Choosing the Right Team Building Program - The 3 C's

A client called me yesterday to inform me that she was putting the selection of this year's team building activities up for a company-wide vote. Her entire staff had been offered a choice: a day of solving one of our Dr. Clue treasure hunts OR a day of team cooking lessons (with another outfit).

I found this to be an unusual and rather refreshing practice ... giving everyone the power to decide their own team building exercises. In my experience, most organizations delegate the responsibility for choosing their corporate team building activities to a small "selection committee", often one or two people from management. This committee then pronounces that their off-site is XYZ...and participation is mandatory.

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You can imagine how people respond to the latter approach: grumbling, a sense of coercion, skepticism, and resistance. Inevitably, these are the events in which people ask, "So, what are the prizes?" In other words, "I didn't choose to be here, so what's in it for me?"

This goes back to Alfie Kohn's book "Punished by Rewards", in which he posits that intrinsic (or self-generated) motivation arises when you have Three C's in place:

1) Collaboration
2) Content
3) Choice

In other words, people tend to buy into a project when they can work together with others (collaboration), contribute to a meaningful cause (content), and proceed according to their own self-direction (choice). Without the Three C's in place, you have to motivate people "extrinsically" (or externally). That means offering everyone incentives, prizes, compensation, etc. According to Kohn, intrinsic motivation is far stronger and more long-lasting than extrinsic motivation. Moreover, external "reward giving" can be a slippery slope; you need to continually up the ante, increasing the quality and value of the "prizes" to keep people motivated.

Getting back to my potential client...I certainly hope they choose my company, Dr. Clue (naturally)! But even if they don't, I'll bet that the participants bring a high degree of enthusiasm and buy-in to whatever activity they select. After all, they'll have chosen the content themselves. It's their activity! And that makes all the difference.

Choosing the Right Team Building Program - The 3 C's

Choosing the Right Team Building Exercises

Choosing the right team building activities for your team is essential to their productivity. It is simply not enough to call a group of people a team and leave it at that. The teams are evolving growing and changing as a whole and individuals within them. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to keep your team works as smoothly as possible. The exercises are a valuable opportunity to promote the atmosphere in the team and develop team skills. Some companies do not decideUse activities or exercises, something that certainly seems to work against them.

If you know what you get on your team, team building exercises, the choice is much simpler request. If you do not know, you have to take some time to think and plot out. If you do not know what you expect from your group will not know what they work for. To find the desired result will help you to exercise your calls directly to them. Browsing for the team-building tips and ideas can helpHave begun. There are also professionals in providing the resources necessary to get specialized feeds the fire of your team.

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Do not use the exercises that are general in nature and are considered very good for any team. Your team building activities should be directly paid to your team. This means that you know what is expected of them and exercise angles, so that gives them the opportunity to explore together how they might achieve, the need to. Mostspecific that you are able to be, the more successful your team will then be as well.

Always choose team building exercises by taking into account the personalities and skills of each of your individual team members. Everyone has something different to offer. Use exercises to focus on strengths and weaknesses in a specific way so that each team member is truly benefiting from the exercise. If you do not encourage the growth of your team members through these exercises, they will be pointless and a waste of time, which is the last thing that you want.

Every exercise should have a purpose that is obvious to everyone involved. If it isn't clear what the point is then perhaps that activity just isn't the right one. Team building is about becoming bigger and stronger as a functioning unit. If that is not happening then you need to re-evaluate the exercises that you are choosing. Do not hesitate to take suggestions from your team in regards to team building. After all, it is about working together.

Be willing to try new things in order to make a positive difference. Shying away from new things is not recommended until you have determined whether or not it can be of use to you. New ideas and techniques might be just what you need in team building activities. Choosing the team building exercises for your team will require some thoughtful planning. Be creative and don't be afraid to try something outside of traditional team building.

Choosing the Right Team Building Exercises