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Share your gems, buzz words and advice.
(it's within education)
Share your gems, buzz words and advice.
(it’s within education)
Actually go outside and do some working together?
Who is the audience?
What's the purpose of the presentation?
Team building is done at the pub at lunchtime.
I was a rubbish boss, a decent second in command and a good shift leader
A couple of things I used to do:
Every now and then in the summer when hot I would buy ice creams for everyone in an afternoon - including cleaning staff. If we had not had any sweets given to us for a while the rest of the year i would buy enough for everyone
If we had had a bad day at the end of a shift I would say something like " tough day today folks - you worked your butts off Thanks"
I refused point blank to join any "team building"stuff outside of work hours - thats a complete no no to me. IMO most "team building" stuff I have seen done actually works the opposite way and work is work, home is home and never mix the two
IMO team building is done by two things - making sure the team know they are appreciated and are listened to. Its too easy to pull folk up for substandard stuff but forget to give praise. Praise given in public, criticism in private
Now this is a proper job for ChatGPT and similar tools.
"Create me 10min presentation on team building containing current buzzwords"
https://charlesduhigg.com/books/smarter-faster-better/
Read the chapter on how the US Marine Corps did it, it's interesting.
A Marine Corps general, faced with low morale among recruits, reimagines boot camp—and discovers that instilling a “bias toward action” can turn even the most directionless teenagers into self-motivating achievers.
Also a chapter on teams,
A group of data scientists at Google embark on a four-year study of how the best teams function, and find that how a group interacts is more important than who is in the group
and a chapter on teaching results/methods.
Not really into books like this but it did have some interesting points. Read it before a job interview where I had to do a similar presentation. and realised I relied a lot on working with people who had at least a shared interest (bikes). Take that away and it'd be more difficult.
I did a presentation on this once. Everyone knew all the management guff so instead I simply reviewed the approach of Sky and why they worked togwther so well.
Just ask Chat GPT to write it. It's basically how I do my current job.
Ugh, we have so much team building at work, but it just means I then have to stay longer at the end of the day - it's not like the actual real work that has to be done magically disappears just because we're all feeling dreamyteamy.
Sometimes go to the pub, otherwise no.
Find another job where you aren't doing their work FOC in an interview.
"This is where I've worked previously, this is what I look like, you've got 2years to sack me off without reason, I'm not wasting my time doing a 10minute presentation.
When do I start?"
Ugh, we have so much team building at work, but it just means I then have to stay longer at the end of the day – it’s not like the actual real work that has to be done magically disappears just because we’re all feeling dreamyteamy.
This is the stuff that gets to me. Why expect you to do what is a work activity in your own time or do unpaid overtime to complete work? Its the opposite of team building - it just makes me resent it.
I told my bosses once - you want me to do that for team building then you pay me to do it as its work. Don't want to pay me? I don't attend
There are good leaders, good managers and a whole spectrum of good and bad combinations of both. Unless you are one of the good/good ones, never take your team paintballing as a team building exercise; friendly (sorry, "friendly") fire is very painful (as one of my old department heads found out when I was working in Hemel.
Don’t want to pay me? I don’t attend
Sounds like a great way of missing some great opportunities.
Ugh, we have so much team building at work, but it just means I then have to stay longer at the end of the day – it’s not like the actual real work that has to be done magically disappears just because we’re all feeling dreamyteamy.
Yep, have no interest in any 'team building'. I'm an Engineer at heart, I just want someone to feed me interesting problems and I'll happily solve them.
I was in mgmt many moons ago (VP Engineering). My style was simply to find all the 'other stuff' the engineers had to do and do all that myself, and let them all do as much Engineering as possible. Downside was that I just did 'crap' all day, but it kept the wheels turning. Gone back to the coal face now and much happier for it....
Good management is a valuable skill in itself. I'm a good leader but not a good manager, don't confuse the two and don't think that one is the same as the other. The classic management speak is that Leadership is "doing the right thing" and Management is "doing things right". It's pithy, but does have a significant ring of truth to it. You need to set a direction, but without skilled management, that alone won't get you to the destination. The best teams have a mix of skills from leadership to organisation, and it's important to play to everyone's strengths.
To TJ's point, I used to take my new teams on a narrowboat day out. In work time. You learn a lot about teamwork at the first lock! And preparing a picnic lunch on a boat is a lot more fun than post-it notes on strategy in a room with no windows.
Sounds like a great way of missing some great opportunities.
I spent the first 10 years of my career going to out of hours social/team building events.
Even if there is free booze, my experience is you really are missing out on nothing at all except finding you liked your colleagues even less than you thought you did.
Sounds like a great way of missing some great opportunities.
If the employer doesn’t value the activity enough to pay you for it then why should you value it enough to attend?
Ooh, ooh, get the audience round in a circle with one in the middle, who has to fold their arms, close their eyes and fall backwards to learn how to trust the team. Team building shysters love that one.
Find another job where you aren’t doing their work FOC in an interview.
OP didn't say if it was for an interview but either way, 10 mins on team building is basic stuff, you're not doing anyone's work there. No time or no need to get into detail and linkedin thought leadership BS either. It just suggests whether you have a personality/clue/ability to present or research/any willingness to make some effort for the job.
FWIW a number of us at work (years ago) were put on a training or development day that involved one of those personality tests that gives you a yellow/green/blue/red personality trait output (can't remember what the test type was called now). I'm not sure how credible they are but it was suprisingly accurate for me and those I worked with and knew well. It was good for seeing how and why some people work the way they do or have natural strengths and weaknesses and it did help working relationships, self-awareness etc.
If it's within education I assume this is how to have an effective team rather than spitballing team building ideas like going paintballing, pub etc?
If it's the former a good one for a presentation (because it's a nice visual metaphor) is to talk about them (the team) being like a bike...stay with me on this.
All teams are made up of a number factors - both hard and soft. Hard factors are the policies, processes, structures etc which govern the team. Soft factors are things like team rituals; celebrating birthdays, communication, leadership, people's values etc.
Each factor is like a tyre on a bike. If your team communication is crap, or the team don't get on etc then its like having a flat front tyre. Same for hard factors - if the policies are out of whack, or the IT doesn't work it's like a flat rear tyre.
The interesting thing is a team will muddle on with a flat on either wheel - for example some will get on like a house on fire despite the awful IT or non existent flexible working policies (hard factors) but they'll never be as effective as possible. Same thing the other way around for soft factors.
Therefore to have an effective, high performing team you need good hard and soft factors and for each to be in sync (like well inflated bike tyres!).
Team building should therefore focus on assessing and addressing both factors (hard and soft) rather than just arranging a night out and hoping for the best. That way you keep both tyres inflated as best you can and hopefully avoid the wheels falling off.
Our team building events/trips are centred around stuff folk actually want to do, maybe there’s a lesson there?
Sounds like a great way of missing some great opportunities.
To do stuff I don't want to do with folk I don't want to spend time with in my own time? No thanks
IME "team building exercises" are counterproductive anyway.
IMO / IME team building is done at work by creating a good positive happy atmosphere where folk feel valued, listened to and respected although Tired's narrowboat thing sounds fun
Our team building events/trips are centred around stuff folk actually want to do, maybe there’s a lesson there?
Unless you work for a company that makes products for a specific recreational activity and everyone is into that activity, how do you find an activity everyone wants to do?
Our team building events/trips are centred around stuff folk actually want to do, maybe there’s a lesson there?
How do you fit that around folk like me who want a complete separation of work and non work life? Who does not enjoy group activities by and large.
I work in engineering and we usually have "teambuilding" at least once a project. It's because we work on big projects, and most of the time whilst you might have worked with a few people before you're unlikely to have ever met the clients engineers, other engineering departments, support staff etc.
So sometimes asking you to build the best bridge from bamboo and elastic bands with the secretaries, or play "air rifle scrabble" with C&I is the quickest way to get everyone in a 400+ person team talking with each other.
As for the OP, yea, find an interesting case study they haven't seen before. Or find some interesting nuance to dive into. e.g. I'd hypothesize that what works in the army or other competitive teams like sports or politics (banding together against a common enemy) is probably not going to work in a corporate environment because the enemy will end up being management, or the client.
To do stuff I don’t want to do with folk I don’t want to spend time with in my own time? No thanks
sightseeing tour in Barcelona? LandRover Driving in Skipton, long weekend in Majorca? Long weekend in the Azores?
These are a couple of things some of the teams here have done in the last 3 months. The big trip this year for those that have done well is 10 days in South Africa. The coolest one (in more ways than one) was a few years ago, to Antarctica. Not your thing?
sightseeing tour in Barcelona? LandRover Driving in Skipton, long weekend in Majorca? Long weekend in the Azores?
These are a couple of things some of the teams here have done in the last 3 months. The big trip this year for those that have done well is 10 days in South Africa. The coolest one (in more ways than one) was a few years ago, to Antarctica. Not your thing?
You're not in the public sector are you? 😀
The big trip this year for those that have done well is 10 days in South Africa
Sounds like incentives rather than team building.
sightseeing tour in Barcelona? LandRover Driving in Skipton, long weekend in Majorca? Long weekend in the Azores?
These are a couple of things some of the teams here have done in the last 3 months.
As a humblebrag that'll be hard to top in this thread : )
Edit, not even sure the humble bit applies : )
Oh it is incentives, but team building is a big part of them. Plenty of friendships for life are made on these trips.
They don’t have to be expensive though, just need to ask the team members what they would like to do, and open their mind a bit. We’ve done art classes and bake-off type stuff too, all things I wouldn’t do myself, but were fun non the less.
I wasn’t on the above, so not really bragging, but that’s what they have done to build, and reward teams.
sightseeing tour in Barcelona? LandRover Driving in Skipton, long weekend in Majorca? Long weekend in the Azores?
These are a couple of things some of the teams here have done in the last 3 months. The big trip this year for those that have done well is 10 days in South Africa. The coolest one (in more ways than one) was a few years ago, to Antarctica. Not your thing?
Does it extend outside of 8-5 Monday to Friday? Yes? Not interested then - I'll pay to do that myself with people I like.
I'm equally fun at parties as well!
sightseeing tour in Barcelona? LandRover Driving in Skipton, long weekend in Majorca? Long weekend in the Azores?
These are a couple of things some of the teams here have done in the last 3 months. The big trip this year for those that have done well is 10 days in South Africa. The coolest one (in more ways than one) was a few years ago, to Antarctica.
The only companies I've seen offering this kind of thing with the frequency you're describing are the ones with absolute chancers at the helm who are basically organising tax write-off jollies for their mates.
Not your thing?
These kind of trips depend on the company (people, not the entity I work for). I'm very selective about the company I keep and the idea of having to spend days drinking with Casually Racist Pete or Misogynistic Mike sounds ****ing hellish.
You apparently have a higher tolerance for people than I do. Or you just work with a bunch of angels.
alishand has a very good answer to how to build a team - I have never seen it expressed as well
sightseeing tour in Barcelona? LandRover Driving in Skipton, long weekend in Majorca? Long weekend in the Azores?
Not with folk from work. Unless i was being paid 24/7 while away
Peak STW. Work funded holidays are not the average team building activity
Not your thing?
Not one of those appeals if I'm honest......
You want buzz words?
Belbin, Manual of Me, Retrospective, Sustainable Pace, Servant Leadership...
Not interested then – I’ll pay to do that myself with people I like.
I have a lot of sympathy for that, BUT have you considered that if you went on the team building you might actually understand how some of the other people you work with think / behave and so perhaps have higher tolerance for them or like them more? Liking the people you work with makes the difference between your job being a chore to pay the bills and something you can quite enjoy. Whilst I am in the “it if benefits the organisation they should pay you for it” camp, I’m also of the view that a small investment of your own time that might lead to a happier work environment isn’t a waste of time either. In my experience, people who will “only go if they pay me” are often miserable ****ers who are out to sabotage the exercise even if you are paying them and who have no genuine interest in helping the team dynamic, perhaps because they have a purely technical perspective on the social interactions on the team. The biggest issue I have with my teams is people who believe everyone else in the team should think and operate in the same way as them.
I have a lot of sympathy for that, BUT have you considered that if you went on the team building you might actually understand how some of the other people you work with think
My boss is openly pro-Putin, my right hand man is racist right winger, my apprentice was a roid head.
I'll pay for myself thanks.
I'll do what ever is needed in a work environment. I will not give up my free time unpaid for something to do with work. Its outrageous to suggest I should
My boss is openly pro-Putin, my right hand man is racist right winger, my apprentice was a roid head.
I’ll pay for myself thanks.
And if there are any you were blissfully unaware were total ****s then a weekend away boozing will quickly let you know who you are really working with.
And if there are any you were blissfully unaware were total **** then a weekend away boozing will quickly let you know who you are really working with.
Yep, have a colleague like that, get on well enough at work and really respect his work, but he's actually a total arsehole and it always comes out when he drinks (went to a leaving do for a mutual colleague the other night).