisation’ it was no wonder we found our collaboration on this event a very natural fit.

On a sunny Thursday morning Giles ,Luke and James headed through the New Forest to meet the Dragonfish team at their lovely Georgian HQ in the centre of Southampton city. The delegate list was full of interesting companies from the southern part of the UK, ranging from ferry ship technicians to the head of HR for a prestigious wallpaper and paint company.

As it tends to be with these events, delegates get as much out of networking as they sometimes do from the presentation. Having this in mind and being professional facilitators, we focused the session on interdependent learning rather than instructional delivery.

After stimulating a discussion around what makes a team ‘GREAT’and gaining insight into what ‘TRUST‘ means to everyone on a personal level, we moved quickly into the Colour Energies. Each delegate self-assessed their own style and joined their colleagues for an activity which beautifully demonstrated the differences that exist in human behaviour, and more importantly, how easily these differences can frustrate us and become a blocker to effective team-working.

The conversation around the room quickly escalated into a ‘how they might use the learning back in the workplace’, with everyone weighing in with ideas on how the colour model could be used to create understanding, build trust and increase communication and productivity. At this point, the energy in the room was almost tangible.  Delegates were talking across the room and connecting in a deep way with others as if they had known them for years.  An insightful shout came from across the room ‘WOW, I’ve just noticed the difference in noise, you extraverts are constantly talking, look at the more introverted side of the room – that’s what goes on in our meetings – people don’t respect other’s needs and give them the time to pitch in!’ A group ‘aha’ moment took place and we acknowledged it with a ‘so what are you going to do differently in your next meeting?’ question.

The morning we shared together was a great collaborative learning experience. If you are involved in a company, group or networking forum that you would like us to present at, please contact james@thecolourworks.com to find out how we can help.