How to Debrief Working Genius Results With Your Team

The Report Is Not the Point

It is possible to take the Working Genius assessment, read your two geniuses, and move on without changing how the team works.

The assessment is the easy part. It takes about ten minutes. The value comes from what a team does with the results together, and that requires a deliberate debrief.

Here is a practical conversation to have after everyone has completed the Working Genius assessment.

A Quick Refresher on the Model

The 6 Types of Working Genius, developed by Patrick Lencioni and The Table Group, names six activities every piece of work requires:

Each person has two areas of genius that give them energy, two of competency they can do well for a season, and two of frustration that drain them even when they perform them capably.

Step 1: Let Each Person Name Their Own Results

Go around the room. Each person shares their two geniuses, two frustrations, and one sentence about whether the results feel true.

Do not rush this. The most useful moments are often the quiet admissions: "Tenacity is a frustration for me, and I think that's why I avoid my inbox at the end of projects."

Ground rule: nobody interprets anyone else's results in this step. People own their own story first.

Step 2: Build the Team Map

Draw six columns, one for each genius. Place every person's name under their two geniuses, and mark frustrations in a different color.

Then look at the map together and ask:

• Which column is crowded?
• Which column is empty?
• Where do several frustrations cluster?

A team heavy in Wonder and Invention will generate ideas endlessly and struggle to finish. A team heavy in Enablement and Tenacity will execute faithfully but may rarely stop to ask whether it is solving the right problem.

Step 3: Connect the Map to Real Stuck Points

This is where the debrief becomes leadership work instead of an interesting exercise.

Pick one initiative that has stalled in the past year. Walk it through the six stages and ask: Where did it actually die?

Look for whether the stall lines up with an empty or frustration-heavy column on the map. A coverage gap is not a character flaw, and it can be addressed. Also check workload, resources, and decision authority before attributing the problem to assessment results.

Step 4: Redistribute, Don't Excuse

The healthiest outcome is a small number of concrete adjustments:

• Pair a Galvanizer with someone who has Tenacity on the next launch.
• Invite the team's Discernment early, before ideas become announcements.
• Give the implementation owner real authority, using a tool like the ownership grid in Who Owns What.
• Name the work no one has genius for, and decide who will carry it as a competency for now.

Guard against one danger: results becoming excuses. "I'm not a Tenacity person" does not release anyone from keeping commitments. Working Genius explains where energy comes from. It does not remove responsibility.

Step 5: Revisit It in Ninety Days

Put a follow-up on the calendar. Ask what changed, which pairings worked, and where the team is still stalling. A map that is never revisited becomes a forgotten report.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a Working Genius team debrief take? As a planning suggestion, allow ninety minutes to two hours for five to eight people. Larger teams may need more time. This is a discussion plan, not an official assessment requirement.

Should the senior leader go first? Usually, yes. When the senior leader names their frustrations honestly, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.

Can Working Genius be combined with other assessments? Yes. It pairs especially well with DiSC, which describes how people communicate rather than where they contribute. Read Why Working Genius and DiSC Belong Together.

Where to go next

• Request Working Genius assessments for yourself or your whole team.
• Use the organizational health assessment guide to see the bigger picture around your team map.
• Read Trust Isn't a Team-Building Exercise before an honest debrief.