One
Team

Safety & Quality Leadership
Team Program

OPPOSITE SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP AUTHORITY
Workshop 1

Pressure & Teams

Building Our Team for High‑Pressure Environments

Opposite+SRLA
Meet your facilitators

Who We Are

N

Nick

Opposite

A

Ash

Opposite

ACTIVITY Quick Introductions 5 min 5:00

Quick Introductions

Please share:

Name
Who you are
Role
What you do in the team
One thing that creates pressure in your work
It doesn't need to be profound — just honest
Context

Why this program exists

HSQ operate in a high-pressure environment. This program will help the team perform.

Clarity

Shared understanding of roles, pressures, and expectations

Capability

Practical tools for decision-making under pressure

Connection

Stronger relationships and shared ways of working

Culture

A team climate that enables high performance

Program outcomes

What we aim to create

Click each outcome to learn more.

For you individually

For the team

Workshop 1

Today's objectives

1

Build shared understanding

of the environment we are operating in

2

Understand how pressure affects

behaviour and decision-making

3

Explore initial expectations

for how we lead together and set direction for future ways of working

Part 1

Pressure &
Performance

Understanding how pressure shapes team behaviour and decision-making

SCENARIO Under Pressure 10:00

PRESSURE

Under Pressure

You are about to run a live scenario as the HSQ Leadership Team.

A defect has been found underground. You have incomplete information, time pressure, and competing views within the team.

Split into two groups. Each group uses their own device.
Work through three decisions together. Discuss, debate, then click.
Outcomes are hidden until all decisions are locked in.
Pay attention to how your group makes decisions, not just what you decide.
DEBRIEFScenario Debrief

Debrief

Which decisions felt hardest — and why?

Where did your team pull in different directions?

What does the pressure heat map tell you about where this team feels most tested?

Research

High-pressure environments

Click each industry to discover what makes their teams excel under pressure.

Clear roles
Open communication
Trust
Strong decisions
Shared ways of working

Hackman (2002); Salas, Sims & Burke (2005); Golzio, Lalla & Manni (2014)

Part 2

Our Current
Reality

What we heard when we spoke with the team

Interview insights

What we heard

We spoke with 7 team members about:


What is working well

What is challenging

Where pressure comes from

How HSQ functions work together

What can improve

We will now explore the themes together.

ACTIVITY Theme Gallery 5 min/poster 5:00

Theme Gallery Walk

Rotate between the interview theme posters. At each poster, mark what you find:


True
This resonates

Important
This matters

Unclear
Needs more info

Notice how information travels — and how it changes. This mirrors what you deal with constantly as a leadership team.

DEBRIEFGallery Debrief

Debrief

What stands out?

What feels most important?

What feels uncomfortable?

Part 3

Seeing the
System

Mapping pressures, resources and behaviours

System view

Seeing the system

Click each node to learn more.

INTERACTIVESystems Map — 3 Nodes

Starting Systems Map

Demands

What creates pressure?

Resources

What helps us perform?

Behaviours

What do we do as a team?

Feedback Loops

External pressure → rushing → issues → more delay → more pressure

Speaking up ↓ → risks not raised → bigger problems → blame → less speaking up

Trust/openness → better decisions → better outcomes → more trust

Unclear roles → slow decisions → frustration → conflict → poor teamwork

VOTESelect Top 3 Per Category

Select the top 3 most relevant per category

Click to select (max 3 per column). Your selections feed the workshop dashboard.

Demands (0/3)

Resources (0/3)

Behaviours (0/3)

ACTIVITY Mapping Our Environment 15:00

Mapping our environment

Together, we will build a live map of the system that HSQ operates in.

Stage 1 — Pressure
What creates pressure for this team?
Stage 2 — Resources
What helps us perform well?
Stage 3 — Behaviours
What do we do as a team that makes the biggest difference?
Dot Vote
Place 3 dots on the nodes where you personally feel the most pressure
DEBRIEFSystems Map Debrief

Debrief

Where is the pressure highest?

What resources are we most reliant on?

Where do our behaviours make things easier or harder?

Framework

Performance under pressure

The Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) Model — click each element to learn more.

Job Demands

Parts of work that drain energy

Strain

Burnout, disengagement, poor decisions

Job + Personal Resources

Parts that buffer strain and give energy

Motivation

Engagement, effort, persistence

Performance & Well-being

Determined by how well resources balance out demands

Connecting the dots

Our system through this lens

What we mapped earlier shows:

Demands — pressure from the system
Resources — what helps us cope
Team behaviours — how we work together under pressure

In high-pressure environments, team behaviours can be the difference between burnout and performance.

ACTIVITYWhat do we need more of?5:00

What do we need more of?

What resources do we need more of?

What team behaviours make the biggest difference?

What ways of working would reduce pressure?

Pause

Break

10 minutes

10:00
Part 4

Team Climate
& Performance

How team climate shapes performance

Key concept

Psychological safety

"A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes."

— Dr Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School

Quick check: Which is most likely to improve psychological safety?

Open, honest sessions about each other
This could unintentionally cause offence
Accepting that mistakes or errors are normal
Normalising mistakes creates safety to speak up
Ensuring our standards are not too high
We can still set high standards while acknowledging errors

Edmondson (2018). The fearless organization. John Wiley & Sons

Case study

Why it matters here

Elaine Bromiley — An operating theatre, 2005

A routine sinus operation. The surgical team couldn't secure the airway. Two experienced nurses recognised the emergency and brought a tracheotomy kit to the door — twice. Both times, they were waved away.

The investigation found no one was incompetent. The skills were there. The equipment was there. What was missing was a team climate that allowed junior staff to challenge senior clinicians.

In your environment — tunnelling, rail infrastructure, major construction — the stakes are just as real. A quality concern not raised before a critical hold point. A safety risk not escalated because the meeting culture doesn't support it.

Edmondson's framework

Behaviours that build psychological safety

Set Expectations

Frame the work as learning. State explicitly: "We raise risks early here."

Engage

Acknowledge contributions. Ask: "What am I missing?" Listen without interrupting.

Respond

Reward risk escalation. Thank people for speaking up. Normalise sharing mistakes.

Adapted from Edmondson (2018).

ACTIVITYBehaviours we need more of7:00

Behaviours we need more of

Consider the Set Expectations / Engage / Respond framework. What behaviours does this team need more of?

Top 3 Priority Behaviours

Part 5

Where We're
Headed

Setting direction for the team's future

Direction-setting

Four possible futures

Each is desirable. Click the one that feels most compelling or most needed right now.

ACTIVITYStand and Choose5:00

Stand and Choose

Rate each future story and leave your comments.

DEBRIEFWhat Do We Share?

What do we share?

Common threads across choices

Shared aspirations underneath

A future that draws from all four?

INPUTOne Behaviour

One Behaviour

"What is one behaviour you'd need to see more of to move this team closer to this future?"

Not a value. Not an aspiration. A specific, observable behaviour.

Your responses will seed the team behaviours work in Workshop 2.

Close

Reflection
& Close

Reflecting on what we've built today

REFLECTIONWhen this team is at its best

When this team is at its best

When we are working well, what do others experience?

Project teams

Contractors

Executives

Peers

Why this matters

This program is about building:

Clear Ways of Working

Strong Team Behaviours

Trust

Alignment

REFLECTIONFinal Reflection2:00

Reflection

What will make this program worth it?

What will make it fail?

What do we need from each other?

DASHBOARDWorkshop Summary

Workshop 1 — Reflection Dashboard

Click "Generate Dashboard" to compile all inputs from today's session.

Looking ahead

What's Next?

Between now and Workshop 2 — click each for details:

1
Complete the Team Diagnostic Survey
~15 minutes
2
Schedule your 360 debrief
3
Keep the Miro board alive

Workshop 2: Our Anchors — Team Diagnostic Survey results, shared purpose, and decision-making principles.

Thank You

See you at Workshop 2: Our Anchors

Opposite · opposite.com.au

OPPOSITE SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP AUTHORITY
Facilitator Notes