Working Genius in NZ - what it is and why it is gaining traction...

What is Working Genius?

Working Genius is a simple but powerful model to help people understand the type of work that actually energises them and makes them more productive. Developed by Patrick Lencioni and his team at The Table Group, its popularity has exploded in popularity as organisations realise the benefits it delivers. Here are some pretty amazing stats the Table Group recently shared:

• More than 1.6 million people have taken the assessment
• Over 7425 businesses across every imaginable industry are using it
• People in over 100 countries, from Nairobi to Havana (and obviously, including New Zealand!) have taken the assessment
• 5,400 people have become Certified Working Genius Facilitators (I’m proudly one of them)
• There have been more than 6.5 million downloads of its 100 podcast episodes

These figures back up the success of Working Genius – so here’s what it's about:

• It’s not a personality test and it’s not about putting people in boxes; it’s about improving productivity and how we get work done.
• At its core, Working Genius identifies six ways of working that any team or organisation needs to get work done. It helps individuals understand where they naturally thrive, where they struggle and where they sit somewhere in between.
• When people are working in their areas of genius, work feels easy, frictionless and more enjoyable. When they’re not, over time, it will feel heavy, slow and often frustrating.

Why it matters for New Zealand companies

In New Zealand, we tend to run lean teams. People wear multiple hats and there’s often an expectation to just ‘get on with it’. That works - until it doesn’t.

In being a small team, diversity in how we work and approach projects or areas of work also matters more. If everyone around the table thinks and works in the same way - instead of being ‘in synch’ - gaps appear; often the right questions aren’t being asked, everyone is making the same assumptions and things just don’t get done as they should.

This is further heightened - particularly in the tech space - by teams that aren’t just working remote or hybrid models - but work across multiple time zones and cultures. Understanding how to work to everyone’s strengths (or Genius) and accepting their areas of frustration really improves team engagement and outputs.

Working Genius gives teams a clear view of where gaps, overlaps and overloading exist in their team. It improves productivity without adding more processes or layers and helps avoid burnout by making sure people aren’t constantly operating in areas of work that naturally frustrate them.

For growing companies, especially in the B2B and tech space, this is really valuable.

It’s not about doing more, it’s about the right people doing the right work that plays to their Working Genius strengths.

How your team can find its Working Genius

The starting point is a simple assessment. From there, we unpack what your results actually mean, not just for you as an individual, but for how your team operates day-to-day.

This is where it gets interesting. You start to see why certain projects stall and some are effortless. Why some meetings feel like hard work and why others leave you energised. You understand why one person loves getting things started, while another gets their energy from ticking off the boxes and getting things over the line..

Most importantly, it gives teams a shared language. Instead of thinking someone is being deliberately difficult or disengaged, you realise this is more about how they work than a personal trait. It gives you the means to really get people working to their strengths and equally how to best approach areas of work that generally frustrate them.

We all need to touch on all six geniuses in a working day, but we are going to be infinitely more successful if we really understand where it will excel naturally and where we may need to focus harder. It’s practical, it’s real, it’s proven and it sticks.

Bringing Working Genius to NZ

I started working with this model not long after it was introduced globally. As one of the first 600 certified facilitators worldwide, and one of the early adopters here in New Zealand, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide range of teams, from marketing functions through to senior leadership groups and whole organisations.

What stands out every time is how quickly someone’s Working Genius results resonate. Most people see themselves in it straight away. Teams recognise their patterns and leaders often have a lightbulb moment around why things haven’t been working as well as they should.

From there, the real work begins, embedding it into how teams operate, how meetings are run, work is assigned and where the long-term value sits.

Just get started

Another reason I believe Working Genius resonates well in the Kiwi work environment is that it is not expensive, is very simple to do (click on a link from an email and it takes about 10 minutes to complete the assessment) and isn’t personal - it’s about how we work, not who we are.

You can sign up and do the assessment yourself (or engage with me from the start). Where it really comes into the picture is helping you to understand what the results mean for you and then helping you to roll Working Genius out to your team and/or company. You then have the option for ongoing support as your business grows and evolves to ensure teams are working to their collective genius.

If you feel like your team is capable of more, but something is getting in the way, Working Genius is worth exploring. And in a New Zealand context, where teams are often stretched and expectations are high, removing complexity and replacing it with some shared simplicity can make a real difference.