Strongsuits @ BlueID: people and team development using a card game

28. November 2019

Building an agile environment in any organisation starts with people. People are ultimately what drives the company forward. This can be achieved if teams work in a stable and efficient environment with mutual trust at the center of it.

We know that good communication is fundamental to building trust and therefore at BlueID we continuously look for new ways to exercise it. A card game we played this autumn proved to be instrumental in helping us become even better communicators when working together. The game is called StrongSuits and is based on the Strengths Psychology which points out that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest more energy in developing their strengths instead of investing all their time to correct their weaknesses.

The game ultimately makes it easy for individuals and teams to have powerful conversations about their strengths and the limiting thoughts that can hold back performance. Identifying these limiting thoughts is increasingly recognized as the key to making breakthroughs in performance. This playful learning way allowed our teams to learn each other’s preferred communication methods, behavior and reactions in different working scenarios. And we had fun while doing so!

After playing the StrongSuits, one of our employees said “Thanks to this simple game, I realized that sometimes I’d come across as too dominant and overwhelming to others. This explains the reason of some of the communication issues we had in the past. Now I have a clear view of what needs to be done so I don’t come across this way and I’ve learned how to communicate effectively with other team members who have a different communication style.” The strongest teams are those who build robust relationships and improve communication inside out. By understanding your own and your team mates’ strengths you are equipped with an invaluable tool to improve team communication and work together in a way that is more efficient and satisfactory to all parties involved. This ultimately leads to a greater agile work environment.

Autumn 2019 marks the beginning of even more focus on fostering unique strength of each individual here at BlueID to build robust teams that naturally work in an agile way.