How to find Working Together examples from your own experience
You have more Working Together evidence than you think. It hides in handovers, shared rotas, club committees and family logistics. This guide shows you where to look and how to turn what you find into a statement-ready example.
Start where the friction was
The best Working Together examples come from moments when working with people was hard: a rota clash, a difficult colleague, two groups who wanted different things. Smooth teamwork is pleasant but forgettable; friction is where your behaviour actually showed. List five times you had to work with someone and it was not straightforward.
For example, a shared equipment cupboard that caused weekly arguments is a better source than the project that ran itself, because it gives you listening, fairness and resolution to write about.
Search all four areas of your life
Assessors score the behaviour, not the setting, so search widely:
- Work: handovers, shared systems, cross-team tasks, covering colleagues, sorting misunderstandings between teams.
- Volunteering: committees, joint events, fundraising with other groups, rotas, recruiting and briefing other volunteers.
- Education: group projects, society committees, part-time jobs, sports teams — especially where you organised others.
- Caring and community: coordinating care between family members and services, residents' groups, school parents' events, faith or community projects.
A care worker coordinating with nurses and families, a retail supervisor fixing a rota clash, a PTA member negotiating between the school and a sports club: these are all legitimate Working Together evidence, at any grade up to the point where the scope outgrows the setting.
Follow six steps to build your shortlist
List your friction points
Write down every time in the last three to five years when working with others was genuinely difficult: disagreements, clashes, mistrust, competing priorities. Aim for ten.
Mark who was involved
Next to each, note the people and groups: your own team, another team, an external partner, volunteers. Cross-boundary examples score higher at SEO and above.
Circle what you personally did
For each story, note your own moves: who you met, what you proposed, how you got people talking. If your contribution was minor, drop the story.
Check the disagreement survived
Keep the stories where there was real difference to handle. If everyone simply agreed, the example will read as thin at most grades.
Match the scope to your grade
Compare each survivor against the grade expectations. Immediate-team stories for AA to EO; organised collaboration for HEO and SEO; organisational boundaries for Grade 7 and above.
Test for a countable result
Keep only stories where something measurable changed: time saved, errors cut, money raised, people involved, something that lasted. You should now have two or three finalists.
Stress-test your best two
Take your finalists and tell each one out loud in ninety seconds, as if to a colleague. Then answer three questions about each: what did I do that made the collaboration work, what disagreement did I handle, and what changed afterwards? If any answer is vague, the example is not ready — or not the right one.
Tip
Prepare at least two examples before you apply. You may need one for the statement and a different one at interview, and a second story lets you match the exact question they ask.
Turn the example into a statement
Once chosen, structure the story with STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result): two sentences of context, one sentence on your responsibility, the bulk on your actions in order, and a result with a number. Then check it against the common mistakes — especially the lone-hero trap — before you worry about the word count.
Your readiness checklist
- Two or more examples shortlisted, from different settings
- Each has at least one real disagreement you handled constructively
- Your personal actions are clear and specific in each story
- The scope matches the grade you are applying for
- Each result includes at least one number and something that lasted
- You can tell each story out loud in ninety seconds
Frequently asked questions
Everywhere people coordinate: shop rotas, care handovers, kitchen teams, delivery rounds, sports clubs, school events, family care arrangements. Working Together is about how you treated people and handled friction, not about meeting rooms. Many of the strongest statements on this behaviour come from retail, care and volunteering.
Aim for the last three to five years. Older examples are not banned, but recent ones are easier to recall in detail and sound more credible at interview. If your best story is older, make sure you can still give specifics: who was involved, what you said, the numbers in the result.
Use them confidently. Assessors score behaviour, not salary. Volunteering examples often show collaboration more clearly because volunteers cannot be instructed — organising a joint fundraiser or coordinating a rota of volunteers is excellent evidence of influence without authority, even at senior grades.
Two is the practical minimum: one for the written statement and a spare for interview, where panels often say 'give us an example' without warning. Three is comfortable. Make them different in setting — one inside your team, one across teams or organisations — so you can match whatever question comes.
Next step
Get the free STAR template — the same structure used in every example on this site.
Download the template pack