How a Team Building Event Goes Wrong
Posted: Friday, February 20, 2009
by Brian Middle
http://www.chillisauce.co.uk
You know a team building activity had gone badly when your team is discouraged, or mocking the exercises, or simply not reacting at all. Team building activities are tough to arrange by nature. These exercises are a method of teaching and of course, the art of teaching is a gift not natural to everyone. This doesn't mean however, that a non-educator would be inept of such a task. It will possibly be done - it simply requires a thorough understanding of the team building principles and stacks of preparation.
One way in which team exercises fail is because the one teaching fail to stimulate their "class" of team members. This is not necessarily the failure of the own teacher, though natural charisma can be incredibly helpful. The problem may be that the exercises themselves are not riveting, not particularly educational and are perfunctory in manner.
Team building activities are not "work meetings", i.e. designed to simply lecture a group of people on what is or is not acceptable. Team exercises are designed to accelerate team performance, by improving relationships and refocusing team members towards a shared objective. Lecturing a team is not effective team building. Workshops can be an effective exercise, but can also be boring, depending on the style of delivery.
Additionally, an activity that is too much amusement, or even too absurd, can also be a failure. In the case of a social event that was too over-the-top, team members will not only feel discouraged and unconvinced, but may also feel used and resentful towards whoever organised it.
Why?
Because the person orchestrating the event showed a lack of knowledge or even a lack of respect for their audience. The person demonstrating the team building activities ought to know who they are teaching, what they already know, and what they need to see.
How To arrange a successful Team Activity
The key to successfully organising an activity is to propose according to whatever you hope to achieve. If you're educating a team the importance of working together, then you ought to incorporate group exercises that emphasise these principles, not games that work towards improving self-expression or self-discovery. Ideally, team members ought to
1. Enjoy the event, meaning that amusement and laughter is allowed
2. Learn something from it, meaning that the objective of the company and of the team is represented and incorporated into the activity
3. Be instructed to apply the new training in their daily work routines
4. Be often trained to improve upon what they know.
Without these primary factors, a team event can easily become wasteful or boring. Whether you're teaching kids in school, kids in sports, or team members in a company, they all have one thing in common: they are there to work, to see and to improve their specialist worth. So ensure that your team building activities achieve a objective and teach each member the value of their team
Chillisauce.co.uk is a corporation specialising in organising unique team buildingevents.All our team building events include an extensive variety of venues appropriate for your team day and meeting needs and an extensive variety of of actvities including Krypton factor challenge, it's a knockout, challenge 100,Go mad in the country.
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