Consider These Factors When Deciding Upon The Right Team Building Program For Your Group:
1) Are you looking for an intact group or department to actually work better together? Remember teamwork is a very specific objective, tied to increased productivity and efficiency, an improved working climate, greater participation and involvement and richer communication and information exchange. Each intact group will have their own dynamics and issues. When you think about positively influencing these factors so that conditions actually change for the better back at work, your choice for a program that develops better teamwork is a more serious one.
2) Are you scheduling recreation and calling it team building? Many well intentioned, yet unsophisticated efforts are scheduled in the name of teambuilding, from a company picnic to a golf tournament. Although many events are fun to be sure, resources spent on transporting, feeding and entertaining the workforce are not directly correlated with teamwork issues, and although folks may have a had a good time, nothing is fundamentally changed about the process of how they work together. It is our view that team development should be a very focused and much more intentional initiaitve.
3) Is this an intervention process? Are there some real problems to solve with this group? Many times, personality issues, philosophical approaches and teamwork skill levels vary widely, fueling heated conflicts and resistance that must be resolved. There are very specific approaches to tackling tough interpersonal problems on the team that ATD progams have been designed to include.
4) Can this group handle some adventure? There is a direct correlation between the emotional impact of the shared high energy experience and how intense it is perceived to be. When ropes course and rock climbing challenges are successfully negotiated with the team helping one another, they are left with graphic reminders to validate their support for one another- anchored to a positive success experience. High adventure program elements are one of the 'best tools in the bag' when it comes to building a team. Each group should be evaluated to see what they might be capable of physically. Each team adventure can be adjusted as far as physical demands to get the benefits of the adventure in an approachable way for the average middle aged corporate employee.
5) Have you already decided your budget won't afford a multi-day program? With recession-oriented pricing now, low cost overnight accomodations and F&B at our training center, just south of the border, multi-day programs are still within the range of affordability. There are many ways to slice the onion here, but more importantly- the longer the team building program the higher likehood the group will return with strong commitments, new team skills, and a plan for where to apply them.
6) Do you need program customization? With the range of options we have available, and years of experience with all manner of groups and situations, we can probably make suggestions within your constraints, that you will be surprised by- in terms of impact and affordability. Every program is customized to some extent to the needs, issues and limitations of each particular group.
7) If you could put into words, what you really want to accomplish- what would it sound like? It is important to be clear about your objectives at the outset, and to also understand how much time and commitment you are willing to invest in getting the results you need. Our in-depth interviewing and needs assessment is designed to ask the kind of questions you may not have thought about, but that will guide you to deliver a program that will get the team development job done that you want and need.
8) Are there sensitive issues or organizational politics? Few organizations can escape the impacts of office politics and drama of one sort or another. These factors can be managed in any well designed program to partner particular individuals, steer others away from one another or to address certain issues head on while keeping mum on others. Often there are specific physical limitations that must be accomodated so an individual with physical challenges can be seamlessly included in the experience. ATD will work closely with our clients to design the most appropriate program experience that is 100% inclusive.
Aquarius Training & Development Helping Organizations Reach Their Potential
