Working Genius Facilitators

What is Working Genius?

The 6 Types of Working Genius is a team effectiveness framework developed by Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and published by The Table Group in 2022. It identifies six types of work required for any project to succeed: Wonder (questioning the status quo and imagining possibilities), Invention (creating new solutions to problems), Discernment (judging ideas with good instincts and wisdom), Galvanizing (rallying people around a cause or project), Enablement (providing support and follow-through), and Tenacity (pushing to completion).

The framework divides these into three phases: Ideation (Wonder, Invention), Activation (Discernment, Galvanizing), and Implementation (Enablement, Tenacity). Each person has two Working Geniuses (energizing), two Working Competencies (adequate but not energizing), and two Working Frustrations (draining, even when competent).

The Working Genius assessment takes approximately 10 minutes and is positioned as immediately practical — results map directly to how work gets done in meetings, projects, and day-to-day operations. Source: The Table Group.

Who is it best for?

Working Genius is most effective for project-based teams and organizations that want to quickly improve how work gets assigned, how meetings are structured, and how projects are staffed. It is particularly useful for teams that have recently onboarded new members, teams that consistently miss on execution, and leadership teams where some members feel burned out or perpetually frustrated with specific types of work.

The framework is deliberately accessible — it can be introduced and applied in a single half-day workshop with lasting results. This makes it a good fit for teams that want to improve team effectiveness without committing to a multi-month assessment program. Many organizations use Working Genius alongside deeper frameworks like CliftonStrengths or Enneagram for complementary coverage at different levels of depth.

What to expect in an engagement

A Working Genius engagement typically runs 4–8 weeks. It begins with individual assessments, followed by a team workshop where participants share their profiles and map them to the six types. The workshop typically includes a practical exercise — applying the framework to a real project or recurring meeting to identify where the team has natural genius, where it has gaps, and who should own what.

Many facilitators deliver Working Genius in a single intensive half-day or full-day session. Follow-up coaching focuses on integrating the framework into meeting design and project staffing. Organizations that embed Working Genius into their operating cadence — assigning meeting roles based on genius types, staffing projects with complementary profiles — report lasting improvements in meeting quality and execution speed.

Is Working Genius Right for Your Team?

This methodology works best when:

• ✓ Your team's meetings feel unproductive, with the same people frustrated and disengaged every time
• ✓ Projects consistently stall between ideation and execution — ideas get generated but implementation drags
• ✓ Team members feel burned out from consistently doing work that drains them, even when they're technically capable
• ✓ You've added new team members and want to onboard them quickly with clear expectations about contribution styles
• ✓ You want a practical, immediately applicable framework that doesn't require months of coaching to produce results

Working Genius Consultants

Verified Working Genius practitioners available for team engagements.

Frequently Asked Questions

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