Teambuilding opinions please

We have been asked to put together a “teambuilding” programme. Have you ever been on one was it any good? Have you ever sent people on one, if so why?

make it relevant to your business activities, create outputs (or at least ideas) from it that can be used to progress and improve the way that people work together.
offer prizes.

Thanks, what sort of outputs would you expect from a day?

what sort of outputs would you expect from a day?

near drownings, broken limbs, fractured relationships, inter-departmental rivalries.

the usual 😉

Is this about breaking down barriers between people or actually getting some business value beyond that?

brakes – Member –
…create outputs (or at least ideas) from it that can be used to progress and improve the way that people work together.
offer prizes.

POSTED 11 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
carboblock – Member
Thanks, what sort of outputs would you expect from a day?

POSTED 1 MINUTE AGO # REPORT-POST

This will depend on who is doing it, what their teambuilding issues are and what they need to get out of it.

If you just want to get out the office for a day call the local fire service, we did a team building fire safety thing with them.

If there are specific issues to deal with such as over competitiveness or everyone trying to be in charge then something focussed on working together and listening. If there is a moral issue then head down the fun side.

Also consider the health and fitness levels of everyone, not good doing team building if 1/3 have to go home early as they can’t do stuff.

Battle Royale?

We’ve had loads:

Lots of pointless exercises involving paper, scissors and string:

Trying to control Ross (Mission Impossible) by brf[/url], on Flickr

Your mission is.. by brf[/url], on Flickr

Drumming lessons….

Accounts team by brf[/url], on Flickr

Finish in style by brf[/url], on Flickr

Bit of group massage therapy

Group Therapy by brf[/url], on Flickr

IME it’s just about getting people to interact in a non-work environment. Whenever some bloke starts talking about what we’ve supposedly learnt I find it a bit contrived but then I’v studied that sort of thing at Uni. I like the military style command task ones best.

footflaps. Do you work in purgatory?

When you say a teambuilding “programme”, are we talking about a one-off “away day” or a longer term thing? Most of the answers so far seem applicable to the former, but not so much the latter…

Also, as others have said, the existing dynamics will influence the best answer – the most approriate route for a team made up of high performing individuals who are struggling to be as effective as a group as they could be but are willing to work at this, will be different from a group of lazy wasters who hate each others’ guts…

There is a lot of Kleenex boxes in the pics, footflaps….

footflaps. Do you work in purgatory?

🙂

There is a lot of Kleenex boxes in the pics, footflaps….

I just take the photos…..

Is he managed by David Brent ? Drumming workshop ? 😆

I just take the photos…..

You are Satan’s snapper! 😈

Group massage? 😯

Yeah… Not for me.

I’m out!

In our case, we have lots of sites all over the world, so getting everyone in the same place doing anything in mixed team (mix of sites) helps build relationships etc. The format is normally a whole day of stuff, pep talks, awards, games and then a free bar all evening, night and early am in a local night club, so people can get completely blatted.

More paper games:
Team 4's master piece by brf[/url], on Flickr

Main event in the evening drinking session:

Private Party by brf[/url], on Flickr

The Vaults by brf[/url], on Flickr

I have to stop taking photos after about 8pm, it all gets a bit, well you can guess…

I consider the group massage drumming teambuilding excercises a patronising cause for constructive dismissal.

I consider the group massage drumming teambuilding excercises a patronising cause for constructive dismissal.

They were actually very good: http://www.drumcafe.co.uk/

The Drum Cafe by brf[/url], on Flickr

I started off thinking that corporate bongos looked like some kind of hell, but it does actually look like fun, which I guess is the point.

Motivational speakers on the other hand I think are 100% cheese.

Something I have done for hen/stag do’s is a treasure hunt / puzzle where the clues you have to find are numeric in some way. Once you’ve got the numbers you have to rearrange / add / subtract to get a phone number, which is the number of the place to meet up for a “debrief”, which of course you make a pub.

Had some self-defence training for work once which was basically an excuse to practice hitting “pressure points” on a colleague. Interesting mixture of reticence and score-settling enthusiasm that day.

We recently did a Forest ranger day –
few team games to kick off, then a fire lighting/backwoods cooking exercise.
We then built woodland shelters which were tested with a watering can full of water.
In the afternoon we did a navigation/orienteering exercise, then finished off with some woodcraft.

It was ace.

We have been looking at something first-aid related for our next one – as we might learn something useful at the same time.

Worked on a ship for a large Danish company. Got sent to Denmark for a week of drinking, rowing, axe-throwing,archery, rowing, orienteering, rowing, abseiling, and general partying. Was ace!

I’m just back from the Telemark region of Norway where my team and I spent four days chatting about ways to make the project better in the morning, then playing on snow scooters and taking walks in snow shoes in the afternoon, then eating reindeer and drinking in the evening.

Stayed in a hut in the mountains, no electricity, no running water, 50 odd candles lit the place in the evening, had a mate of Ray Mears come up from Rjukan in full winter commando gear to tell us the story (of his personal friends) the Hero’s of Telemark.

Was a great experience, the nine of us, some of which had only ever met on the phone before, really got on well and got to know each other much better.

freeagent and paladin’s teambuilding sounds great.

footflaps photos make me feel a bit ill. Sorry.

guys, this is great stuff, thank you.

edlong – it will be a one day thing.

footflaps – i think we are looking at similar, where the different business “sections” are brought together and can “bond”

Our big thing is to get people out doors, away from the office environment and in to nature. Anyone been on any outdoors events?

We recently did a Forest ranger day –
few team games to kick off, then a fire lighting/backwoods cooking exercise.
We then built woodland shelters which were tested with a watering can full of water.
In the afternoon we did a navigation/orienteering exercise, then finished off by…

.. hunting, skinning, gutting and eating one of the under performing managers.

😈

I really do not get these.

Surely any self-respecting professional will just knuckle down and get on and work with the team that they’ve been assigned to, because that’s what they’re being paid to do. The work *IS* the teambuilding, and vice versa.

You don’t need to bang some bongos or get pissed to be able to work along side somebody productively, and if you do, then, I’m really not sure I’d want to be employing you anyway.

“freeagent – Member

We recently did a Forest ranger day –
few team games to kick off, then a fire lighting/backwoods cooking exercise.
We then built woodland shelters which were tested with a watering can full of water.
In the afternoon we did a navigation/orienteering exercise, then finished off with some woodcraft.

It was ace.

We have been looking at something first-aid related for our next one – as we might learn something useful at the same time. “

This is the sort of stuff we are looking at putting on – sounds like you enjoyed it?

The other thing I have done, back in 2009 was the Microsoft Challenge, our two teams raised over £50k for the NSPCC and we had an excellent time on the event itself.

It’s called the UK Challenge now, think it’s a bit lower key than when MS where the title sponsors, but still a really great way to build a team.

http://www.challengerworld.com/events/team-participation/the-uk-challenge.aspx

How big is your budget, without one you’ll fail.

And even with one you’ll fail if you think it’ll cure crap management, folk who hate other folk, lazy gits and people who think exercise is something idiots do etc

I’m really not sure I’d want to be employing you anyway.

And I wouldn’t want to work for you, so that’s easy isn’t it.

@JonEdwards – the point is that teams can be made of different types of people, with different characteristics and skills, and a team can be “built” by identifying what needs to be done and how different individuals can best contribute to that goal.

What that has to do with racing quad-bikes etc I have no idea. I do like that stuff, but it doesn’t have much to do with team building.

JonEdwards – Member
I really do not get these.

Surely any self-respecting professional will just knuckle down and get on and work with the team that they’ve been assigned to, because that’s what they’re being paid to do. The work *IS* the teambuilding, and vice versa.

You don’t need to bang some bongos or get pissed to be able to work along side somebody productively, and if you do, then, I’m really not sure I’d want to be employing you anyway.
Yep in an ideal world there would be no office politics and no crap going on, shame you sometimes have to deal with what you get, if there are problems or issues telling everyone to knuckle down might work once. Part of being an employer is to develop the people you have and work on the weaknesses that exist in a team.

We did an inspiring teambuilding exercise in the bank, after a couple of hours of absolute drivel, we all walked out as a team. That might sound sarcastic but it genuinely was a good team thing.

We recently had one that basically involved filling in a 24 question survey a couple of weeks before. We were then given a full 17 page profile on ourselves, our strengths, weaknesses, how we communicate, what we respond to and vice versa. I went into it really skeptical and was amazed by this profile that they had built up as it was scarily true. We then spent the rest of the day looking at each of the different teams and the kinds of characters in them and through doing that learning hows best to effectively communicate with them.

In a team like ours with quite a variety of characters it was really useful to see the differences and seeing what others responded to.

I disagree with what Jon Edwards has said, most people can ‘get on’ and get the work done in a professional sense but that doesn’t mean that they’re working together efficiently or particularly effectively. I agree some awaydays are pointless and immediately forgotten, but, done correctly with the correct follow-up work done. They can be extremely effective in improving the teams productivity.

Glory hole?

I’m going to show those photos to my team and threaten them with a team building day….

These kind of team building excursions are a total waste of money and time.

we have lots of sites all over the world……… and then a free bar all evening, night and early am in a local night club, so people can get completely blatted.

not everyone drinks, some cultures positively don’t – not anti drinking, actually can be enthusiastic but have worked for a couple of companies where excessive drinking was exclusive rather than inclusive