Years ago I was a sales professional at a large company. The sales department trainer always conducted some type of team building activity once a year. I want to share a tale of two team building activities where I was a participant, one good and one bad, to show the importance of planning and execution.

First, here is my great team building experience. At the start of one of our annual sales meetings we were divided into teams. Each team received a box of toothpicks and some Styrofoam at our tables. The facilitator told us to build the tallest structure possible with only the materials on the table. The team with the tallest structure at the end of 20 minutes would win.

This activity was successful for several reasons. First, it was short. We were busy salespeople who wanted to get in and out of our sales meeting so we could get out on the road and make money. Second, the facilitator observed each group closely to see how we were working together as a team. Finally, at the end of the activity, the facilitator helped us process our experience by asking specific questions designed to ensure that we came away from the experience learning key things about our communication skills and our ability to work as a team. After the activity our Vice President kicked off our sales meeting and discussed how communication and teamwork were going to play a large role in our department’s success. The activity was fun, safe, simple, relevant, and well executed.

My nightmare team building experience occurred a year later. My colleagues and I volunteered to work at a nearby children’s summer camp located in the woods. Each team received a different project. One team would plant flowers. One team would paint picnic tables. One team would decorate the recreation center. Then there was my team. We were going to clear an area of forest! We spent all morning dragging extremely heavy tree branches towards a wood chipping machine! We did not have safety glasses, gloves, or helmets! At one point a tree branch kicked out from the chipper machine an almost hit one of my colleagues in the head! Many of us experienced cuts and bruises from the heavy labor, not to mention very sore muscles the next day!

This team-building event failed, for my team anyways, because the trainer who coordinated the event ignored the all-important tip:  Know your audience! We were salespeople and not lumberjacks! The activity was not suitable for us and it was downright dangerous!

So if you are asked to conduct and/or coordinate experiential team building exercises for your company, here are some helpful hints:

• Plan, design and setup your team-building activities with care. For example, if you train busy sales people, plan on short team-building activities! Design your activities to ensure they create the type of learning experience you need and allow for full participation so that everyone benefits. Also, make sure you set up the activity to make sure the participants understand your directions and can follow the rules.
• Make sure the team building is relevant to how it will help the employees succeed in their jobs. For example, if you train customer service representatives, the activity should show how using teamwork can lead to the customer receiving timelier, more accurate information.  Otherwise, learners will think the activity is a waste of time.
• Prepare yourself to debrief the activity. Be prepared with questions that will help each team and the group as a whole process their experiences upon completion of the activity. While monitoring, be sure to observe how each team is working together – or not, as the case might be. What does each team do to foster team work? What, if anything, gets in the way? Then, as part of the debriefing process, and without pointing fingers or naming names, you can use some of your observations to encourage further discussion and bring home the point of the activity.
• Last, but not least, if you do not have prior experience designing outdoor experiential activities then I would recommend using a consulting company that specializes in such things. This way your participants will learn from the experience in a safe fashion!

In summary, there is tremendous value in team building experiences. If they are chosen, designed, and facilitated well, they truly bond groups of people together in positive ways. And, they can be fun! Just be sure to make them memorable for the right reasons by being mindful of the tips above!

Do you have any team building stories you’d like to share?

Lynne

Icebreakers

We all know what icebreakers are, we’ve all used them and I bet we’ve all had situations where the icebreaker did not achieve the intended result of “breaking the ice.” As Instructors, we often go to our book of training games and pick a favourite icebreaker sometimes without much thought. Then we may blame the activity when something awkward or embarrassing happens during the icebreaker.

Over the years I’ve seen people become embarrassed during “Remember that Name,” a person recalling a hurtful situation while doing “Dreams and Nightmares” that made group members uncomfortable, and a person revealing very personal and private information during “Two Truths and a Lie,” again causing discomfort within the group. Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with these icebreakers, but they have to be carefully set up and administered. I’ve seen people become upset, insulted, and angry as a result of activities that were intended to build climate and rapport. So let’s agree that any old icebreaker won’t do. We need to keep in mind that there is a strategy to selecting and conducting the right icebreaker at the right time.

Here are some tips:

Know your audience

What is their comfort level? What is their organizational level and what is the corporate culture? Is this a group that is in the forming stage, where an introduction activity is required, or has the group already formed and need a team-building icebreaker to get them to the next stage of group development?

Start off safe

The first icebreaker of the course should be very safe. Avoid asking participants to reveal very personal information too early. If people feel pressured early in the workshop it might have a negative effect.

Build gradually

Save activities that ask people to give up very personal information until later in the course when they feel more comfortable. On a multi-day course begin each day with an icebreaker to maintain climate and rapport.

Keep it simple

The instructions for the activity should be brief and clear. Keep the activity itself simple or it will be viewed as a time waster.

Make it relevant

If you can relate the icebreaker to the course content it becomes more meaningful.

So the next time you are planning a workshop, choose the icebreakers carefully. Selecting the right icebreaker for your group will assist you in building rapport among the learners and setting them up to work together to maximize their learning.  If you would like to learn more about icebreakers, creativity, and fun in training, check out our 55 Creative Tools for Trainers book.

Langevin Team

Whether you are a designer, or an instructor, there are some things you can do when you anticipate or encounter resistance to a class.

Designers

For the ever-challenging and mandatory annual training, consider…

• Conducting an assessment: Could an assessment – online or face-to-face – determine competency and remove the need for some learners to attend the class?
• Changing the delivery strategy: Is there an off-the-shelf or home-built e-learning module that would satisfy the requirement?
• Changing the class design: Could the class be changed to something more engaging such as a pre-test coupled with a “lessons learned” discussion of areas that the group or the organization struggle with?

For a class about process change within an organization, think about…

• An Icebreaker. An out-of-the-box-thinking icebreaker can help set the tone. Challenge your learners to “Be a gardener star-plant 10 trees in 5 rows of 4 trees each” (see end of blog for answer), where the answer is not intuitive. This icebreaker could serve as an analogy for a necessary but unpopular change in organizational life. Tie the icebreaker to the need for out-of-the-box thinking when confronted with organizational change.
• Exercises geared to handle learner resistance: You can’t sweep resistance under the rug, so try designing an exercise early in the training where problems are acknowledged and then focus on how to make the best of the new processes? Something like, “list the reasons we should not adopt this procedure,” followed by, “identify those factors we have direct control over.” Offer to act as an anonymous ombudsman to bring the learners concerns to management and then concentrate on how to make the best of the situation during the class (i.e. learn the new process).

Instructors

The techniques for designers can also be used by implemented by instructor on the fly when encountering serious push-back from a learner group. Sometimes all it takes is carefully moderated “air time” to defuse resistance.

What do you do to handle learner resistance? Feel free to post your ideas.

Paul

Oh, the answer to the brain teaser? Sketch a 5-pointed star. Where the lines intersect, plant a tree – you’ll end up with 10 trees; in 5 rows with 4 trees in each row. It looks something like the image below.

Since content is king, I let it drive the way I start every course. I think about content as being one of three types. There is technical content that deals with equipment or a physical process. Then, there is interpersonal content which is all about how we relate to each other as people. Some people call it “soft skills” but that’s another story.  Finally, there is conceptual, or what I like to call “Mental Gymnastics.” Yeah, it’s that brain activity where we think about things, but we may not be physically involved in a task or interacting with another person. Each type of content inspires me to create a unique icebreaker. I’d like to share some that I’ve used.

One type of technical training is related to software and system updates. An icebreaker that I’ve used in this type of training really helps the participants accept organizational and technological changes. In groups, have your participants pick one gadget they currently use that wasn’t around 20 years ago – like a cell phone for example. Have them write the name of the gadget on a chart. Next, have them list all the things they love about it. Once they have completed their lists, have them share their ideas with the large group. You will find that the ideas on the lists outline some of the great benefits of our changing technology. You can wrap up the activity by offering the perspective that the benefits they have listed are the same benefits driving the changes that will be talked about in class.

Unless we are all replaced by robots (HA HA!), we work with people. There are many skills required to do this well, so the key to success here is to identify what you are teaching the group to “do.” For example, in a team building course, have the participants introduce themselves in teams. Invite them to create a group resumé. Have each person on the team take responsibility for a different component. Let’s say you have four people on a team. Maybe you want them to share years of experience, areas of expertise, course expectations, and hobbies. I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, isn’t that the same old tired intro?” Nope. While the information may be similar, the technique used really drives home the team element allowing each of the four team members to collect information, document it, and share it with the large group. As an additional challenge, have each team create a team name that captures a common theme among the team members.

When it comes to conceptual content, it’s not as abstract as you may think (pun intended). When training sales people, for example, you will find that they will need to communicate product information to their customers. The conceptual opportunity comes from their ability to analyze a customer situation, and offer the right product for the right situation. One of my favorite icebreakers comes from my time in improvisational theater. It’s called, “The Prop Intro.” Find a unique prop such as a tennis racket. Have participants introduce themselves by name, and then use the prop to illustrate something about themselves. I might hold the racket like a guitar and tell the group that I play guitar. Someone else might hold it like a frying pan and say that they enjoy cooking. The icebreaker will get the group thinking creatively, and offer a subtle reminder that each customer is unique.

I suggest you check out some of our resources for more icebreaker ideas. You can also Google “icebreakers,” and after you sift through the mint pages of the candy websites, you’ll find many great sites for classroom icebreakers. The mints remind me of another technique. Get some packages of “Icebreaker Mints,” have each participant take as many as they would like, tell them not to eat them yet, let them count how many they have taken, and then invite them to share that many things about themselves with a small group or the entire group.

Selecting a variety of icebreakers related to course content can create unique training experiences. This will be a welcome and “refreshing” change in any classroom.

Jim