We are the learning & development team of a local authority and have increasing demends to provide bespoke team development activities. As part of our own team developemnt day we are looking for a facilitator to give us some fresh ideas. this is a one day event in August.
kath gresty
6 Responses
Filmaking team builds
Hi there Kath
At PictureCo, one of the sevices we offer is bespoke training using our experience of the team building nature of filmaking.
Depending on the budget, timescale, number of participants and even more importantly the focus of the exercise, we create and deliver individual training packages that are not only fun and educational, but result in a demonstrable end product.
Contact phil@pictureco.tv for more information.
May be able to help
Hello there,
I’m a mature student currently doing a research degree. I have over 25 years experience as a training designer, developer, trainer and project manager – which I’ve done for various blue chip companies. I’m looking for a group I can test my ideas on as part of my MA thesis. Perhaps we can help each other?
I am currently developing a workshop for teams – giving them the tools to express themselves in order for them to develop within their organisational culture and move it on. It sounds serious but it should be really good fun!
I am booked up on the week of the 7 August – any other days are fine.
If any other organisations are interested – please get in touch too! I need to test this as much as possible.
Contact details: naylorstables@btopenworld.com
Belinda Naylor-Stables
team building – in the context of goals
Hi Kath,
I have been thinking about this since reading your post. For me I believe it depends whether you are looking for team building or team working?
In addition are you looking at new or existing teams?
I have been doing some work recently where we identified that many of the ‘traditional profile’ based methods appear to look at relationships focused on process rather than on delivery of goals or outcomes. In there own way they are valuable tools but have a finite life with the team members themselves.
One approach I have used was where the client needed to have a team that was more open to innovation but without looking at the traditional approaches to innovation of developing creative thinking. What we did was focused on the goals of the team(s) and the relationships throughout the changing phases of the project – beginning middle & end – as the dynamics required were different. Have a look at the book “the Innovation Equation” by Jacqueline Byrd, Byrd gives some interesting insights in to leadership in teams & innovation inside the ‘rank & file’ of an organisation.
Another team I have worked with had been together for some time but others joining had problems integrating. They had used Belbin, SDI & MBTI in the past but felt that everyone had been there & got the t-shirt. So we started looking at the dynamics of joiners & leavers. We helped the existing team develop the skills to integrate new people and help get over the changes of balance when members left. The groups said this was a powerful yet simple skill set.
I am not around in August (clients!) but happy to share some thoughts with you.
Mike
Outstanding Team Facilitator
I’d like to recommend Steve Marriott of Kaizen Training. Hands up now that has recently joined our team, but until a few months ago he was the Training Manager at Alton Towers and a client of mine.
I don’t think I could give him a more glowing recommendation than to say I asked him to join us on the basis of the team interventions he led at Alton and accross the Tussauds group.
You can contact him at steve@kaizen-training.com
Get the team to ‘bespoke’ the training.
You appear to have a contradiction here. For both cost and quality assurance reasons your trainers will want to have materials and an approach which are consistent and reusable with different teams with little adaptation. On the other hand the teams want to be seen as special and demand a ‘bespoke’ approach. Resolving such contradictions is a key feature of the TRIZ problem solving approach*.
You do not say what the purpose of the team building is. If it is simply a bonding/relationship building exercise then there are lots of fun and unusual exercises you can do and I am sure you will receive details of many. If however teams attend the training so as to be able to improve how they operate, then teaching them some TRIZ basics would be an excellent activity. The techniques are rightly described as ‘brainstorming on steroids’. The exercise would be highly participative and the team members would develop implementable improvement plans for back in the workplace.
Your training team could easily pick up enough knowledge and skill during the away day you mention to run a simple workshop themselves. I envisage your trainers presenting some of the team work topics as they do now but then incorporating the TRIZ workshop into the mix. Your trainer will concentrate on teaching some of the techniques but once the team members are familiar with them they should be capable of applying them to a wide range of issues/problems they have. The outcomes generated would be specific to the team but the trainer’s preparation would not be much different for each team. In effect the team themselves do the ‘bespoking’. Contradiction resolved.
I would be pleased to discuss this further and offer any help I can.
*If you have not come across this before it was a Russian approach to problem solving which was initially applied to engineering and scientific problems. Introduced to the West, it is starting to be used to address many business problems.
Fresh ideas
Hi,
I would suggest two things,
Firstly, I have run a workshop for trainers based on a book I wrote a few years ago called NLP – Skills for Learning which is very popular with trainers, teachers etc. I have run the workshop for a number of companies, most recently a major insurance company said that the workshop has transformed the way they run internal training – regulatory issues and training that used to be boring is now invigorated, and the sales managers are noticing that the call centre staff are behaving differently as a result.
You can find out about the book at http://www.ciauk.com/nlpskillsforlearning.htm or the main site at http://www.ciauk.com
The second idea is that if it’s team building you’re interested in then, in my experience, nothing comes close to Ascent – http://www.ascent-experience.com which is a unique adventure coaching experience. Although there is an ‘off the shelf’ version, Ascent is uniquely designed for each client to create a journey of discovery that helps to align teams more powerfully than any ‘team building’ activity, form compelling strategy and solve complex organisational or relationship problems.