Clark Construction - Activation Kit
Your activation guide is designed to help you apply key concepts from your Groops to your daily work life.
G1: Groops Kick Off + Assessment
Group Connection Concept
Welcome to Groops!
Groops helps teams feel and function their best.
We bring together psychology, coaching, and data to strengthen connection, collaboration, and performance. Think of us as your team psychologist - here to help your group understand itself better, work through dynamics, and grow together.
What to Expect:
Team + Individual Psychology-Based Assessment
Custom Coaching Program delivered through regular Groops (12/year)
Four 1:1 coaching sessions (30 min each)
Anonymous surveys + insight reports with guidance from a team psychology expert
Cohesion is a business asset – not just a feeling.
Teams with strong social cohesion are more resilient, communicate more effectively, and perform better. Here are some characteristics of high and low cohesion / performing teams.
High Cohesion / High Performing
Psychological safety is high
Feedback is direct and well received
Conflict is addressed constructively
Clear roles, shared goals, and ownership
Trust is visible in day-to-day actions
People feel valued and connected
Energy is focused and collaborative
Team members lift each other up
Low Cohesion / Low Performing
People hold back or avoid speaking up
Feedback is rare or poorly delivered
Conflict is avoided or becomes toxic
Ambiguity, finger-pointing, or blame
Low trust, siloed behavior
People feel isolated or unseen
Meetings feel draining or performative
Team feels flat, resistant, or passive
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
How cohesive is your team (0-10)? What makes you say that?
When is your team at its best? What does that feel like?
What do you want to get out of this program – personally and as a team?
Take Action
Read over the list of high and low cohesion / performing teams and take note of which characteristics you notice in yourself and your team.
What makes you think this? What have you observed?
List 2 things you can try in the next two weeks that would contribute to a high cohesion / high performing team.
Schedule a private 1-on-1 with your Groop Guide to go over the 2 things you would like to try before your next Groop.
G2: Reviewing How We Work: Team Assessment Results
Group Connection Concept
Team Assessment
Your team took part in a team assessment to see areas of strengths, areas for growth, and how each member contributes to the dynamic of the team. Results are shared in the Groop as well as in your individual Member Profile reports.
Overarching Shared Team Goals:
Deepen trust and cohesion within the team.
Enhance individual leadership skills and self-awareness.
Align team efforts with a clear, shared cultural identity.
Improve the ability to support, inspire, and guide others.
Team Strengths
Comfort with independent decision-making – Team members feel confident making decisions on their own when necessary.
High trust in teammates' intentions – There is a strong baseline of trust within the group.
Shared sense of purpose – Team members feel aligned around common goals.
Conflict resolution with collaboration in mind – They strive for win-win outcomes when disagreements arise.
Critical thinking and accountability – Members push each other to think critically and improve.
Team Areas for Growth
Conflict avoidance – Team members tend to avoid necessary conflict, suggesting discomfort with tension or direct disagreement.
Preference for fast decisions without full info – Scores suggest discomfort with ambiguity or impulsive decision-making.
Lower preference for group collaboration over independent work – Indicates that some team members may favor working alone.
Listening in meetings – The team may need to work on balancing airtime and ensuring active listening.
Valuing consensus over speed – Scores suggests that the team may not consistently prioritize alignment in decision-making.
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
What strengths resonate with you?
What areas feel like growth opportunities?
What stood out or surprised you?
Complete this sentence: The goal of the Groops Program should be: ________________
Take Action
Read over your individual Member Profile report.
What thoughts or feelings come up for you as you are reading it?
What feels right - what doesn’t?
What areas of growth do you want to focus on?
Schedule a private 1-on-1 with your Groop Guide to go over your Member Profile and discuss your thoughts / feelings / areas for growth.
G3: Constructive Conflict + Honest Dialogue
Group Connection Concept
Constructive Conflict
“Conflict is not the problem. Avoiding honest conversation is.”
- Patrick Lencioni, author of Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Conflict is natural.
It becomes harmful only when it’s ignored or mismanaged.
Honest disagreement is a sign of a strong team, not a broken one.
Conflict isn’t about being aggressive, it’s about being: clear, curious, and committed to the team.
Healthy Conflict
Direct, respectful conversations
Focus on issues, not people
Disagreement used to spark alignment
Openness to feedback and change
Unhealthy Conflict
Side conversations or silence
Finger-pointing or personal attacks
Disagreement avoided to maintain comfort
Defensiveness or shutting down
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
How does your team typically handle disagreement?
What’s your personal style when conflict shows up?
How do you want to handle conflict as a team when it arises?
Take Action
1. Try using some of this language as it minimizes defensiveness:
“I noticed (observable behaviors) and I feel (the feeling you feel) because (the thought in your mind).”
“What are you thinking and feeling? Let’s figure this out together.”
2. How does using this language make you feel? What makes this comfortable or not comfortable for you?
3. How might you tailor this to sound like your leadership style?
4. Set up time for a private 1-on-1 with your Groop Guide to go over your thoughts and feelings about this exercise or just to practice and find language that feels right to you.
G4: Listening to Understand
Group Connection Concept
Understanding, not just listening.
We often listen to reply - not to understand.
Real listening means slowing down, being curious, and holding space for others to share fully. True listening is an act of respect, humility, and connection.
When we listen deeply, collaboration and productivity increase by 25–55% (Forbes, International Listening Association). Here are some tools to become a more effective listener:
Effective Listening:
Focused and present
Open body language
Reflect back what you hear
Ask thoughtful, open-ended questions
Pause before responding
Ineffective Listening:
Interrupting or jumping in
Thinking of your reply instead of listening
Dismissing or minimizing others’ points
Multitasking or distracted listening
Advice giving without asking questions first
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
How well do you listen to understand? (0-10)
How well do you think the team as a whole listens to understand? (0–10)
What makes this difficult? What makes this easy?
What helps you feel truly listened to?
How can you and your team improve your listening culture?
Take Action
1. This week, practice using OARS during one of your conversations:
O - Open Questions (“What are you wrestling with?”)
A - Affirmations (“You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this.”)
R - Reflective Listening (“You’re feeling stuck and it is hard to take action.”)
S - Summarizing (“So far I’ve heard you say the organization needs you to do X, and you’re thinking about trying Y to get there.”)
2. How did that feel? What worked? What can be improved?
3. To get more practice, schedule a 1:1 with your Groop Guide and have an expert guide you and provide feedback.
G5: Collaborative Decision-Making
Group Connection Concept
“When people participate in making a decision, they’re more likely to be committed to the outcome.”
- Harvard Business Review 2019
Collaborative decision making is a group process that emphasizes shared input, trust, and collective ownership to arrive at more informed, inclusive, and effective outcomes.
Collaborative Decision Making Means:
Inviting diverse perspectives before finalizing decisions
Aligning on purpose, even if not everyone agrees
Clarifying decision-making roles:
Who decides?
Who’s consulted?
Who needs to know?
Respecting both the process and outcome
Collaborative Decision Making (+ DACI).
1. Define the Decision
What are we deciding and why does it matter?
2. Assign Roles (DACI)
Who is the Driver, Approver, Contributor, and Informed?
3. Gather Perspectives
Whose input do we need before deciding?
4. Facilitate Dialogue
What are insights, concerns, and trade-offs?
5. Align & Commit
Can we align and commit to action? What’s next?
Self Reflection
Take a moment to review the Decision Spectrum and reflect on the following questions:
Decision Spectrum - There is more than one way to decide:
Command: One person decides
Consult: Input gathered, then leader decides
Consensus: Group aligns together
Vote: Majority rules
What do you usually do on your team - command, consult, consensus, vote?
What works and what doesn’t work?
Take Action
1. This week, practice Collaborative Decision Making + DACI.
2. How did that feel? What worked? What can be improved?
3. To get more practice, schedule a 1:1 with your Groop Guide and have an expert guide you and provide feedback.
G6: Team Roles & Strengths Mapping
Group Connection Concept
Team Roles & Strengths Mapping is the process of identifying individual team members' natural working styles, contributions, and preferences to enhance collaboration, clarify roles, and optimize collective performance.
Clark Construction Team Profile
Based on patterns of assessment responses, we defined 8 custom personality traits that reflect real tendencies observed in your team:
Vision-Oriented Challenger - Pushes bold ideas and questions norms
Strategic Harmonizer - Balances planning with team unity
Reflective Collaborator - Listens deeply and builds consensus
Adaptive Listener - Reads the room and adjusts communication style
Independent Implementer - Works efficiently with minimal guidance
Energized Executor - Brings high energy and finishes tasks quickly
Cautious Consensus-Builder - Prefers group alignment and low conflict
Decisive Driver - Acts fast and keeps work moving
Strengths Mapping
Clarifying how individuals prefer to contribute
Recognizing cognitive diversity across the team
Mapping personality styles to phases of team work (planning, execution, review)
Identifying role gaps and collaboration bottlenecks
Teams with role clarity outperform others by 30% (Gallup, 2023)
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
Which of these styles do you most identify with? Why?
What do you see as your strengths on the team?
What do you believe your teammates rely on you for?
Do you have other strengths you wish you could use more on your team? How might you?
How can you make space to notice and acknowledge others’ contributions more often?
Take Action
1. Clarify Your Role – Reflect on which personality trait best fits you and identify how you naturally contribute during planning, execution, or review. Share this with the team so others understand your strengths.
2. Map Your Fit to the Work – Notice which phases of the team’s work feel most energizing for you (planning bold ideas, driving execution, or reviewing for alignment). Consider where you might stretch into less familiar phases.
3. Recognize + Share Strengths – Pay attention to moments when a teammate’s style supported the group. Practice naming what you appreciated out loud, and reflect on what feedback you receive about your own strengths.
4. To reflect more, schedule a 1:1 with your Groop Guide and have an expert guide you and provide feedback.
G7: From Insight to Action - Midpoint Check-In
Group Connection Concept
We are now at the halfway point of your Groops program. It’s a time to check-in on how things are going and what we would like to still accomplish together. After your Groop, we will send you a snapshot of your Midpoint Report.
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
What stood out for you from the results?
What would would describe how you are functioning as a team?
What do you want to focus on moving forward - here in Groops and in general?
What would increase any of your scores by even just one notch?
Take Action
1. Set goals: What would you like to get out of the rest of your Groops program? What skillsets would you like to grow?
2. Schedule a 1:1 with your Groop Guide to go over your growth goals together and think through a road map on how to get there.
G8: What We Need - From Each Other & Leadership
What the Midpoint Check-In Revealed
Strengths you identified:
Stronger trust among the team
Better organization and structure
Deeper awareness of work styles
Faster decision-making
Greater vulnerability and collaboration
Enhanced communication
Growth areas you named:
Role clarity and decision rights
Recognition and appreciation
Psychological safety
Balancing autonomy with oversight
Extending cohesion beyond leadership
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect:
What's one thing you need more of from your teammates to do your best work?
What’s one thing you need from leadership to do your best work?
Think about:
Communication styles
Support or collaboration
Clarity or boundaries
Recognition or feedback
Trust or autonomy
Take Action
You've built awareness.
You've named challenges.
You've started to shift how you work together.
Now it's time to get specific:
What do you need from each other?
What do you need from leadership?
What can you solve as a team?
Where do you need support?
G9: Introversion & Extroversion at Work
Group Connection Concept
"Diverse cognitive styles lead to better problem-solving, creativity, and team resilience when teams understand and adapt to different working preferences."
Harvard Business Review (Grant, HBR, 2013)
Introversion and extroversion describe how people recharge and process information - not their competence, confidence, or value to the team.
Construction environments often reward quick verbal communication and on-the-spot decision-making, which can favor extroverted styles
Assessment results showed varied communication preferences across the team, with some feeling unheard in fast-paced discussions
Balancing space for reflection with the need for rapid collaboration was noted as a challenge
Leveraging both introverted and extroverted strengths increases innovation, reduces miscommunication, and strengthens team dynamics
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
Where do you fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum?
How does that show up at work?
When do you feel most energized and most drained on this team?
What would help the team better leverage both introverted and extroverted strengths?
Take Action
Think through ways to create an inclusive environment. Some ideas are:
Before Meetings share agendas and key questions in advance so introverts can prepare.
During Meetings pause for reflection, use round-robins, invite quieter voices directly.
After Meetings offer written channels for additional input or follow-up thoughts.
In Daily Work respect focus time and collaboration time; balance synchronous and asynchronous communication.
Build Awareness openly discuss preferences without labeling anyone as "better" or "worse."
Schedule a 1-on-1 with your Groop Guide to think through where you fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum and how that shows up in your work.
G10: Giving and Receiving Feedback
Group Connection Concept
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Feedback is not criticism. It is information that helps us work better together.
"Teams that build feedback into their culture perform higher, adapt faster, and avoid preventable conflict." - Harvard Business Review (Stone & Heen, Thanks for the Feedback)
Feedback improves:
• Clarity about expectations
• Role alignment
• Safety to speak up
• Performance and accountability
• Trust and transparency
Effective feedback is:
Specific (what happened, not generalizations)
Behavior-based (actions, not personality)
Timely (as close to the moment as possible)
Impact-focused (what effect did it have?)
Future-oriented (what to do going forward)
Ineffective feedback sounds like:
“You need to be better.”
“You always…”
“People say...”
“I feel like you don’t care.”
Effective feedback sounds like:
“When X happened, Y was the impact. Let’s try Z next time.”
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
What makes feedback hard for you?
What helps you receive it better?
What would make feedback feel safer and more useful on this team?
What feedback conversation have you been avoiding and why?
Take Action
Try using the CLEAR framework to give feedback this week.
C — Context: When/where it happened
L — Label: Name the behavior
E — Effect: The impact it created
A — Ask: Invite dialogue (“How did you see it?”)
R — Request: What you’d like going forward
Example:
“When the schedule updates weren’t shared until the morning meeting (Context), it created confusion on-site (Effect). Can we talk about how to streamline this (Ask) and agree on a standard process (Request)?”
How did it go for you? What would you like to improve upon?
Schedule a private 1-on-1 with your Groop Guide to go over your thoughts and feelings about this exercise or just to practice.
G11: Trust & Accountability in Action
Group Connection Concept
“Psychological safety isn’t soft. It’s the foundation for performance.”
- Amy Edmondson
Trust isn’t just about liking each other, it’s about:
Doing what you say you’ll do
Admitting mistakes early
Speaking up when you’re unsure
Giving direct feedback, even when it’s hard
Having each other’s back
“Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” - Brené Brown
Accountability shows up through:
Clear agreements and follow-through
Holding others (and self) to shared standards
Owning outcomes, not just effort
Giving feedback when someone drops the ball
Naming when you’ve dropped it
Self Reflection
Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:
Where do I consistently follow through on what I commit to, and where does my follow-through slip?
How comfortable am I admitting mistakes early and what gets in the way when I don’t?
When I feel unsure, do I speak up or hold back? What drives that choice?
How clearly do I set expectations for myself and others, and how well do I uphold those shared standards?
When do I avoid giving direct feedback, and how might choosing clarity strengthen trust on this team?
Take Action
Before your next Groop, practice the following:
State your commitments clearly. Close the loop when you finish.
Name mistakes early. Share the slip and your plan to fix it.
Ask clarifying questions. Speak up anytime something feels unclear.
Give direct, timely feedback. Invite feedback on your own actions, too.
Schedule a private 1-on-1 with your Groop Guide to go over your thoughts and feelings about this exercise or just to practice.