AhaPlay is a technology for running live group workshops without a facilitator, built on patented group interaction mechanics. Organizations use it through ExecuteOS.
You spend millions developing individuals. Your teams still fail.
Three in four cross-functional teams miss most of their goals.
At least three of five: budget, schedule, specifications, customer expectations and the company’s goals. 95 teams in 25 companies. Tabrizi, Harvard Business Review, 2015.
01The problem
Why talented teams still fail.
- 54%of teams disagree on how their work and success depend on each other.McKinsey Quarterly, 2024: 110 teams, 905 people, 42 countries
- 77% vs 59%Team leaders who say their team is high-performing, against team members who say the same.Deloitte, 2026: 1,394 people
- 5 yearsStar analysts who move firms alone can lose their edge for up to five years. Those who move with their team show no significant decline.Groysberg, Lee and Nanda, Management Science, 2008
The pattern we keep seeing.
- Develop the people$356 billion on training worldwide in 2015. Beer, Finnström and Schrader, HBR, 2016
- Develop the leaderFor the most part, the learning doesn’t lead to better organizational performance: people revert to their old ways. Beer et al., HBR, 2016
- Expect a great teamTrainers estimate a third of employees still apply their training a year later (Saks and Belcourt, 2006). A team’s collective intelligence is only weakly linked to its members’ intelligence (Woolley et al., Science, 2010).
What we keep seeing: the next budget goes back to individuals.
A team isn’t the sum of its people.
Invest again? Or break the loop?
02How it works: AhaPlay
The software runs the workshop. The team does the work.
Teams meet in person or online. Everyone joins from their own device.
The workshop guides them through structured individual and group activities. Participants share their perspectives, discuss differences, align on decisions, and commit to them.
No trainer. No facilitator. Just people working together, guided by technology.
ExecuteOSThese workshops run on your organization’s priorities.See ExecuteOS
More than group discussion. Group alignment and commitment built into the technology.
Powered by patented group interaction mechanics.
Most interactive tools collect answers. AhaPlay can go further by making group alignment part of how the workshop progresses.
Depending on the activity, the technology can require people to respond individually, match their answers, or explicitly accept a shared decision before the group moves forward.
When the group isn't aligned, it can be required to reconsider.
Pick one, as a team
The group cannot proceed yet. Chris chose a different answer, so the team talks it through.
ContinueThe technology doesn't decide for the group. It makes the group work through its differences.
03What it asks of the team
And it’s tough.
Because teamwork asks far more than showing up.
What participants have to do
- Think.Form their own opinions.
- Contribute.Bring their ideas into the group.
- Align.Work through differences and back one decision.
- Commit.Decide what to do next, together.
What they can't get away with
- Spectating.Everyone has to answer.
- Multitasking.The group is waiting on them.
- Nodding.Understanding each other and finding common ground takes real work.
- Forgetting.They commit on the record.
Why tough works.
Because listening isn't the same as understanding. Discussing isn't the same as aligning. And aligning isn't the same as committing.
AhaPlay connects these steps in one structured group experience.
It turns passive attendance into active participation, conversations into shared decisions, and decisions into explicit commitments.
Teams can be developed. In 72 controlled interventions with 8,439 people, structured teamwork interventions improved both teamwork and team performance.McEwan et al., meta-analysis, PLOS ONE, 2017
Hard on the team. Easy to run.
Teams run the workshops themselves, without trainers or coaches from outside the team.
A team leader can lead the session, with guidance built into the workshop, or let the team work through it alone.
The same workshop runs across teams, locations and organizations at once. Each team works through its own differences and reaches its own decisions.
Far fewer interventions. Less facilitation. Easy to repeat, so the follow-up actually happens.
“Without a facilitator, something unexpected happens: everyone becomes one. The whole group becomes more active, more accountable.”
“The group self-organizes without a lecturer. Everyone speaks up, defends their thinking, and the alignment emerges from the conversation itself.”
04What changes
What changes in the room.
- 75% of cross-functional teams miss most of their goalsEach team agrees on the goal, and commits, before the work starts.
- 54% of teams disagree on how their work depends on each otherEveryone sees the same picture of how the work connects.
- 77% vs 59% leaders and their teams see the team differentlyThe leader sees what the team actually thinks.
“The sessions made it personal, and the team commitment made it stick.”
93% of participants said they saw colleagues behave differently in virtual meetings. Read the Merkle story
ExecuteOSA check before and after shows whether each team is ready.See ExecuteOS
05Your next priority
Before your next priority: where will you invest?
- AhaPlay workshopsHow the team works together.
- Your priorityWhat the team has to deliver.
- ExecuteOSEvery team ready, and committed, to execute it.
Powered by AhaPlay
Meet ExecuteOS.
Turn leadership decisions into team readiness for execution.
Built on AhaPlay's patented technology, ExecuteOS helps organizations find what could stop their teams from executing a priority, then runs the workshops that close the gaps.
Explore ExecuteOS