At Hans Anders, store managers and team leaders work with teams whose members vary in age, culture and background. With MapsTell, they quickly gain insight into their own behaviour and communication styles and those of their teams, without encountering resistance.
Challenge
The store managers and team leaders at Hans Anders lead teams that differ widely in age, culture and background. To make the most of that diversity, they need insight into their own preferences as well as the behaviour of the people they work with.
The instruments previously used had the opposite effect: complicated questionnaires, lengthy documents and a feeling among participants that they were being put into a box. With a practically minded group, that is no small matter: people take part, but they do not really engage.
Solution
Instead of hiring an external trainer for every course, Hans Anders chose to train its own people. Five internal trainers were certified. This meant the method could be introduced immediately in the Netherlands and Belgium, in Dutch and French, by people who know the stores from the inside.
Participants complete a short questionnaire at the start of their leadership training and receive their PersonalMap. Throughout the multi-day training, MapsTell is revisited three times: during personal leadership, conversation skills and situational leadership. That repetition makes it easier to apply what they have learnt in their daily work.
On the floormap, something happens that a report alone simply cannot achieve.. When participants are asked to stand in a different Area, they immediately feel how it affects them. Patterns become recognisable, and conversations about collaboration emerge that would otherwise not have taken place.
“MapsTell helps me bring people along right away. Participants gain insight into behaviour quickly, without resistance and without it becoming heavy or complicated. It works for every audience, whether you are working with shop-floor staff or with graduate leaders.”
The result
Participants recognise themselves and begin to see both their own behaviour and other people’s differently. The language of the map makes it possible to discuss why collaboration sometimes flows and sometimes becomes difficult. As a result, leaders have more open conversations with their teams.
The effect extends beyond the training. Other store managers and colleagues at head office now ask to work with MapsTell themselves, particularly on team dynamics and collaboration.
