Coffee is everywhere today but some brands stand out strongly. Nespresso has been one of the coffee success stories of recent times and due to its success it is building new production facilities at Romont, near Lausanne in Switzerland.
Establishing a new production facility is a complex task, especially when trying to slot it into an already existing company culture. The job entails bringing together a highly specialised team to work from sourcing, to quality control, production, and dispatch with the systems that surround it including IT, safety, procurement, and logistics. They all have to work seamlessly from day one.
Michael Donnelly and Pieter Van Den Wall Bake from Perspectivity helped Nespresso get the new team in shape at a recent game workshop. Twenty two team leaders came together for the first time as the new factory team ahead of the factory going live in early 2015.
The team leaders were taken aback by the impact of the game on their team dynamic. The game opened the space for them to converse in real language about real issues they face. Team dynamics, key common priorities, trust and relationships, and the essential need for effective communication with each other were all identified and explored.
Sebastien Foucart, the new factory Director hosted the session and had the following reflections:
“The session met all of our expectations, the shared experience with other team members was perfect for team building. An unexpected outcome was the way the session made subsequent team sessions more impactful, especially where we needed everyone to be working in on common issues like safety.”
“The interaction of team members meant that everyone got an insight to each other in a way that created relationships that will last”