Hilton Hotels

A regional management team within Hilton Hotels was under pressure. The team was experienced and capable but something was not working. Communication between members was strained, decisions were taking longer than they should, and the friction within the team was beginning to affect the results they were producing.

The team’s senior leader recognised the problem was not skill or commitment. The people were good. The dynamics were not. An away day the previous year had improved morale temporarily but had not changed how the team worked.

In hospitality management, poor team dynamics show up quickly in operational performance. Response times slow, decisions become inconsistent, and the pressure of the environment amplifies rather than resolves the underlying issues.

The challenge was to identify what was driving the friction without making team members feel assessed or blamed, and to create a lasting change in how the team communicated and collaborated. A one-day workshop would not be enough.

KCL ran a structured six-week team development programme. The Predictive Index was used as one tool within a broader coached process, providing objective behavioural data to support the coaching work. PI is not used as a standalone diagnostic and the assessment results were never shared or discussed without the context and coaching framework that makes the data meaningful.

The programme had three stages:

• First, all 12 team members completed a Predictive Index assessment. Melanie ran individual debrief sessions with each person, working through what their behavioural profile meant in practice: how they naturally approached their work, where they added most value, and what kind of environment and management helped them perform at their best. These sessions were coaching conversations, not feedback meetings. The PI data informed the discussion rather than defining it.
• Second, Melanie ran a full team workshop drawing on the collective PI data alongside structured coaching exercises. The group could see clearly for the first time why certain combinations of people created tension, which roles were carrying disproportionate pressure, and where the team’s natural strengths were being underused. What had felt like personality clashes became understandable differences in how people naturally approached their work. That shift in understanding is where lasting change begins.
• Third, a leadership session gave the team’s senior leader a practical coaching framework for managing and developing each person, informed by their individual profile but grounded in real management practice rather than theory

Within one month of completing the programme, the senior leader reported a clear improvement in how the team was communicating. Decisions that had previously required significant back-and-forth were being made faster. Two team members who had been in persistent tension had gained a clear understanding of why they approached work so differently, which significantly reduced the friction between them

The language of PI became part of how the team talked about their work and managed their interactions. The senior leader described it as the first intervention that had produced a real and lasting change rather than a temporary lift in morale.