Playing to Strengths: Western Trust Builds Awareness and Alignment

An energising team development session focused on uncovering strengths and improving how the team works.

A strengths-based team day for the Western Health and Social Care Trust

In June 2025, the Western Health and Social Care Trust partnered with Strengthify to deliver an in-depth Discovery Workshop for one of its large clinical teams, led by Sinead Doherty. With team members spanning multiple disciplines and geographies, the goal was to move away from traditional deficit-based approaches and explore how individuals’ strengths could be better understood, appreciated, and applied across day-to-day work.

For Sinead, this workshop represented a shift in mindset: helping her team not just reflect on their individual talents but also consider how they could reshape roles, improve task allocation, and build stronger team dynamics through the lens of strengths.

Workshop Aims

• Increase awareness of individual strengths and how these combine across the team.
• Provide a shared language to support collaboration, motivation, and performance.
• Encourage reflective conversation to promote team development and productivity.
• Explore how a strengths-based approach could help redistribute tasks and improve morale.

What Participants Gained

• 87% found the session very or extremely valuable
• Over 85% would recommend a strengths-based approach
• Nearly three-quarters want further support to explore their strengths profile
• Multiple people highlighted how the day gave them a “deeper insight into how others perceive me” and how their strengths “could energise or challenge team dynamics”

Feedback praised the personalised nature of the reports, the energy of the group discussions, and the practical relevance of the workshop:

“I found the assessment of myself extremely accurate. What I found most beneficial was how the session challenged the blind spots in my strengths.”
— Niamh Doherty, Participant

“Individual Reflection = Team growth”
— Eric Nelson, Participant

“I can see what my strengths are and how I can improve on my blind spots.”
— Christine McGovern, Participant

Immediate Outcomes

• Rich team conversations helped connect individual insights to shared practice.
• Many participants reported increased motivation to align roles with strengths.
• Managers are now encouraged to explore strengths in progress reports and appraisals.

The team described the experience as energising, reflective, and enjoyable:

“The group discussions and seeing how we all think and feel differently really helped — and how that can make a great team or introduce obstacles.”
— Erin Nelson, Participant

“Enjoyable and a beneficial team development day.”
— Sinead Doherty, Head of Service

What’s Next?

Following the success of the team workshop, the Trust is considering additional support to embed strengths-based practice more widely — including future sessions and participation in Strengthify’s Management Development Programme.

If you’d like to explore a team workshop for your service or department, get in touch.