Strengthening Collaboration When the Pressure Is On
The short version.
AutoStore partnered with Innov8 Consulting to design and facilitate a focused team development workshop aimed at strengthening collaboration, communication and shared ways of working in a demanding operational environment.
The team operates in a fast-paced logistics environment where priorities can change quickly, decisions often have to be made with incomplete information and strong coordination across people, systems and stakeholders is essential. At the same time, employee feedback highlighted concerns around engagement, workload, recognition and growth, together with different perceptions of communication, collaboration and how pressure was handled within the team. The challenge was therefore not simply to improve individual skills. It was to create space for the team to step outside daily operations, understand how they experienced working together and agree on practical principles that would support stronger collaboration when the pressure increased.
We designed and facilitated a highly interactive half-day team development workshop built around three themes: Connect, Understand and Align. The team began by identifying commonalities and individual strengths before building a shared view of its current reality through a Team SWOT. From there, the conversation moved into the 5R Handshake — Results, Resources, Roles, Rules and Relationships — to clarify expectations and agree how the team wanted to work together going forward. The workshop also explored how pressure can affect communication and collaboration, helping participants reflect on patterns such as shorter and more reactive communication, stronger individual focus and misunderstandings that escalate more easily when operational pressure takes over.
The workshop surfaced a strong foundation already present within the team, including diverse perspectives, broad logistics expertise, flexibility, action orientation and a willingness to support one another. At the same time, participants identified opportunities around knowledge sharing, clearer ownership, stronger standardisation, onboarding and collaboration across locations. By the end of the session, the team had articulated shared expectations across relationships, roles, rules, results and resources. These included greater honesty and self-awareness in communication, clearer mandates and ownership, learning from mistakes, stronger recognition of achievements, better knowledge sharing and continued support for one another.
From Operational Pressure to Shared Ways of Working
Understand the Context
The starting point was the reality of the team's everyday work. AutoStore's Logistics Operations team operated in an environment shaped by changing priorities, international dependencies and the need to make good decisions quickly. Existing employee feedback also pointed to questions around engagement, workload, recognition and collaboration. Together with the team leader, we translated those signals into clear workshop objectives: create a shared understanding of current challenges, clarify expectations around communication and collaboration, strengthen psychological safety and agree practical principles for working together under pressure.
Connect Around What Already Works
Rather than beginning with problems, the workshop first created connection. Through a short team-building exercise, participants explored what they had in common and identified the different strengths they brought to the team. These ranged from staying calm under pressure and bringing structure to being solution-oriented, creating a sense of safety and simplifying complex problems. Starting with strengths helped establish a constructive tone and reminded the team that development was not about fixing a broken team. It was about building on an already strong foundation.
Make the Current Reality Visible
The team then stepped back from day-to-day delivery and explored how collaboration was working today. A facilitated Team SWOT helped participants identify both internal strengths and areas that could make collaboration more difficult. The discussion surfaced themes including working across different offices, time-consuming processes, standardisation, onboarding, knowledge sharing and the impact of decisions across the wider organisation. The purpose was not to create a perfect diagnosis, but to make different perspectives visible and establish a shared picture of where the team was starting from.
Agree How We Want to Work Together
The final part of the workshop shifted from reflection to alignment. Using the 5R Handshake model, participants explored five dimensions of effective teamwork: Relationships, Roles, Rules, Results and Resources. They discussed what builds trust, where clearer ownership was needed, how the team wanted to behave under pressure, how priorities should be handled and what the team needed in order to succeed. The resulting agreements were concrete and grounded in the team's own reality — from being honest and thoughtful when giving feedback, to clarifying mandates, supporting one another, learning from mistakes, recognising achievements and improving knowledge sharing. Participants closed the workshop by reflecting on what they personally wanted to contribute going forward and how the team would hold itself accountable to the agreements it had created.
By the numbers
Services behind this engagement
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Team Development & Collaboration
Strong teams don't happen by chance. We help teams build trust, strengthen collaboration and establish practical ways of working that improve communication, decision-making and collective performance. Every engagement is tailored to your team's unique objectives, challenges and dynamics.
Team Development & Collaboration
For AutoStore's Logistics Operations team, this meant creating space to reflect on how the team worked under pressure, surface different perspectives and agree shared expectations around trust, roles, communication and collaboration.
Learn more about this service ›Workshop & Process Facilitation
We design and facilitate workshops that bring people together, create shared understanding and turn conversations into practical actions. Every session is tailored to your objectives, participants and organisational context.
Workshop & Process Facilitation
The workshop moved deliberately from connection, to a shared view of the team's current reality, to practical agreements for the future—using structured reflection, a Team SWOT and the 5R Handshake to turn discussion into clear commitments.
Learn more about this service ›Let us talk about your situation.
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