Pitstop Events & Conferences

The Pitstop Experience

Imagine your team working with the speed, discipline and focus of a pit team.

In a F1™ race, a pit team of 20 will change all 4 tires in under 2 seconds and return the car to the track with a greater chance of success. Such performance under pressure sets the new standard for teamwork and cross-functional collaboration.

Entering the pit lane…

Your executives will work in pit teams. The idea is just like in racing – to come together as a team, identify performance opportunities and exploit them fast.

Inspired by F1™ your team will be engaged in taking stock of its performance and explore opportunities to maximize potential. Underpinned by the powerful Engage-Change Model, the focus is on winning.

Pitstop events are designed to measure and maximize energy, engagement & the exploration of potential.

Levels of energy, engagement and exploration could account for as much as 50% of the difference between the lowest and highest performing organizations*. Pitstop events are designed to generate energy, engagement & fun.

*Alex “Sandy” Pentland, ‘The New Science of Building Great Teams’, HBR, Apr. 2012.

Creating an especially productive environment

Pitstop events create a safe environment which encourages independent-thinking and open debate. That includes an environment where silence is not confused with agreement, differences of opinion are welcomed and performance is center stage.

Technically, this is called ‘psychological safety’ and it enables people to work more effectively together*.

*Amy Edmondson, ‘Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 350-383

Leveraging the Principles of Social Psychology

Today we have a deep understanding of how the social environment impacts on individual, as well as team, behaviors and performance. That is thanks to research in the field of social psychology.

Preventing Social Loafing

Typically, at conferences, a few people end up contributing/talking most, while many others do little. Called ‘Social Loafing’ this has many causes, key among them being group size.

The organization and design (as well as the expert facilitation) of pitstop events prevents social loafing, ensuring that all participants are actively involved and fully engaged.

*Daniel J. Levi, ‘Group Dynamics for Teams’, SAGE Publications, Inc; 5 edition

Tackling Groupthink

Contrary to conventional wisdom, groups and teams typically generate fewer good ideas than individuals working alone*.

Research also demonstrates the challenges facing teams in sharing information, questioning existing beliefs and listening to divergent views**.

Pitstop events are designed to reduce the risk of Groupthink and blind social conformity within large groups, thereby resulting in fresh thinking and new insights.

*Dawna Markova & Angie McArthur, ‘Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently’, Spiegel & Grau, 2015

**The illusion of group productivity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19(1), 78–89; Stroebe, W., Diehl, M., & Abakoumkin, G. (1992)

A winning event…

‘It was a great event, but what exactly happened as a result?’ That is a question too often asked by managers as they reflect on the last conference or away-day.

Teams leave pitstops with clearly agreed ‘Winning Moves’ together with toolkits, actions and a means of tracking progress.

What your people will say…

Pitstops are challenging and fun. More importantly, they engage executives in the latest management / performance science, in a way that is energetic, as well as thought-provoking.

The word-cloud shows the words most commonly used by participants to describe pitstop events and how they were feeling as a result of participation.

Powerful Tools

Powerful tools for your pit team…

Led by trained and experienced facilitators, pitstop attendees will work in small groups to build, engage and dialog the Pitstop Meta-model™ of performance.

Each group will get a kit (shown here) with everything that is required to have an effective & energetic dialog on performance and potential. It is all in the kit – meta-model, posters, alerts, etc.