Strengthify Success Stories

Enhancing Team Collaboration and Confidence at University of Liverpool

Written by Holger Bollmann | 3 Dec 2025

How the University of Liverpool’s Service Delivery Programme Team strengthened awareness, connection, and readiness for transformation

Strengthening Collaboration and Confidence Across the Service Delivery Team

At a time of increasing operational pressure and organisation-wide transformation, the University of Liverpool’s Service Delivery Programme Team wanted a way to build clarity, confidence, and stronger connection across their group.

Having experienced both a Strengthify Discovery Workshop and the Management Development Programme herself, Lisa Anderson, Finance Systems Manager, saw how powerful a strengths-based approach could be, and invited her programme team to experience it too. Their Chief Financial Officer joined the session, reinforcing senior-level support for a fresh, people-first way of working.

A Programme Team Navigating Change and Heavy Workload

The Service Delivery Programme Team plays a central role in supporting and enabling key change initiatives across the university.

Like many programme teams, they were working through:

  • High operational demands
  • Shifting priorities linked to transformation
  • Cross-functional collaboration challenges
  • Increasing workload pressures
  • Ongoing process and systems improvement work

Lisa wanted the team to feel more equipped, more connected, and more aware of how their individual strengths could contribute to delivering complex work with greater confidence and clarity.

The Challenge: Building Confidence and Connection Amid Pressure

While the team was committed and capable, they wanted:

  • Better understanding of how each person naturally works
  • A shared language to improve communication
  • Stronger cross-team collaboration
  • Tools to support change-readiness and wellbeing
  • A way to reduce friction and increase alignment

The challenge wasn’t capability, it was capacity and connection in an intense programme environment.

The goal was to give the team space to pause, reflect, and understand how to work together more effectively.

Why Strengthify: A Practical, People-First Approach to Programme Delivery

Lisa had already seen the impact of Strengthify’s strengths-based approach.
For her, the appeal was clear:

  • It focuses on what energises people, not simply what they can do
  • It provides a shared, non-judgemental language
  • It helps teams understand differences as assets
  • It offers practical tools that can be applied immediately

By bringing the Discovery Workshop into the programme team, Lisa wanted to create the same clarity and confidence she had experienced, and help the team prepare for the months of change ahead.

The Workshop: Strengths Insight, Reflection, and Team Understanding

Strengthify facilitated a Discovery Workshop designed specifically for programme teams experiencing change.

The session included:

Self-awareness and personal clarity

Using a strengths-based tool, participants explored what energises them and why they approach work the way they do.

Team understanding and empathy

Colleagues shared their strengths and reflected on how differences can combine to improve delivery, communication, and decision-making.

Practical tools and immediate actions

Participants explored how to use their strengths in

  • stakeholder interactions
  • high-pressure periods
  • cross-functional work
  • managing workload and communication

A safe space for meaningful discussion

The workshop created valuable time for the team to step back from delivery pressure and reconnect.

Feedback: Insightful, Timely, and Highly Valuable

The response was overwhelmingly positive:

  • 91% rated the workshop as very or extremely valuable
  • 50% scored 9 or 10 on recommending the experience
  • All participants described the insights as helpful and relevant

Themes repeatedly highlighted:

Clarity and self-awareness

“I now understand why I work the way I do.”

Stronger understanding of colleagues

“I can see how different strengths add value - even the ones I don’t have.”

Immediate relevance to programme pressures

“Very relevant given the workload and amount of change right now.”

Engaging and accessible format

“Easy to follow, really engaging and very insightful.”

And some of the standout reflections:

“Exceptionally useful. It has really helped me understand myself and the team better.”
“Extremely valuable and thought-provoking.”
“A brilliant session - I’ve taken a lot away from it.”

Outcomes: A More Connected, Confident Programme Team

Participants left the session with:

  • A clearer understanding of their own and others’ strengths
  • Greater compassion and empathy within the team
  • More confidence in how to work together through change
  • A new shared language for collaboration and communication
  • Practical tools that could be applied immediately

The workshop gave the programme team a renewed sense of unity, and a clearer path to support transformation with greater resilience and effectiveness.

What’s Next? Building on the Momentum

Many participants expressed interest in continuing the strengths-based journey, including:

  • Joining the Management Development Programme
  • Scheduling a team-focused workshop to explore combined strengths
  • Using strengths in future conversations, check-ins, and programme planning

The workshop showed what becomes possible when programme teams pause, reflect, and reconnect - even in high-pressure environments.

Strengthify helps programme teams across higher education, NHS, and the wider public sector build the clarity, cohesion, and resilience needed for transformation.

Explore how our training programmes and services such as Discovery Workshops and Management Development Programme, can support your programme team:

Want to strengthen your programme team through change?

Get in touch with Strengthify to start the conversation.