While TeamWeave is new, its foundations come from lived practice and experience.

Founder Stephen Cole has taken part in more than 600 check-ins over the past 20 years and has led over 180 of them, in both work and personal contexts. These experiences have contributed to a deep understanding of how human-centred practices strengthen trust, communication and team culture.

Stephen applied these approaches in his previous business, Integral Consulting Engineers.

During the three years that the business was actively growing (2021–2023), it expanded from one person to a team of six, and returned an average net profit of 9.2%of revenue each year, in addition to his professional wage. This was a healthy and sustainable outcome for a small Australian engineering consultancy, especially while learning and implementing a new way of working.

Over the same period, the business also paid a staff profit share averaging 14.7% of base salary each year. While profit sharing is not necessary for developing a check-in culture, it helps to show that this human-centred way of working can also be financially sustainable.

The check-in process was a central part of the environment at Integral Consulting Engineers.

As outlined in the free guide, check-ins help develop the human skills that underpin effective teamwork, including listening, authentic communication, presence, empathy and leadership. These are early indicators of stronger team capability.

Check-ins also help build the cultural foundations needed for great teamwork, such as trust, psychological safety, connection and belonging.

These skills and cultural qualities support improvements in engagement, collaboration, performance and job satisfaction. As they take root they can flow into broader business outcomes including productivity, client satisfaction, retention and quality of work.

TeamWeave draws on many years of lived practice with teams and group processes, including extensive experience with team check-ins.

Through this experience, we’ve learned not only what helps build trust, connection and performance, but also what can get in the way. Practices like check-ins can fall flat, feel forced, or even create tension if they’re introduced without care, skill or the right conditions.

TeamWeave builds on these lessons by supporting teams to establish check-ins in a grounded and appropriate way for their context.

From there, teams can choose whether and how they want to extend the skills and cultural qualities that develop through team check-ins into everyday work, leadership and decision-making - at a pace that feels right for them.