Leading Healthy, High-Performance Teams
An immersive workshop on leadership, group dynamics, and culture change, scalable from one to four days.
The question at the heart of it
Taking care of people and improving performance. At the same time.
It has often seemed like the mission and the people pull in opposite directions. The better an organization performs, the harder it seems to be on its people. And we often hear the worry that caring for people might undermine performance.
Is it possible to solve both problems at once?
We don’t believe you have to choose. Health and performance aren’t a trade-off, and neither are challenge and support. Combine them, and the healthiest teams, when challenged, become the highest performing. It starts with facing issues head on, dealing with people as they are, and taking accountability for change at every level, beginning with ourselves.
What participants say
“This is the best course I’ve taken in my 18 years of service.”
“It relit my passion for leadership and gave me the confidence to lead authentically.”
“When I get back to my unit, I will relentlessly focus on organizational culture.”
“This course should be given to all CAF leadership instructors—at all DP levels.”
What we cover
The workshop at a glance
Interactive, immersive work on the leadership, group dynamics, and culture that make teams healthy and high-performing. Scalable from one to four days. Every topic has its own page in the library, with the books, articles, videos, and podcasts behind it. Every participant leaves with a comprehensive handbook, linked to this library, with curated reading lists and applied leadership tools.
01
Foundational books, articles, and case studies, including the neuroscience of leadership.
Browse resources →
02
Active listening, empathy, coaching, feedback, and difficult conversations.
Browse resources →
04
What moves beneath the surface: groupthink, stages of development, unspoken dynamics.
Browse resources →
05
Building emotional intelligence in yourself and your team.
Browse resources →
07
What healthy, high-performance teams look like in practice.
Browse resources →
How we facilitate
We don’t “instruct” adults.
We facilitate.
Adults learn differently than children, so we don’t think of ourselves as teachers and you as students, with all the power dynamics that come with those roles. We strive to lead a healthy, high-performing team whose mission is to learn.
You’re the expert in your own domain.
We bring models that have helped us organize our own thinking about leading teams. We offer these because we know how much better we’d have led if we’d had this knowledge earlier in our own leadership journeys. How they apply in your context is up to you.
It’s all about the “ah-ha!” moment.
Adults aren’t swayed by advice or sermons. The deepest, most lasting change comes from realizations people arrive at themselves. So we ask questions and give participants time, individually and in groups, to explore ideas and see how they’d fit in different contexts.
Built on how adults actually learn.
Relevant, practical, built on the experience you bring, and safe enough to ask questions, speak up, and disagree.
Who it’s for
The workshop was originally designed for small, special-purpose military teams, and it quickly proved its value across the Canadian Armed Forces. It isn’t rank-specific. It isn’t even military-specific. It can help teams in any organization work more effectively, manage interpersonal friction, foster positive group dynamics, and lead within their scope of responsibility.
Who we are
We’re veterans who combine extensive operational experience with advanced education in organizational change, human-focused leadership, and organizational behaviour. We address culture change not only from an academic perspective, but through lived experience.
