Moving team development beyond one-off fun activities towards evidence-based psychologically grounded interventions.
Glued is a brand and marketing agency based in the Midlands, delivering clear and honest design and marketing for their clients. Using qualitative research, compelling brands, engaging websites, social media and email marketing, digital and conventional brochures, video, photography and animation, Glued works to ensure clients are proud of their brand, confident in their marketing, and delighted with their results.
The Opportunity
Glued identified a persistent gap in the workplace learning market: while personality profiling tools such as Insights, DiSC and Myers Briggs are widely used, they typically offer individuals an assessment of their preferences without any opportunity to practise using or flexing those preferences in response to real circumstances. This frustration became the spark for a new product concept, one that would go beyond passive assessment and create an active, immersive experience where teams could explore and adapt their behaviours in a safe, engaging environment. With the support of Innovate UK Launchpad funding, Glued set out to develop a blend of virtual reality escape room and team building, designed to challenge and flex behavioural and personality preferences.
Key Aims
- To develop a psychometrics aligned VR team-building experience that enables participants to recognise their own behavioural preferences and actively practise adapting them in real time.
- To help individuals and teams improve communication, reduce conflict, and increase innovation and productivity, with measurable, lasting impact beyond the event itself.
The Impact
- The programme addresses a significant systemic challenge: workplace conflict costs UK businesses an estimated £28.5 billion per year, equivalent to £1,000 per employee.
- Pilot events have been delivered and paid engagements secured, demonstrating early market validation and demand for the product.
- Teams Glued product was developed; a virtual reality (VR) individual and team development programme that preferences with an escape room challenge to help individuals and teams improve conflict resolution, collaboration and productivity. The programme groups participants based on behavioural preference and challenges them to work together to solve a VR puzzle in a competitive context. Teams Glued allows individuals to understand their own behavioural preferences and those of other participants. The programme provides a safe space in which participants can practice adapting their behaviours to dynamic effect as part of a competing team.
Support & Resources
Glued received Innovate UK Launchpad grant funding to develop the Teams Glued programme. The project has been built in partnership with Coventry & Warwickshire digital businesses, drawing on the region's creative and immersive industries ecosystem to design, develop, and deliver the VR scenarios and psychometric integration.
Key Learnings & Future Applications
The development of Teams Glued has demonstrated the potential for immersive technology to deliver measurable behavioural and organisational change, moving team development beyond one-off fun activities towards evidence-based, psychologically grounded interventions. A two-event follow-up process has been built into the programme to track real-world impact, reinforcing the shift from experience to lasting transformation. The model has potential applications across sectors including automotive, advanced manufacturing, and video gaming.
