At Jambar Team Building we have discovered one important thing after delivering over 1000 events: there is a difference and it’s important.
Well, both bonding and building are designed to be fun, but that is where the similarity ends. Bonding can be anything where there is limited learning or facilitation. For example, paint balling, art jamming, archery tag, terrarium making or escape the room. As a company you turn up, split into teams, have the rules explained and off you go. 1 hour later there is likely to be a winning team and you are done. The hope here is that the activity alone will encourage bonding, fun, getting to know colleagues better, which it does to a certain extent, but that is where the benefit ends. Team bonding doesn’t address communication skills, interpersonal issues, learning from the activity or specific outcomes like corporate values that your company may have.
Well, both bonding and building are designed to be fun, but that is where the similarity ends. Bonding can be anything where there is limited learning or facilitation. For example, paint balling, art jamming, archery tag, terrarium making or escape the room. As a company you turn up, split into teams, have the rules explained and off you go. 1 hour later there is likely to be a winning team and you are done. The hope here is that the activity alone will encourage bonding, fun, getting to know colleagues better, which it does to a certain extent, but that is where the benefit ends. Team bonding doesn’t address communication skills, interpersonal issues, learning from the activity or specific outcomes like corporate values that your company may have.
Not long ago at one of Jambar team building events we were told that 2 specific people couldn’t be put in a team together because they had had problems at the office and weren’t talking to each other. As a facilitator at the time, I had a chat with both of them for 5 minutes before the start of the event and then, before the main activity began, Jambar’s Chain Reaction Challenge, the whole group discussed the benefits of working together. While I don’t expect they became best friends, by the time we got to the debriefing they were talking and cooperating. A huge improvement according to the management. If the group had gone paint balling instead, it’s likely they would have just aimed at each other and nothing would have improved in their relationship.
Hence, what’s the key difference. Well there are two things, one is the activity type and the other is the quality of facilitation.
The team building activity: In general, the activity needs to encourage real team interaction, where people have dependences on each other for a good outcome. Art Jamming and other bonding activities don’t usually provide that. In Jambar's ‘Change it Up’ negotiation activity, teams can’t do well unless they there is good communication and collaboration with both themselves and other teams. A big difference.
The facilitation: hand in hand with the activity is the facilitator. It is the facilitators’ job to weave leanings into the experience from the moment (and arguably before) the event starts to the final debriefing. Encouraging the teams to think for themselves, inviting each individual to be curious about themselves and others, and considering what it is they learn from this experience, while at the same time keeping the fun!
If all you want is fun, look at team bonding, if you want fun, real learning outcomes and improved relationships look to Jambar's big team building activities.
Very Nice blog for Corporate Team Building Activities Singapore
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