Team Building Articles

• Crap Team Building by By Simon Banks of Visual Funk
  in Team Building Articles
  30 May 2011

  I rarely write about team building as I love to write about creativity. At Visualfunk, they are inextricably linked. We get teams doing creative activities together to develop their creativity.

  We look on creativity as a skill to be developed through activity and this is based on everyone’s creative background in the arts and culture and living creatively!.  As such, many of our activities fall under the team building genre and it is how a lot of people initially view what we do.

  I love working with people and I love the fact that what we do ensures everyone has a great time in the process so this has to work for me. We get great feedback so something is working well!

  Having worked in this role for many years, you get to read people’s faces very well. When we kick off, there is about 50% of the room with a look of trepidation/horror/contempt/disgust on their face (even though they are thinking that they are hiding it). Why? Because EVERYONE has been through a crap ‘team building’ program and is expecting something similar again. I have been through them and a bad program can be absolutely destructive on moral and team function.

  I read an article today from last year in the Sydney Morning Herald about team building which gives it a real serve (and I think rightly so). There are many comments that agree but also some that don’t. The best comment that I think sums it all up is

  A good facilitator delivering a team building program that is engaging can have a powerful and lasting impact on the business and for those attending.

  Check the credentials of the Training or Team building company before committing time, money and effort. Experience is worth it. Click here to read the full article
  

  Remember,

  • Not every company is the same. There are no real barriers to entry in the team building market. You don’t need a team building degree to start a company. Anyone can do it so the results will be very different
  • Not every facilitator is the same. Look at your facilitators bio and testimonials. What is their corporate experience and understanding of your world?
  • Make sure you meet with your facilitator. Great things happen when people meet in person. This way you can see if this person will connect with your team
  • Going to the pub is a great activity as well and takes no organisation!