Leadership program delivered in the disability housing sector builds cohesion, capability and improves overall performance.

Challenge

This group within the state government is responsible for owning, managing, and renewing Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA). It does this in accordance with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the requirements of their parent department. The organisation is responsible for tenancy agreements, relationships with Supported Independent Living (SIL) providers and maintenance and development of SDA properties.

In the 18 months from January 2023, the organisation made significant changes to help it provide better quality homes and more choice for Victorians living with disability. This included the review and recasting of the leadership roles.

With a new leadership team in place and an ambitious agenda set for the subsequent 24 months, focus turned to building a strong, cohesive leadership group who felt empowered, excited and committed to deliver the best outcomes. Zing & Co. was engaged to deliver a program to empower leaders.

What Zing & Co did

We designed and facilitated a series of organisational culture and team cohesion workshops for the new leadership team. As a foundation for the workshops, we administered team and individual working style profiles using the MyEverything DiSC tool.

During workshops, participants engaged in activities related to connection, group dynamics and understanding self and others. Individual and team DiSC profile reports supported workshop activities with scientific insights into participants’ own and team’s working styles. As a result, the leadership team identified their ideal culture, in terms of ways of working and shared behaviours, and identified ways to 'supercharge' capabilities within the leadership cohort to improve performance and bring out their best.

To embed the desired behaviour change, Zing & Co built foundational skills in giving and receiving behavioural feedback, with peer-group coaching and role modelling.

What you can learn from this organisation

When members of a team understand each other's working styles and how they present themselves, they can consciously choose how to interact with each other. This means better communication, fewer conflicts, and more trusting and cohesive teams.