Alumni - v-Teamwork

Eric Giles - Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority

Eric manages an excess of 100 people who are working to design and implement a new State education certification system.

Eric is the bridge between the business stakeholders and all of the technology stakeholders at the Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority.

“Since doing the program I am now really good at ‘closing the loop’ on my commitments. It’s quite powerful: I promise people what I’m going to deliver by when and when I deliver it I say “as promised”. This has deepened people’s trust in my decisions so we get things done faster.”

“Before V-Teamwork I operated a lot more transactionally and so did the people around me. Now, I notice when people are asking for things that the other person doesn’t really understand. And I have the skill and inclination to step in smoothly and ask a simple question or two to clarify people’s understanding.”

Shemi Rubin - Experience Work Pty Ltd

Shemi is a business coach and designer specialising in improving retention of professional staff.

“V-Teamwork opened my eyes to just how big my gaps in communication are, and the impact that they can have on my business. I discovered a whole new way to communicate effectively and coordinate my team: focuses on commitments, not just performing tasks. I would say it has changed the way I look at how I will lead my team in the future.”

Christian Stocker - Queensland Children's Hospital

Christian was promoted from a pediatric intensive care specialist to Deputy Director of the Paediatric Intensive Care unit.

“I was a highly skilled doctor, but I didn’t know how to manage my team, collaborate effectively, or communicate in a way that was clear and got people on-side.”

“V-teamwork gave me a whole new self-awareness of how I communicate with people, AND a new approach for coordinating actions so that things get done.”

“Before V-Teamwork, people said often said I rammed ideas down their throats, and my requests came out like commands – not giving people the time to reply or check what I wanted. By learning to observe myself in action, I was able to shift my communication so that my team felt valued, respected and clear in what they were asked to do. “

Danny Ryan – Autodesk

Danny is responsible for providing technical training and development to over 3000 software engineers who work on developing and deploying Autodesk’s class-leading products.

“In several groups where we have deployed V-Teamwork, we have seen it as a very effective catalyst to accelerate the development of leadership and teaming skills in our global engineering teams. I have seen participants rapidly develop deep insights about themselves, and about how to work more effectively with others.”

Val Sanders – Empowerment Coach

Val is a passionate empowerment coach.

“My coaching work is done in conversations with individuals and sometimes with groups. I help people explore what’s important to them. I guide them in discovering how to build strong working relationships, establish healthy boundaries and set priorities.”

“I have become much more cognizant of my mood on a day-to-day basis, and have been paying much more attention to how my own mood changes in response to situations at work, as well as observing others’ moods. This has helped me to better manage myself, and in teaching my clients how to recognize their emotions and make conscious decisions about how to respond to emotional triggers.”

“Other elements of the program that proved immediately useful to me and continue to be useful are communication techniques such as repeating back what I hear from others, which is helping me hone in on common understanding. “

Jason Kessler – Mission Control for Earth

Jason designs, leads and facilitates innovative large-scale science and community-based projects and programs. Jason work across many boundaries: geographical, organizational, disciplinary. Recent examples are NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge which used public private partnership, citizen science, and crowdsourcing to accelerate NASA’s hunt for hazardous asteroids (before they find us).

“V-teamwork created a new awareness and expanded my consciousness around the innovation opportunities in my work. The V-Teamwork experience was a window into the way I operate. It was a safe environment to look at myself in action: learning with a global team also helped push me and exposed me to new ways of thinking about problems and approaching challenges in completely original ways.”

“The difference in the V-Teamwork experience is in the shared learning.”

Autodesk - Company Case Study

V-Teamork helped the global team at Autodesk develop leadership and soft skills virtually.

After the program, Autodesk reported:

Improved cross-cultural coordination across geographies and a reduction in unnecessary re-work
Less need for hands-on by leader
Increased velocity with improved quality
Improved effectiveness of 360° employee performance assessment tool

“I had to shift my leadership focus onto the effectiveness of the conversations I had with my team to make sure we got the job done between us.” – Gaurav Jain, Senior Software Manager.