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.
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 learnings 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.
I've been participated in many team building activities in years of working in my current employer and I realize that it is good to win but it is better that you enjoy the moment with your workers. It is always the best part in working in a corporation and Get Out Events always makes the event the best for organizing everything.
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