For well over twenty years we have enjoyed operating in the field of team development and have been privileged to help clients from a broad range of sectors in the planning, preparation, execution, and consolidation of an extensive range of teambuilding events. This is an area of work where we can offer you significant experience and a truly enviable track record as providers of a highly personal and individually tailored service.
Objectives Any teambuilding event involves removing a team from their everyday environment and giving them time and space away from the pressures and demands of their work. We have worked with clients who have taken this, sometimes difficult, step for a wide range of reasons including:
Raising the Game – helping a team to step back and think strategically – to see the wood and not just the trees
Dealing with Change – helping a team to come to terms with, explore the implications of, influence, and support, significant changes which have impacted on them as a group
Team Review – giving a team the opportunity to reflect on their effectiveness as a team – what are their key strengths? where and how could they improve the way they work together?
Performance Issues – helping teams to face up to particular issues in terms of their own performance, including entirely internal issues and/or relationships with other teams
Celebration – giving teams who have performed well an opportunity to reinforce their success, to pat themselves on the back, and to build on their achievements
Every client’s aims are different and every event must be approached with respect and care to ensure that the solution fits the need, there can be no ‘one size fits all’ approach and over the years we have designed and delivered a diverse range of programmes. See below for a flavour of some key design factors to consider.
Key Options
Two key practical considerations are often:
Time
How much time do you need? How much time can you afford? Most programmes are based, to at least some degree, on a compromise between the answers to these two questions. Events in our calendar include four day fully residential events and single days on a 9 to 5 basis. Whatever the time a client is able to allocate to their session our skill is to help them to use that time in a way that is stimulating, challenging, enjoyable, rewarding for the team, and leaves them with a lasting return on their investment.
Location
Is location down to purely convenience or will the nature of the venue be a key part of the message to the team? We have provided events across Europe, on the African continent, in most regions of the UK, and in works canteens, training suits, and social clubs … We have no particular premises or location to promote which ensures we are free to respond to your needs and help you to identify the ideal venue for your requirements.
Content
As there are a diverse range of motivations behind different team events so there are an equally diverse range of possible responses – some key options are outlined below:
Structured Discussion
Often one of the key needs is to get team members talking to each other and to do so in such a way that all are involved, issues are addressed, team members listen to each other, and constructive conclusions are reached. We have extensive experience in helping team members to discuss sometimes contentious issues openly and constructively and in helping them to identify positive actions to move themselves forward as a team.
Team Activities
For some objectives a valuable approach is to get a team to work together in new and different ways – this can help them to see themselves and others in a new light, to gain insights in to their strengths and development needs as a team, to develop a bond of shared experience, and sometimes, simply to enjoy being together. Our range is extensive and ever growing, we are not restricted to one style of approach, whatever the background and needs of your team we will identify team based activities that provide an appropriate balance of enjoyment, challenge, and stimulation. Some activities are provided directly by delight staff while for others we work closely with carefully chosen business partners.
Team Review
Providing the opportunity to stand back from everyday work pressures and to spend quality time focussed on themselves can be a simple and effect way to stimulate a teams development. We provide structures to ensure that such reviews go beyond the surface, motivate teams to explore the issues which really make a difference to their performance, and help them to deliver significant improvements in effectiveness.
Team Analysis
The perspectives offered by personality type and/or role preference models provide an excellent means of helping a team to stand back from themselves and to take a completely fresh look at the dynamics at work in their group. While we offer this approach as a stand alone development tool (click here) incorporating appropriate theories and profiling tools into teambuilding events can add useful insights and additional depth for some teams and provide the main thrust of an event for others.
An External View
On some events we will introduce concepts and ideas from the broader field of team development, and examples taken from our own experience, as a means of prompting deeper thought or to help structure a team review. While do not promote such material as the main thrust of an event we do find that relevant models and examples often add useful new perspectives and help teams to reach valuable conclusions in terms of their own development.
Interpersonal Feedback
Providing the opportunity for team members to sit down together and to exchange constructive and honest interpersonal feedback offers a powerful approach to team development which needs to be used with some care. Our approach is based on establishing an atmosphere of trust and openness, providing a balanced structure, and respectful facilitation of the process. Sessions of this sort commonly lead to important new understandings across the team, inspire positive improvements in performance, and add a highly memorable learning opportunity to a teambuilding event.
Social Activities
During longer events we often introduce lightly structured activities into breaks in the formal programme which provide an enjoyable change of pace, facilitate a process of continued mixing, provide a space to switch of from more structured sessions, and offer the opportunity for teams to simply have some fun together.
