Helping Strategic Planning Teams Thrive Through Uncertainty

How Horsham District Council’s Strategic Planning Team built shared insight, confidence, and direction through change

The challenge: navigating complexity and change

Strategic Planning teams across local government are working in increasingly complex and pressurised conditions. From national planning reforms to local devolution and resource constraints, teams must operate effectively in a landscape of shifting priorities and expectations.

At Horsham District Council, the Strategic Planning Team recognised the need to reflect on how they work together and build greater clarity and resilience. With several major projects on the horizon and change already underway, they wanted to strengthen internal collaboration, identify what was working well, and create space to think proactively about team culture and direction.

Why Strengthify?

The team brought in Strengthify to run a Discovery Workshop that would surface individual strengths, strengthen team insight, and offer a practical route to sustaining performance through uncertainty. Several team members had already taken part in a strengths assessment, but this was the first time the team had come together in a structured way to reflect on how those strengths showed up at work, and what they meant for the wider team dynamic.

What We Did: Strengthify Discovery Workshop

The team took part in a one-day Strengthify Discovery Workshop, using the CliftonStrengths framework to explore how individual talents show up in their day-to-day work. The session was designed to help team members:

• Gain personal insight into their own strengths and blind spots
• Build greater awareness of how their colleagues prefer to work
• Reflect on team dynamics and how differences can be complementary
• Explore practical ways to apply their strengths to upcoming challenges
• Create a shared language to improve communication and collaboration

What changed?

Feedback from the session was consistently positive. Participants highlighted how the approach helped them learn more about themselves, build greater appreciation for others’ styles, and apply practical insight to their current roles.

Quotes from participants included:

• “Very insightful – I learned a lot.”
• “An insightful and enlightening glimpse into how we all think and work.”
• “Whilst sceptical to begin with, I was amazed at how accurate and useful the feedback was.”
• “Really made me notice that others’ work can have different values – and how to appreciate that more.”
• “Throughout the day I had individuals in mind at my organisation who would benefit from this.”

Team members left the day with stronger self-awareness, a clearer sense of how to work together effectively, and greater confidence in how their strengths could support current and future priorities.

In the words of the Head of Service

“This was a really valuable opportunity to learn more about myself and the team. I can see how I can more clearly advocate for others and understand where they are coming from.”
— Catherine Howe, Head of Strategy, Horsham District Council

What this shows

For local authority teams facing high levels of change and scrutiny, focusing only on process or policy misses a vital ingredient: how teams think, work and relate. This session showed how a strengths-based approach can reveal new ways of seeing yourself and others, improving self-awareness, surfacing blind spots, and offering a more human route to team performance.

What’s Next: Sustaining Momentum and Building on Strengths

Several participants expressed interest in continuing the conversation and applying the insights from the Discovery Workshop in their everyday work. As the team navigates upcoming strategic projects, the strengths-based approach offers a shared language and framework for:

• Informing future task allocation and project roles
• Supporting one-to-one conversations and team development
• Enhancing resilience and performance during organisational change

A number of attendees have also registered for Strengthify’s two-day Management Development Programme, where they’ll explore how to lead with strengths and embed the approach within their wider teams and services.

If you’d like to bring a Discovery Workshop or strengths-based leadership programme to your team, get in touch — we’d love to help.