25 Working Genius Group Activities Your Team Needs

What are the best Working Genius group activities for teams?

The most effective Working Genius group activities move the framework out of the debrief session and into the actual work your team does every week. They build shared language, surface hidden tension, improve how work is assigned, and create accountability structures that keep the framework alive beyond the initial session. The 25 activities below are grouped by purpose: awareness, collaboration, conflict resolution, execution, and leadership culture.

Who this is for: Team leaders, facilitators, HR professionals and executives who have already introduced Working Genius to their team and want practical activities that make it stick.

What happens when Working Genius awareness fades after the debrief?

Most leadership teams complete the Working Genius assessment, run the debrief, nod at the insights, and then return to the same meeting patterns that were breaking the team before the session began. The profile report sits in a drawer. The team reverts. Three months later it is as though the session never happened.

This is not because Working Genius is theoretical. It is because awareness without application dies fast. You need activities that move the framework from the flipchart into the actual work your team does every week.

Here are 25 group activities that turn Working Genius into daily practice. For a deeper look at embedding the framework across your organisation, see the complete Working Genius implementation guide.

AWARENESS AND DIAGNOSIS ACTIVITIES

These activities help teams build shared language and surface patterns they are living with but have not yet named. Use these early in the Working Genius journey or when conflict is present but unspoken.

1. Genius Mapping Your Current Projects

Most teams discover their Working Genius profiles and then do nothing with them. This activity forces immediate application by auditing real work against real capacity.

Gather your team and list every active project or initiative on the board. Assign each project the primary genius it requires. A rebrand needs Invention and Discernment. A new onboarding process needs Galvanising and Enablement. A policy rollout needs Tenacity.

The gap you are looking for is simple: where are your active projects requiring geniuses your team does not have? Where are three projects all demanding Wonder at the same time from the one person on your team who carries it? You are looking at the work that is stalling, and now you can name why.

List all active projects in a shared doc or on a whiteboard where everyone can see them. Assign the primary genius each project requires, not the genius of the person currently leading it. Map which team members carry that genius in their top two. Identify the mismatches where someone is leading work outside their genius zone. Spot the bottlenecks where multiple projects are waiting on the same genius from the same person.

The conversation that follows this mapping exercise is where the real work happens. You are not reassigning everything. You are naming why certain projects feel harder than they should, and giving your team permission to ask for help in the areas where they are working outside their wiring.

Run this activity quarterly. Your project load changes. Your team composition changes. The mismatch between genius and demand is not a one-time diagnostic. It is an ongoing audit.

2. The Meeting After the Meeting Exercise

Every leader knows about the meeting after the meeting. It is where the real conversation happens. It is also where you lose Discernment because the people who carry it have already left the room.

This activity names that dynamic and gives your team a way to surface it in real time. At the end of any significant team meeting, pause for five minutes and ask one question: what are we not saying in this room that we will say in the hallway in ten minutes?

The discomfort is the point. You are interrupting a pattern most teams have lived with for years. The people who carry Wonder or Discernment will often name the questions or concerns the rest of the team is avoiding. The people who carry Galvanising or Enablement will push back and want to move forward. That tension is healthy when it happens in the room instead of after it.

Name the exercise at the start of the meeting so your team knows the question is coming. Create safety by going first as the leader and naming something you are hesitant to say. Let silence sit after you ask the question rather than rushing to fill it. Do not problem-solve what gets surfaced in this moment: acknowledge it and decide if it needs a separate conversation.

You will know this activity is working when your team starts naming tension in real time instead of waiting for the hallway. That shift takes months, not days.

3. Genius Storytelling

Most teams treat Working Genius like a personality quiz. You took the test, you got your results, you moved on. This activity turns the framework into lived experience by asking your team to tell stories about moments when their genius showed up or went missing.

Give your team this prompt: tell a story about a time at work when you felt completely in your zone, then tell a story about a time when the work you were doing made you question whether you were in the right job.

What you are listening for is specificity. The person with Wonder in their top two will tell you about the moment they saw a problem no one else had named yet. The person with Tenacity will describe finishing a project everyone else had abandoned. The person with Discernment will recount a time they stopped the team from making a decision that looked good on paper but felt wrong in their gut.

Structure this as a round-robin in a team meeting, with each person taking three to four minutes. Do not turn it into a teaching moment where you label every story with the correct genius. Let the stories sit. The pattern recognition happens collectively.

The red flag to watch for: if someone cannot think of a story where they felt in their zone, that is diagnostic. Either they are not in a role that uses their genius, or the team culture is not creating space for it to show up. Follow up individually rather than solving this in the group.

PAIRING AND COLLABORATION ACTIVITIES

These activities move beyond individual awareness and into how your team works together. Use these once your team knows their profiles and is ready to apply them to collaboration patterns. For a practical starting point, the guide on how to run a Working Genius workshop covers the foundational session structure these activities build on.

4. Genius Pairs for Project Kickoffs

Most project kickoffs focus on scope, timeline, and deliverables. This activity adds one question: who on this team carries the geniuses this project needs, and are we pairing them intentionally?

Before any significant project begins, map the six geniuses against the project lifecycle. Early-stage projects need Wonder and Invention. Mid-stage needs Discernment and Galvanising. Final stage needs Enablement and Tenacity. Identify which team members carry those geniuses and assign them as pairs, not individuals.

Wonder and Invention own the front end. They generate the ideas, ask the questions, and explore the possibilities before the team locks into a direction. Discernment and Galvanising take the ideas and decide which one is worth pursuing: Discernment evaluates, Galvanising builds the energy and commitment to move. Enablement and Tenacity own the execution: Enablement removes the barriers, Tenacity pushes through to completion.

When you pair people by genius instead of seniority or availability, three things change. The work moves faster because people are operating in their zone. Conflict decreases because the natural tensions between geniuses are named and expected. And your team stops relying on the same two people to carry every project from start to finish.

5. The Genius Swap

This activity is designed for teams that have used Working Genius long enough that the language has become shorthand. It works by deliberately inverting genius pairings to surface what happens when someone operates outside their wiring.

Pair two team members whose geniuses are opposites. Someone with Wonder and Invention works with someone with Enablement and Tenacity. Give them a low-stakes task that requires both sets of geniuses and ask them to swap roles for one hour.

The person who carries Wonder has to execute. The person who carries Tenacity has to generate ideas. No one is good at this. That is the point.

The debrief is where the learning happens: what felt hard, what did you notice about the other person's genius that you had not seen before, and what appreciation do you now have for the work they do? This activity builds empathy faster than any amount of talking about geniuses in theory.

Two warnings: do not run this activity with high-stakes work. And do not run it with a team that is already in conflict. This works when there is trust and humour. It backfires when tension is high.

6. Genius-Based Meeting Roles

Most leadership teams assign meeting roles by rotation or by whoever got stuck with it last time. This activity assigns roles by genius and watches what happens when the right person is in the right seat.

Wonder owns the questions at the start of the meeting, surfacing what the team has not yet considered before locking into solutions. Invention captures ideas and possibilities as they emerge, holding space for creativity before evaluation begins. Discernment leads the evaluation once ideas are on the table, asking which idea is the right one. Galvanising builds energy and commitment once a decision is made. Enablement identifies barriers and removes friction, listening for what will stop this decision from becoming reality. Tenacity owns follow-through and accountability, tracking what was decided and what actually happened.

When you assign meeting roles by genius, meetings move faster because the right people are doing the right work at the right time. Decisions stick because Enablement and Tenacity are in the room when the decision is made. And the team stops defaulting to the loudest voice to carry the entire meeting.

Rotate these roles across your team over time, but always assign them by genius.

7. The Genius Relay

Most projects fail because they skip a genius somewhere in the middle. This activity makes that visible by walking a project through all six geniuses in sequence, with each genius explicitly handing off to the next.

Choose a real project your team is about to start. Assign one person to represent each genius. Walk the project through the lifecycle as a relay: Wonder asks the questions and explores what is possible, then hands off to Invention. Invention generates the ideas and solutions, then hands off to Discernment. Discernment evaluates the options and makes the call, then hands off to Galvanising. Galvanising builds the energy and rallies the team, then hands off to Enablement. Enablement removes the barriers and creates the path, then hands off to Tenacity. Tenacity executes and finishes.

What you will notice immediately is where your team wants to skip. Most teams jump from Invention straight to Galvanising without stopping at Discernment. The result is a team excited about an idea that should have been questioned.

The debrief question is simple: where did we want to skip a genius? What does that tell us about how we actually work? This is a one-time exercise that reveals patterns your team will reference for years.

CONFLICT AND TENSION ACTIVITIES

These activities are designed for teams where Working Genius has revealed tension, not alignment. Use these when two people are stuck, when a project has stalled, or when the team knows something is wrong but cannot name it. The Working Genius in the workplace guide covers additional context on how genius-based tension surfaces in day-to-day operations.

8. The Frustration Genius

Most team conflict is not personality conflict. It is genius conflict. Someone is frustrated because they are carrying a genius the rest of the team does not value, or because they are being asked to operate outside their wiring for too long.

This activity names that dynamic directly. In a team meeting, ask each person to answer two questions: what is the work I do that I think the rest of the team does not see or value, and what is the work I am being asked to do that drains me every time?

The answers will surface patterns you have been living with but have not named. The person with Discernment will say they feel like they are always slowing the team down. The person with Tenacity will say they feel like they are always finishing projects other people started and then abandoned. The person with Wonder will say they feel like the team has stopped asking them for input because everyone just wants to move faster.

Do not solve these frustrations in the moment. Your job as the leader is to hear them and validate them. The pattern recognition happens when the team hears three people name variations of the same frustration. That is when you know you have a team-wide issue, not an individual one.

9. Genius Conflict Mapping

When two people on your team are stuck, the conflict is almost always between geniuses, not between people. This activity makes that visible by mapping the conflict onto the Working Genius framework.

Sit down with the two people in conflict and ask them each to describe what is frustrating them about the other person. Do not mediate yet. Just listen. Then map what they are saying onto the genius framework.

Here is what you will typically hear: the person with Wonder is frustrated because the person with Galvanising keeps pushing for decisions before all the questions have been asked. The person with Discernment is frustrated because the person with Invention keeps generating new ideas instead of committing to one. The person with Enablement is frustrated because the person with Tenacity is trying to push through barriers instead of letting Enablement remove them first.

Once the conflict is mapped onto geniuses, the conversation shifts. This is not about you being difficult. This is about your genius doing what it is supposed to do, and my genius reacting to it. The tension is built into the work, not into the relationship. The resolution is almost always about sequencing and communication. Name the sequence and the conflict dissolves.

10. The Genius You Are Missing

Most teams have at least one genius that no one carries in their top two. That gap creates predictable failure patterns. This activity identifies the missing genius and forces the team to decide how they will compensate.

Map your entire team's geniuses on a shared doc. List all six geniuses down the left side and all team members across the top. Mark each person's top two geniuses. Then look at the map and identify which genius is missing or severely underrepresented.

Missing Wonder means your team never questions the plan: you execute efficiently on ideas that should have been challenged. Missing Discernment means your team generates great ideas but cannot decide which one to pursue. Missing Galvanising means your team makes decisions but no one builds momentum behind them. Missing Tenacity means your team starts strong but rarely finishes.

Once you have identified the missing genius, you have three options: hire for it, partner with someone outside your team who carries it, or assign someone on your team to cover it and resource them accordingly. The mistake most teams make is pretending the gap does not exist. Name it. Compensate for it.

11. Genius Apologies

This activity is for teams that have been working together long enough that old resentments have built up. It gives people language to apologise for the ways their genius has created friction, even when they were just doing what came naturally.

In a team meeting, give each person space to offer one genius-based apology. The structure is simple: I know my [genius] has caused frustration when I [specific behaviour]. I am sorry for the ways that has made your work harder.

In practice, the person with Wonder might say they know their need to keep asking questions has slowed the team down when everyone else was ready to move. The person with Galvanising might say they know their push to mobilise quickly has felt like pressure when others needed more time to evaluate. The person with Tenacity might say they know their focus on finishing has made them impatient when the team wanted to revisit decisions.

The power in this activity is that no one is apologising for being wrong. They are apologising for the cost their genius created, even when their genius was doing exactly what it is designed to do. That distinction separates the person from the pattern and creates space for the team to acknowledge tension without assigning blame.

Do not force this activity. It only works when trust is present and people are ready.

EXECUTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACTIVITIES

These activities are for teams that have moved past awareness and are now embedding Working Genius into how they actually operate. Use these when you want the framework to become invisible infrastructure, not a separate conversation. The Working Genius training programs guide outlines how organisations build this kind of ongoing rhythm.

12. Genius-Based Task Assignment

Most task assignment happens by availability or seniority. This activity assigns tasks by genius and tracks whether the work gets done faster, with less friction.

At your next team planning session, list every task that needs to be completed in the next 90 days. For each task, identify the primary genius it requires. Then assign the task to someone who carries that genius in their top two.

Research or exploration tasks go to Wonder: they will ask better questions than anyone else on your team. Design or strategy tasks go to Invention: they will generate options you had not considered. Evaluation or decision tasks go to Discernment: they will see the flaws others miss. Communication or launch tasks go to Galvanising: they will build energy and get people on board. Implementation or coordination tasks go to Enablement: they will remove barriers and make the work easier for everyone. Completion or follow-through tasks go to Tenacity: they will finish what everyone else would leave at 80 per cent.

Track the results over 90 days. When people work inside their genius, the work improves and the team suffers less.

13. The Weekly Genius Check-In

Most weekly team meetings focus on project updates and blockers. This activity adds one question that keeps Working Genius in play without turning it into a separate initiative.

At the end of your weekly team meeting, ask each person to answer one question in 30 seconds or less: this week, did you get to work inside your genius, or were you mostly operating outside it?

You are not looking for detailed answers. You are tracking a trend. If someone reports three weeks in a row that they are mostly working outside their genius, that is diagnostic. Either their role is misaligned or the current project load is ignoring their wiring.

This check-in keeps the framework visible without making it heavy, and gives you early warning when someone is headed toward burnout before they say anything directly. Watch for patterns, not exceptions. When the pattern becomes chronic, that is when you intervene.

14. Genius-Based One-on-Ones

Most one-on-one meetings follow the same agenda: project updates, blockers, feedback, development. This activity adds a genius lens to that conversation and changes what you learn.

In your next one-on-one, ask three questions: in the last month, what work have you done that felt completely in your zone? What work have you been doing that drains you every time? And if you could design your role around your top two geniuses, what would change?

The first question gives you language to affirm what the person is already doing well. The second question surfaces misalignment before it becomes resentment. The third question opens space to talk about role design without making it feel like a complaint.

Most leaders discover that the changes their team members want are smaller and more achievable than expected. Someone does not need a new role. They need one recurring task taken off their plate because it sits outside their genius and drains them every week. That is a conversation you can have and a change you can make.

Run these one-on-ones quarterly, not weekly. This is a deeper conversation about fit, energy, and alignment that deserves dedicated time.

15. The Genius Retrospective

Most project retrospectives ask what went well and what could improve. This activity adds a genius lens and asks which geniuses showed up, which were missing, and what that cost the project.

At the end of any significant project, gather the team and walk through the six geniuses in order. For each genius, ask two questions: did this genius show up when we needed it, and if it was missing, what did that cost us?

Projects that skip Wonder generate solutions to the wrong problem. Projects that skip Discernment commit to ideas that should have been questioned. Projects that skip Galvanising make decisions that no one feels energised about. Projects that skip Enablement hit predictable barriers no one planned for. Projects that skip Tenacity finish at 80 per cent and sit there for months.

The retrospective is not about blame. You are auditing the process, not the people. This activity turns Working Genius from a people framework into a process framework: you stop asking if people are wired right and start asking if the process is designed to use the wiring you have.

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE ACTIVITIES

These activities are for leaders who want to embed Working Genius into the culture. Use these when you are ready to make the framework part of how your team talks, decides, and operates every day. For a foundation in applying Working Genius across the full leadership cycle, see 21 practical Working Genius tips for leaders.

16. The Leader Genius Audit

Most leaders assume they need to be good at all six geniuses. This activity gives you permission to stop pretending and start leveraging the team around you.

Sit down with your own Working Genius profile and ask three questions: which geniuses do I carry in my top two? Which geniuses do I expect myself to perform even though they drain me? And who on my team carries the geniuses I am missing?

The insight most leaders resist: you do not need to be good at all six. You need to know which two you carry and build a team that covers the rest.

If you carry Wonder and Discernment, you will ask great questions and make good calls. But you will struggle to mobilise the team and finish projects. Galvanising and Tenacity are not your job. Your job is to put people in those seats and get out of their way.

The mistake most leaders make is trying to cover their gaps instead of staffing them. You cannot will yourself into a genius you do not carry. Build the team that complements you instead of cloning you.

17. Genius-Based Delegation

Most delegation happens by volume. The leader has too much on their plate and starts handing tasks to whoever has capacity. This activity delegates by genius and changes what the team is capable of.

List every task currently on your plate. For each task, identify the genius it requires. Then ask which person on your team carries that genius and has capacity to take the task.

The rule is simple: if the task requires a genius you do not carry, delegate it to someone who does. If the task requires a genius you do carry but could be done by someone else, delegate it anyway and use your genius on work only you can do.

If you have been writing the monthly team update because you are the leader, but writing is Invention work and you do not carry Invention, delegate it. The person who does carry Invention will write it faster and better. If you have been managing stakeholder relationships, but relationship work is Galvanising and you do not carry Galvanising, delegate it. The result is not just a lighter load: it is better work, because the person doing it is operating in their genius.

18. Hiring for Genius Gaps

Most hiring focuses on skills, experience, and culture fit. This activity adds one filter that changes who you hire and how they perform once they start.

Before you post the role, map your current team's geniuses and identify which genius is missing or underrepresented. Then write the job description around that genius.

If your team is missing Discernment, hire for it: the role might be analyst, strategist, or advisor, but the real job is to evaluate options and make calls when the rest of the team cannot decide. If your team is missing Tenacity, hire for it: the role might be project manager, operations lead, or chief of staff, but the real job is to finish what everyone else starts. If your team is missing Wonder, hire for it: the real job is to ask the questions no one else is asking.

Add one question to every interview: tell me about a time when you were doing work that felt completely in your zone. What were you doing and why did it feel that way? The answer will tell you more about their genius than their resume ever will.

19. The Genius You Model

Your team watches what you do more than they listen to what you say. This activity asks which genius you are modelling as the leader, and whether that is the genius your team actually needs you to model.

Ask yourself which genius you demonstrate most often in front of your team. Are you always asking questions (Wonder), always generating solutions (Invention), always evaluating and deciding (Discernment), always rallying the team (Galvanising), always removing barriers (Enablement), or always finishing what others start (Tenacity)?

Then ask the harder question: is the genius you are modelling what your team needs right now? If your team is stuck in analysis paralysis, they do not need you modelling Wonder. They need Discernment or Galvanising. If your team is rushing to execution without asking enough questions, they do not need Tenacity. They need Wonder or Discernment.

Your genius does not change. But the genius you emphasise as the leader should shift depending on what the team needs in this season. For the next 30 days, deliberately model the genius your team is weakest in and watch what shifts.

20. The Genius Permission

Most teams know their geniuses but do not feel permission to operate in them. This activity gives that permission explicitly and watches what changes when you do.

In a team meeting, give each person one minute to name their top two geniuses and then say one sentence: here is the work I want permission to do more of because it sits inside my genius.

Then, as the leader, respond with one sentence: you have permission, and I will protect space for you to do that work.

The simplicity is the point. Most people do not need a restructured role. They need permission to stop pretending they are good at work that drains them and start leaning into work that energises them.

The person with Wonder wants permission to slow down and ask more questions before the team locks into solutions. Give it to them. The person with Discernment wants permission to say no to ideas that sound good but feel wrong. Give it to them. The person with Tenacity wants permission to focus on finishing instead of starting new things. Give it to them.

You know Working Genius is working when your team stops asking for permission and starts operating in their genius as the default.

FIVE ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR TEAMS GOING DEEPER

21. The 90-Day Genius Reset

Run a structured 90-day review where your team audits how much of the past quarter was spent working inside genius versus outside it. Ask each person to estimate what percentage of their weekly work sits in their top two geniuses, their competency zones, and their frustration zones. Map the results as a team. If most of your people are spending the majority of their time in competency or frustration, that is a structural problem, not a motivation problem. Use this reset to make one concrete change to task allocation per person.

22. The New Team Member Genius Introduction

When a new person joins the team, give them the Working Genius assessment in their first week and dedicate 30 minutes of their first team meeting to a genius introduction. Each existing team member names their top two geniuses and shares one thing they have learned about how their genius shows up in this team. The new team member shares their profile and one question they have about how it might fit the team. This activity shortens the trust-building timeline significantly because people are given language for their contributions from day one.

23. The Quarterly Genius Map Update

Team composition changes. Roles shift. Quarterly, pull out the team genius map and update it. Have any roles changed in ways that are now misaligned with the person's genius? Are there new projects coming that require geniuses the team does not have? Are any team members consistently working outside their genius because of how the work has evolved? This is not a long meeting. Thirty minutes, four times a year, keeps the map current and prevents the slow drift toward burnout that happens when roles evolve without anyone noticing.

24. The Cross-Team Genius Consultation

When a project requires geniuses your team does not have, do not assign it to whoever is available. Instead, identify someone in another team or department who carries the missing genius and bring them in as a formal consultant for that project phase. This is not about asking for extra resources: it is about being explicit that a specific type of work requires a specific type of genius, and that this project cannot succeed without it. The cross-team consultation builds respect for genius across the organisation and breaks down the silos that form when teams hoard their own capacity.

25. The Genius Celebration

Most teams recognise output and ignore process. This activity flips that by celebrating when a genius shows up and changes the outcome of a project or meeting.

At the end of any significant project debrief, ask: where did a specific genius save this project or shift the result? Name the person who carried it and what they did. Be specific. Not "Alex did great work," but "Alex's Discernment caught the flaw in our launch plan three weeks before go-live and saved us a significant rework."

When you name geniuses by name in moments of recognition, two things happen. The person carrying that genius feels genuinely seen for the work they do, often for the first time. And the rest of the team begins to internalise what that genius actually looks like in practice.

What are the most common mistakes when running Working Genius activities?

The most common mistakes are introducing activities too early (before the team has a solid foundation in the framework), running activities with a team that is already in open conflict (where activities designed for trust can backfire), and treating the activities as a one-time event rather than an ongoing rhythm. Activities also fail when the leader does not participate: if the person at the top of the org chart is exempt from the same vulnerability the framework requires of everyone else, trust in the process collapses.

A second frequent mistake is using Working Genius language to excuse rather than explain. The goal is not for someone to say "I do not do Tenacity" and leave a project unfinished. The goal is for the team to recognise the gap and cover it deliberately. The language is for workflow design, not avoidance.

For a comprehensive look at how organisations build this into their operating cadence, the Working Genius training programs guide covers the full progression from initial workshop to embedded practice.

FAQ

How long does it take before Working Genius group activities become natural for a team?

Most teams need three to six months of consistent practice before Working Genius language becomes a natural part of how they work. The first month is typically the steepest: people are self-conscious about the terminology. By month three, teams generally start using genius language without prompting. Activities like the Weekly Genius Check-In and Genius-Based Meeting Roles accelerate this timeline significantly.

Can Working Genius activities work for remote or hybrid teams?

Yes. Most of the activities in this guide translate directly to remote or hybrid settings. The Meeting After the Meeting Exercise, the Weekly Genius Check-In, and Genius-Based One-on-Ones require no in-person presence. The Genius Swap and Genius Relay work well in breakout rooms during a video session. The main adjustment is building in more explicit turn-taking and using shared documents to make the mapping visible for distributed teams.

Do all team members need to have completed the Working Genius assessment first?

Yes. Every activity in this guide assumes all team members have completed the Working Genius assessment and know their top two geniuses, their two competencies, and their two frustrations. Running these activities without a shared baseline creates confusion and can inadvertently label people without accurate data. Complete the assessments, run a basic team debrief, and then use these activities to extend the work.

What is the best first activity to run after the initial Working Genius debrief?

Genius Mapping Your Current Projects (Activity 1) is typically the highest-impact starting point because it applies the framework to real, live work immediately. Teams that start with this activity see relevance within the first hour, which builds motivation to continue. The Genius-Based Meeting Roles activity (Activity 6) is a strong second choice because it changes a recurring structure that every team member experiences every week.

How do Working Genius activities differ from standard team building exercises?

Standard team building exercises build rapport and sometimes surface communication preferences. Working Genius activities do something more specific: they change how work is assigned, how decisions are made, and how conflict is understood. The framework is operational, not relational. The relationship benefits are a byproduct of getting the work right, not the primary goal.

Can a non-certified facilitator run these activities?

Many of these activities can be run by any leader who knows the Working Genius framework well enough to use the language accurately. The more complex activities, particularly Genius Conflict Mapping and the Genius Apologies, benefit from an experienced facilitator who can hold the tension without rushing to resolve it. For teams dealing with significant conflict or dysfunction, bringing in a Certified Working Genius Facilitator for those sessions is worth the investment.

How does Working Genius connect to hiring and role design?

Working Genius is one of the most practical tools available for hiring and role design because it names the type of work a role actually requires, not just the skills it calls for. The Hiring for Genius Gaps activity (Activity 18) and the Leader Genius Audit (Activity 16) are the most direct applications. For a broader look at how the framework applies across the employment cycle, the Working Genius implementation guide covers role design in detail.

About the author

Jonno White is a leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. Through Consult Clarity he works with corporates, nonprofits and schools around the world. He has facilitated Working Genius sessions across a wide range of team sizes and sectors, and hosts The Leadership Conversations Podcast.

About Jonno | LinkedIn

Looking to bring a Working Genius session to your team? Jonno facilitates Working Genius workshops, executive team offsites, and strategic planning days for leadership teams in Australia and internationally.

Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss what this could look like for your team.