We get a lot of calls from teams that want to do some form of team building because their team members are:

1. Not working together; just ignoring each other
2. “Back stabbing”
3. The newer team members and the veteran team members are not getting along for a wide variety of reasons.
4. Other cliques or factions within the team are undermining others.
5. “Rules” do not apply equally to all team members.

… and lots of other problems.

People want to do SOMETHING to fix the situation or at least help it get better. They will call a number of team building companies, including ours, and ask for advice; looking for an activity that will solve their problems. However, when we tell them exactly what they should do, they often elect to do a fun, lighthearted activity that brings people together, but changes little.

This happens because everyone wants to avoid conflict, open communication and honesty. They want to find a “happy solution” to a problem that could potentially harm the team and the organization as a whole. Though the solution can include “feel-good” and fun activities, without some positive yet serious discussion, change is not likely to occur.

Yes, it means that in order to achieve a higher functioning team, some egos may get bruised, but everyone needs to feel like part of the solution. For managers it means that you don’t use “divide and conquer” tactics, where you get people to trust you while you pit them against each other. It means you need to garner support for “change” and bring the group together to provide solutions as a team. Ask the team to take an honest look at themselves and how well they operate together. Tell them there are no right or wrong answers – and mean it when you say that they won’t be penalized for sharing their candid assessments of the workplace.

If you feel you can’t talk to them as a group, then start with a survey. Our Team Performance Survey is attached, and you can certainly modify it to fit your own situation and team. Once your team members turn in their survey (and these can be done anonymously), make sure you review the results with the entire team. It provides a way to start a meaningful discussion on team performance improvement.

In our next blog, we’ll reveal how we use the survey and continue the Team Assessment in order to get to REAL Team Building.

Team Performance Survey

Please rate your team on the following statements/attributes by placing an “X” in the appropriate box. A score of five is the best (or an absolute “yes”); one is the worst, with 3 being average or “so-so.”

13. If my teammates were asked to name a positive trait about me, I believe they would say:

14. If my teammates were asked what they thought I could improve upon in order to be a more effective team player, I think they would say:

We get a lot of calls from teams that want to do some form of team building because their team members are:

1. Not working together; just ignoring each other
2. “Back stabbing”
3. The newer team members and the veteran team members are not getting along for a wide variety of reasons.
4. Other cliques or factions within the team are undermining others.
5. “Rules” do not apply equally to all team members.

… and lots of other problems.

People want to do SOMETHING to fix the situation or at least help it get better. They will call a number of team building companies, including ours, and ask for advice; looking for an activity that will solve their problems. However, when we tell them exactly what they should do, they often elect to do a fun, lighthearted activity that brings people together, but changes little.

This happens because everyone wants to avoid conflict, open communication and honesty. They want to find a “happy solution” to a problem that could potentially harm the team and the organization as a whole. Though the solution can include “feel-good” and fun activities, without some positive yet serious discussion, change is not likely to occur.

Yes, it means that in order to achieve a higher functioning team, some egos may get bruised, but everyone needs to feel like part of the solution. For managers it means that you don’t use “divide and conquer” tactic, where you get people to trust you while you pit them against each other. It means you need to garner support for “change” and bring the group together to provide solutions as a team. Ask the team to take an honest look at themselves and how well they operate together. Tell them there are no right or wrong answers – and mean it when you say that they won’t be penalized for sharing their candid assessments of the workplace.

If you feel you can’t talk to them as a group, then start with a survey. Our Team Performance Survey is attached, and you can certainly modify it to fit your own situation and team. Once your team members turn in their survey (and these can be done anonymously), make sure you review the results with the entire team. It provides a way to start a meaningful discussion on team performance improvement.

In our next blog, we’ll reveal how we use the survey and continue the Team Assessment in order to get to REAL Team Building.

Team Performance Survey

Please rate your team on the following statements/attributes by placing an “X” in the appropriate box. A score of five is the best (or an absolute “yes”); one is the worst, with 3 being average or “so-so.”

13. If my teammates were asked to name a positive trait about me, I believe they would say:

14. If my teammates were asked what they thought I could improve upon in order to be a more effective team player, I think they would say:

Is there something more than drinking to spread holiday cheer? Of course there is! Anytime you get your employees together, it’s a great opportunity to interact, have fun, bond and get to know each other a little better. It doesn’t have to be a full blown organized activity. There are some simple and very fun things you can do to engage people at your holiday party—whether a small gathering of 5 or a larger group of hundreds. Here are a few simple ideas that you can easily use:

For a small group of less than 20 people:

Holiday Speed Charades

Great fun during cocktails. Before the party, make up slips of paper with the name of a holiday movie or song on each one. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “White Christmas,” etc. You can find songs or movie titles online. Put 8 slips in a drinking glass. You need one drinking glass per team. If you can’t find enough titles, you can have some duplicates, but it is better not to have too many. Divide the group into teams of 4- 8 people. Have each team either stand together or around a dinner table. Give each team a glass with the movie slips in them. At the signal to “start” one person on each team pulls out a slip of paper and uses gestures so their teammates will guess what holiday movie they are trying to convey.  Once someone has guessed, the glass with the movie slips is quickly passed to the next person, who must pick one and again, using only gestures and facial expressions, try to communicate the title of the movie to their teammates. This goes on until one team has gotten through all 8 of their movie titles. They are declared the winners—and get served first (or win a small prize).

Holiday Scrabble

This is a fun game that can be done during dinner or after. Each table represents one team, and you want to make sure that each table has close to the same number of people.

You can buy Scrabble Games to get enough “letters” for this event, or you can just make them using card stock paper and cutting out small squares. For place settings, spell each person’s first name using Scrabble tiles and put them just above their dinner plate. If there are people with the same first name, also provide a last name initial. 

For the game: ask the teams to make a “Scrabble crossword” on their table and using the letters provided by their names, they must spell as many words as possible. Give them a time limit of 3 minutes. At the end, the table with the most words (all connected) wins.

You can also have multiple rounds. For example, in the first round, every team must spell words that have to do with the holidays (i.e. turkey, feast, presents, Santa, gifts, etc.). Again, there is a short deadline of 2-3 minutes, and the team with the most words (all in crossword form) is the winner of the round. Other rounds could be “Company Products, Services and Trivia,” “Spare Time” (hobbies or what people do in their spare time), “ What’s on Your Desk.” The categories are endless, and you can even have the players make them up.

Fun team games you can play after dinner:

These are available at any toy department and are perfect for teams.

Catch Phrase

Outburst

Taboo

Trivial Pursuit

For mid-size groups of 40- 80:

Holiday CLUE

This is a fun mixer that starts during cocktails and finishes at dinner. It gives people a reason to mingle and talk to others. You can use cards from a standard Clue games from the store, or you can make up your own. Basically, each participant gets a clue card and a list of all the clues on the back of the card. The cards have either the name of a room, a weapon or a character on them. Participants mingle and compare cards during cocktails. On the back of their card, they check off the cards that they have seen from other participants (as well as their own). During dinner, everyone sits a round tables. The people at each table also can compare notes. Then, each table submits its Solution on paper (name of the Body, name of the Room and which Weapon was used to do the deed). The teams with the correct answer are applauded or win a small prize.

For mid to large groups 40- several hundred

Share the Holiday Spirit

For every 50 participants, have one Christmas Tree (live or artificial) with lights. If you do this during cocktails, have tables around the room with craft supplies (paper, scissors, glue, ribbon, styrofoam balls, beads, etc.). Ask people to design and make holiday ornaments. Make sure they put their names on any they create. These are hung on one of the trees. People can make as many as they would like, but everyone should attempt to make at least one.

During dinner, a panel of “judges” picks the 3 most beautiful ornaments. These are announced and displayed after dinner. The designers of these are given a prize. The trees are either auctioned off—or given to charity (to a family that cannot afford a tree). 

If you have other company holiday activities that you would like to share, please send them to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we can post them on our Facebook page – and list your name as the contributor.

Whenever you are working in a team environment, you will have some members who are very committed to the project and pushing it forward, some who are going along with the project but not that crazy about it, and some who just don’t seem to care about the team or the project. Of course, you would get a much higher level of productivity and success if everyone was highly committed and motivated. So how can you make that happen, and whose responsibility is it?

The first thing to do is communicate with your team -together and with them individually. Identify the problem: lack of high level of commitment and motivation among team members. As a group they should answer these questions:

1. Do you agree this is an area that could use improvement?
2. What are the barriers to commitment and motivation?
3. How can we remove these barriers—if not all, what about ONE?

Your team should come up with at least one solution to helping the situation and press them to agree upon it. Awareness by itself is a small step in the right direction. Some people do not even realize that it is a problem. Make sure that team members see that supporting and motivating each other is EVERYONE’S responsibility, and that together your could achieve much more if moving in the same direction at the same speed.

Consider using a visual to demonstrate this.  Something “simple” it can be a powerful example. For instance, think of your team as a bunch of sticks (you can bring 12-20 sticks to your meeting)—different lengths, shapes and thicknesses. These represent all the different members of the team—very diverse. Use a paper plate to represent a “goal” of the team. Some sticks can stand on end -a bit wobbly on their own and support the plate; some can’t do this at all, but either way, the plate topples over easily. Now, bind the sticks together and stand them on end. This represents commitment to the team. Together, they will provide a stable base to hold up the plate. (You may need to trim some of the lengths of the sticks in order to be more uniform—this represents having the same goal; not some loftier than others.)  

Everyone wants to think of themselves as good team players, but in reality, it is a very hard thing to do. Keep making it a topic of discussion with your team, and they can all work towards it together.

When you were a child, didn’t you get tired of having your parents tell you the same thing over and over? However, as we have more “life experiences,” you have to realize the benefits of “over communicating.” This is because when small things slip through the cracks you cannot always cover them up. In fact, some small errors can lead to big problems, both professionally as well as personally. So make sure you think things through very thoroughly, question the details, and reconfirm more than once. It sounds very simple, but it’s not.

Here’s a case in point—when a potential client asks us to provide a team building activity for their group, we need to ascertain exactly what constitutes success for this client. For example, we once orchestrated an event for 1400 people in Europe. We had only three weeks to put every detail of the event in place, and participants had a great time. However, our client did not ask for our assistance in “marketing” the activity and we assumed that they were taking care of getting people to participate. Wrong. What little information given to attendees about the event plus very poor weather left many wondering if it was worth the effort or even necessary to be part of a team building activity. We ended up with very good attendance, but know that it could have been great if we had asked about this detail and questioned our client more thoroughly about what they were doing to generate excitement about the event. Lesson: Get your vendor partners more involved, and as vendors, be more involved in every aspect, because each part of the meeting affects every other part.

Don’t make assumptions! Just because you have an excellent activity for your meeting in place, does the space and venue really lend itself to the event? You need to consider what the best set-up is for the activity and can this actually be accomplished in the time frame given. If an air wall needs to be pulled or tables and chairs moved, is there time and will the venue’s staff take care of it when needed?  Ask the question. Sometimes hotel staff is not available to make these changes because of other meetings and commitments, and sometimes, what you are requesting is just not realistic (like turning a huge ballroom in 15 minutes).

Ask about every detail. Some of our activities require something as simple as a pen. Many hotels and meeting places provide paper and pens, but you can’t assume they will automatically have them for your activity. Ask them. If unsure, bring your own.

Don’t wait until the last minute and do push people for answers. Everyone is very busy, and sometimes people take longer than expected to return calls or answer questions. But you can nicely press them for answers. You do not want to find out that something can’t be done on the day of your meeting or event. You may step on toes if you have to go directly to the source for an answer (we all have to work through layers of people at times)—but it is better to get the answer and know what you have to work with when there is plenty of time to make adjustments rather than be scrambling at the “11^th hour.” Apologize later for doing the “end around,” but assure everyone that it was in the best interest of the event’s success… and that reflects on all.

1. Make detailed lists and ask questions about every aspect of the function.
2. Recap in writing the conversations and agreements. Just because someone “said” something doesn’t make it so.
3. Don’t make assumptions that someone else is taking care of it. Check and double check.
4. Be supportive to all who are working with you (colleagues and vendor/partners). A positive attitude will get you more than finger-pointing.