Innovative Ways to Leverage Real Colors Workshops Beyond Traditional Team Building

Real Colors is a powerful tool for building stronger, more connected teams. Whether it’s part of an onboarding program or ongoing team development, Real Colors helps improve communication, foster collaboration, and strengthen relationships. For new team members, it offers an easy way to feel welcomed and aligned with company culture. For established teams, it lays the foundation for deeper understanding and empathy, creating a workplace where individuals thrive together.

As Dr. Helene Grossman, Program Manager at United Way of Central Iowa, notes: “I have found that this professional development provides essential clues into the relationships of any organization. This information is instrumental in forming teams, addressing conflict, and explaining behaviors. I do not know of any other training that has the potential to impact an organization as much as Real Colors.”

Traditional onboarding and team building initiatives are incredibly beneficial, but innovative organizations are finding new ways to leverage Real Colors workshops for maximum organizational impact. Here are ten creative ways to leverage the power of Real Colors in your organization.

1. Use Real Colors as part of return to office programs.

The transition back to office spaces presents unique challenges for organizations, with employees bringing different expectations, concerns, and preferences to this significant change.

Real Colors workshops can serve as a powerful tool during this transition period, helping teams reconnect and rebuild their in-person dynamics after extended remote work. Understanding how different personality types adapt to workplace changes becomes crucial during this period – while some team members may eagerly embrace the return to office life, others might need more time and support to adjust.

By implementing Real Colors during this transition, organizations can create more inclusive environments that acknowledge and accommodate these varying preferences, leading to smoother transitions and stronger team cohesion as the workplace continues to evolve.

2. Conduct a Real Colors workshop at the start of large cross-functional projects.

Large-scale projects often bring together teams from different departments who may have never worked together before. By incorporating Real Colors workshops at project kickoff, teams gain immediate insight into different working styles and communication preferences. This proactive approach helps prevent misunderstandings and reduces friction between traditionally siloed departments.

For instance, understanding that your engineering team (often dominated by Green personality types who value accuracy and logic) needs to collaborate with your marketing team (typically featuring more Orange personalities who thrive on action and flexibility) can help you establish communication protocols that work for everyone from day one.

3. Facilitate Real Colors as part of any Mergers and Acquisitions.

Corporate mergers can fail due to cultural integration challenges. Real Colors workshops can serve as a powerful tool during M&A transitions, helping to bridge corporate culture gaps and create understanding between merging teams.

Consider hosting joint workshops with key teams from both organizations early in the integration process. This proactive approach can help identify potential areas of cultural conflict before they become problematic and create a shared language for addressing challenges as they arise.

4. Do Real Colors with key vendors.

Consider hosting Real Colors workshops with your key vendors and suppliers. This innovative approach can transform transactional relationships into strategic partnerships. Understanding your vendors’ communication styles and preferences can lead to more effective negotiations, better problem-solving, and stronger long-term partnerships.

5. Host clients for a Real Colors workshop.

As Juan Acha, Training Specialist at Regal Beloit Corporation, explains: “Knowing somebody’s color helps me determine their motivations, and a motivated person is very likely to open up and be influenced, especially when it’s in their best interest.”

Consider offering Real Colors workshops as a value-add service for your key clients. Not only does this provide them with valuable insights, but it also creates meaningful face-time with your most important customers while demonstrating your commitment to their success.

6. Facilitate Real Colors for the Board of Directors or Advisors for the company.

Since your board may not be traditional employees, they could be missing out on your Real Colors workshops.

Enhance board effectiveness by incorporating Real Colors into your governance structure. Use the insights to improve board-executive team communication and strengthen strategic decision-making processes. This application can be particularly valuable for non-profit organizations where board dynamics play a crucial role in organizational success.

7. Use Real Colors in Leadership Retreats and Summits or as part of their annual planning.

If your company’s leadership hasn’t experienced Real Colors yet, organizing a leadership summit around the workshop can be transformative. As Patricia Greer, Manager of Learning and Development at the City of Virginia Beach, notes: “Real Colors is a wonderful tool that helps individuals learn more about themselves, others and provides a common understanding for working through areas of conflict.”

Even if they’ve been through it before, placing Real Colors at the center of any leadership retreats or annual planning meetings can set the stage for better collaboration and teamwork.

8. Use Real Colors as part of a mentoring program where mentors and mentees both go through real colors together.

When mentors and mentees participate in Real Colors workshops together, it creates a strong foundation for their relationship. This shared experience helps:

Create a common language for discussing working styles and preferences
Identify potential communication challenges before they arise
Build trust through mutual understanding
Design more effective mentoring strategies based on personality types
Establish clear expectations for the mentoring relationship

Real Colors can also help mentoring program coordinators make more effective matches by considering personality compatibility alongside other factors like experience and career goals.

9. Consider Real Colors as part of succession planning to help identify employees for future roles.

Effective succession planning goes far beyond matching skills and experience – it requires a deep understanding of how potential leaders will navigate relationships and handle challenges. Real Colors provides organizations with valuable insights into candidates’ natural leadership styles and communication preferences, helping to identify future leaders who will complement the existing organizational culture while bringing their own strengths to the table.

This understanding allows organizations to create more nuanced development plans that not only build technical capabilities but also enhance leadership qualities aligned with each individual’s natural tendencies. When used as part of the succession planning process, Real Colors helps ensure smoother leadership transitions by considering both the practical and interpersonal aspects of leadership roles.

10. Including Real Colors as part of an overall wellness and stress management program.

Different personality types experience and manage stress in unique ways. Incorporating Real Colors into wellness programs helps organizations:

Create personalized stress management strategies based on personality type
Build more supportive team environments through increased understanding
Design wellness initiatives that appeal to different personality preferences
Help managers recognize signs of stress in different personality types
Develop more effective work-life balance strategies for diverse teams

Taking the Next Step

These innovative applications of Real Colors workshops demonstrate the versatility and value of this powerful tool.

Remember, as Lynn Crystal from Arizona State University shares: “It’s fun, easy to remember and make associations, and helps us understand the people we work with and enables us to work more effectively.”

The potential applications are limited only by your imagination. Whether you are an existing Real Colors facilitator inspired to use this tool in a new way or you looking to implement Real Colors for the first time, remember, our team is here to help you achieve your goals.

Ready to explore how Real Colors can transform your organization in addition to traditional team building? Contact us at info@realcolors.org to discuss which application would best serve your organizational goals and how to get started.