In today’s complex, uncertain and ever-changing business environment, collaboration is an essential ingredient for success. In high performance organizations, collaboration across departments and functions also saves resources, identifies risks and generates opportunities. Talented people work best in a team environment where enthusiasm and team spirit are high, ideas and information shared, and team members work together to accomplish common goals. The synergy that comes from high performance teams adds value to all – team members, customers and the organization.

1. High Performance Teams
Experience the advantage
of full collaboration
Leader in collaboration Prama House
267 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7HT
T. +44 (0) 203 026 5376
www.cooplexity.com
201210

2. “The formation of a new team of persons coming from different business areas, and
even from other organisations, to take on a far-reaching project resulted in the need to
develop a training program that would create a propitious environment for
interpersonal knowledge and promote teamwork. But above all, it was necessary to
clearly show the challenges and problems that we faced, which is the most novel aspect
with respect to a training action. The experience with the Equilibrium Cone was
simultaneously gratifying and successful, given that it combined fun aspects (games
and simulators) and operational aspects (specific work projects) that satisfied the
objectives of both cohesion and efficiency, respectively.”
Ricardo Alonso Fernández
Director of Corporate Banking
Global Banking & Markets
Santander Banking Group

3. Objectives
The current environment in which organizations must decision-making based on teams in situations of
compete is increasingly complex. Firms must survive complexity, interrelationships and constant change.
and grow in an interconnected world in which it is
increasingly difficult to foresee future Decision Making: To identify the guidelines needed
environments. to take actions through uncertainty and to reconcile
anxieties arising from such decisions.
The objective of Synergy program is to develop the
following organizational capacities and Synergy: To promoting the optimal distribution of
competences: resources through shared use.
Distributed leadership: To appreciate and act upon Synergy is an attended seminar that, for two days,
recognition of the significant differences between submerges the participants in a situation of growing
traditional leadership paradigms, based on the complexity, uncertainty and change. With the use of
individual and the new model of distributed a behavioural simulator, it achieves a high impact
leadership which is based on the executive team and generates emotional ownership, whereby
function. learning through experience is assured.
High Performance Teams: To build autonomous Our diagnostic approach based on the notion of
and self-driven teams that develop initiatives, to duality – personal and business – allows clients to
make risk-based decisions and that can recognise how inter-relating personal capacities is
demonstrate flexibility and diversity in action. the key to promoting cultures of Shared Leadership
and Teamwork in organisations.
Change management: To identify the benefits of
Experimentation through Gaming and Simulation is
a highly effective, attractive, motivating and
proven learning methodology, with constant
changes of rhythm, which encourages constructive
interactions and sustainable, participant owner-
ship. Our program designs reflect our belief in the
idea of serious play and its causal link to executive
performance.

4. “Participating in HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS was an intellectual challenge for me
due to the different way of facing a known subject. The idea of breaking with schemes
and not being anchored in traditional ones is perfectly clear. Learning to dominate my
natural leadership in order to adapt it to good teamwork was another good practice.
Overall, an intense and very recommendable experience for people who want to learn
different methodologies.”
Jordi Ballesté
Vice-President
Angelini Group

5. Syllabus
Introduction to High-Performance Cultures High-Performance Teams
 How technology and globalization influence the ex-  Teamwork is an emerging pattern of decentralized
ecutive decision and spontaneous self-coordination
 The risk of treating complex decisions as simple. Long  Promoting team consciousness
term and systemic implications  Excessive cohesion is a disadvantage. Teamwork is
 More than the sum of the parts- a complementary not an end in itself
approach to executive teams  The group dynamics approach maximizes results
through collaboration
The importance of a High Performance Environ-
ment High Performance Organization
 The impossibility of direct intervention in the High  My weakness is the result of my politics. How am I
Performance Environments blind to it?
 An Entrepreneurial Team Learning Perspective- how  An organization that learns from experience. The im-
to build a flexible and adaptive organization portance of failure, errors and mistakes
 Communication as the product outcome of an inter-  Silver bullets in designing for the “it depends” conun-
active exchange process rather than a simple infor- drum. Learning to discriminate
mation dissemination process
The personal perspective
High-Performance Leadership  How to benefit from the anxiety produced by uncer-
 The new field of Distributed Leadership for today’s tainty
high performing executives  We are prisoners of our own mental models
 A fundamental dichotomy in leadership styles: the  Locus of control or how to take the responsibility for
Entrepreneur versus the Manager our decisions
 The risks of dysfunctional leadership profiles: indi-
vidualism, simplification, groupthink and perfection- The Cooplexity model
ism  The knowledge level: Pro-activity oriented to results
 How does leadership behavior encourage or discour- and relations
age team performance  The teambuilding level: group integration and trust
 Measuring risky leadership behaviors through the generation
TEAM 12 test  The team working level: equal relationship and crite-
ria of action

6. Overview
A Holistic Model of Organizational Complexity.
High Performance Teams is an experiential without external interventions. The participants
learning program based on a behavioural become aware of the ‘whole’ and balance the
simulation that enables participants to transition achievement of their personal goals with those of
from a situation of uncertainty to one of the organization.
complexity. The first stage of uncertainty relates to
conditions of change, crisis, chaos, mergers and A playful, powerful and experiential dynamic,
takeovers, and can include the dynamics of growth, generates high emotional impacts on group
new businesses, and corporate restructuring. The motivation and cohesion, and so builds a
second stage of complexity is related to mature, heightened sense of ‘ownership’.
competitive, globalized, interrelated and In complex and interdependent environments
interdependent markets. where the individual capacity to decide
As the program progresses, both organizational- appropriately is either exceeded or dependent on
level and personal-level needs are diagnosed. Initial others, the team decision-making mechanism kicks-
competences tend to focus on either exploration, in. A new approach to decision-making is
flexibility, the ability to influence, or learning. This demanded, allowing the organization to build a
is complemented by a subsequent focus on more consensual strategy driven by actions based on tacit
relational competences including team dynamics, and local knowledge, creating synergies through
such as, motivation, communication, cooperation, distributed leadership.
shared leadership, delegation and coordination. Our rigorously developed conceptual model enables
As the participating team develops, and as an subsequent personal action plans and the
indirect result of its search for a proposed objective, immediate transference of new executive
the group modifies its priorities naturally i.e. competences to the client’s organization.

7. Key takeaways
The dynamics of the program allow critical executive themes to be internalised, and include:
Areas of personal analysis
 How to tolerate frustration to permanent and ongoing change.
 How to work in uncertain environments.
 How to transition from the ambiguous (emotional) through to the paradoxical (emotional/
rational) and from the paradoxical through to a resolution (rational).
 How to manage anxieties generated by a sense of a lack of control in emergent situations
 How to generate attitudes favouring Teamwork as an organizational response.
 How to communicate in symmetry (from peer to peer, as equals).
 How to embed and recognize the effects of Non-hierarchical leadership.
 How to develop and produce performance-enhancing competences in the relationship be-
tween level of ambition, commitment and results.
The perspective of the participants is such that the transfer of program learning outcomes to organiza-
tional realities is high. This also allows for:
 Filming the sessions in order to obtain personal video-feedback with an analysis of personal
behaviour and individual impact on the group and organization.
 Planning subsequent coaching sessions.
 Complementing the session with subsequent consulting for the organisation based on the
model used.
 Defining an action plan for personal development.
Therefore, the program is directed at companies and organisations of a certain size and complexity. Spe-
cifically, it is directed at companies that are either operating in highly competitive environments, face rap-
idly changing situations or seeking high strategic growth rates as a result of new executive initiatives.

8. “This program is an intelligent way of demonstrating through play that at the company,
we are all necessary and that there is strength in unity. It is a side to transversality, and
at Dannon it has been very useful for realising how important people are in all
functions, each in their own role, so that projects advance and become a reality.”
Robert Cosialls
Director of Purchasing of Dannon for Southern Europe

9. Faculty
We deliver value to our clients through the combination of experiences in
both the academic and professional learning spheres.
The faculty of the High Perforrmance Teams program presents a unique combination between academic
and professional careers. Both, Edward Gonsalves and Ricardo Zamora are professors at prestigious Uni-
versities and Business Schools; they have specialize on complementary aspects of the Cooplexity model
upon which the seminars are based and both have applied their knowledge with proven success in large
companies and multinationals. Many of their publications and lines of research are used in the course
material, readings, tests and form the basis of group discussions.
Pr. Edward Gonsalves Pr. Ricardo Zamora
Edward specializes in the development of execu- He is President and founder of the Cooplexity Insti-
tive program design for teams in entrepreneurial tute.
and large firms. He holds a number of director- Zamora has specialized in the development of sys-
ships, advises, consults and publishes in the area of temic competences and applies this program in
Strategic and Entrepreneurial Learning. large corporations with complex interrelationships.
Edward is a Visiting Professor on MBA and Entre- He has taught seminars in countries such as Argen-
preneurship Programs at the European Business tina, China, Italy, Mexico, Spain, UK and USA.
School, London, Barcelona Management Institute He is associate professor at ESADE Business School
and Toulouse University Business School-ESEC, Bar- since year 2000. Currently collaborating at the Ex-
celona. Edward is a Founding member of the Bar- ecutive MBA, the EMMS, MSc and with some Ex-
celona Entrepreneurship City Group. ecutive Education programs.
His publications include C.W.J.A., Gonsalves, E. His publications include “Cooplexity: A model of
(2008). Entrepreneurial Resource, Organizational
collaboration in complexity for management in
Learning and Strategy-Making: Linking Theory and times of uncertainty and change” and “Teamwork:
Empirical Design. In R. T. Harrison, & C. M. Leitch motivation, commitment and results”.
(Eds.), Entrepreneurial Learning: Conceptual
Frameworks and Applications. London: Routledge. Is member of the ESADE's Leadership Development
Research Centre focused on effective leadership
He was the learning facilitator on the Park Royal and emotional and social competencies (Glead).
Partnership 'Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program'
for Small & Medium Size enterprises (a London De- He is member of the System Dynamics Society and
velopment Agency funded program) and is a lead NASAGA (North American Simulation and Gaming
adviser to the GBP15m London Carnival Village Association).
capital Project.

10. Customers
University Partners
ESADE: Management School of Business of
Barcelona (Spain)
UTD: University of Texas Dallas
UAB: Universtat Autónoma de Barcelona
Mass Consumption
Cobega (Coca Cola Group), Dannon , LU
(Dannon Group), Font Vella (Dannon Group),
Heineken, Puleva Food, Mahou-San Miguel,
Grupo Siro, Bimbo (Sara Lee Bakery Group),
Unilever, Frigo (Unilever Group), Nestlé,
Arbora & Ausonia (Procter & Gamble Group)
Technology
Telefónica, Hewlett Packard, Thales
Information Systems, Adbraintage, Astra, T-
System
Pharmaceutics
AstraZeneca, BDF - Beiersdorf, Boehringer
Ingelheim, Farma-Lepori (Angelini Group),
CibaVision (A Novartis Company), Novartis,
Roche Diagnostics, Pfizer, Chefaro , Lilly,
Medichem
Finance
Santander Group, Banco de Sabadell,
Deutsche Bank, BBVA, Caixa de Catalunya, La
Caixa
Construction, Real Estate
Ferrovial-Agroman, Acieroid, Lafarge-Asland,
Inmobiliaria Colonial
Health
Sanitas, Sanitas Residential, Mutua del
Carme, Asepeyo
Chemicals
Kao Corporation, BASF, AKZO Chemicals COOPLEXITY INSTITUTE
Utilities Prama House
267 Banbury Road
REE (Red Eléctrica de España), ENDESA, Oxford OX2 7HT
UNIÓN FENOSA,AGBAR Group T. +44 (0) 203 026 5376
Textile, Fashion
INDITEX, Dimodes, Nike, Venilia (grupo www.cooplexity.com
Solvay)
Logistics
DHL