h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Any ideas for good, practical, fun and cheap to organise exersises?

I have been asked to help organise an event to support a team of about 20 people who are starting to bicker about their thier professional roles. there are some personalities who are stronger than others. Mixed intelectual ability but nobody dim.

We have about 1/2 a day (and perhaps an evening).

Ages 30 - 65 and varying levels of fitness. Cars available.

No navel gazing.

?

PP

A paintball range.. or a cyber gun gun range..

What a fabulous way of getting rid of your aggression..

Forget all that corporate team-building, Lazer Tag, 'build a time machine out of a pencil, an aardvark, 2lbs of salt and a pair of Y-fronts' Crystal Maze-type crap. Just take 'em all down the pub and get 'em good and

Goooooooooooooooo team!

Actually the pub option maybe a good idea, team building days are much talked about, and greatly talked up , mainly by the team building companies.
But I saw a phychologist(sp?) on Tv talking about them and he said they can make work problems even worse. He said many managers are in their jobs not 'cause they are natural leaders but simply 'cause they were given the Job.
Team games building rafts,etc can expose the manager for how weak they really are when all are equal on team building day, causing more problems on return to work.
.
I personally avoid meeting those I work with out of work hours due to fear of me giving some of them my honest opinion of them, and I know what I would really like to say to a manager who has said "I don't hear the word why" in a meeting, what can you say to such arrogance and stupidity!

Biscuit game?





(I appear to be in one of those moods. 'Bout bleedin' time; I've been a miserable sod for a week now!)

Volleyball's pretty good. Easy to book a sports hall, net and ball.

Rules are simple, for amateurs you can play men against women and fit against unfit, and it doesn't reduce one to a gibbering wreck within 15 minutes.

If I can play it, anyone can.

B

Team building is always a dodgy subject they generally have a bad vibe about them.

A good thing to do would have a meal but pull seating plans out of a hat and then go on to a comedy club with drinks before hand. Or have the seating at the comedy club with food there. Then maybe the next day do more formal exercises to pull out postive stuff to move your department forwards. After an evening out (and some recovery time) they should be more open to working together etc.

Something slightly linked:

A friend went on a days conference with his Uni department and new main boss. The Boss set down a rule that if anyone slags off anyone else in the department they were to put £1(or was it £5?) in a kitty which then went to charity.

People were a bit iffy about it but the boss actually said something iffy and put a tenner in the kitty(possibly on purpose?) and the day went incredibly well with no bickering. My friend said it was a really positive and useful day.

I think I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than go on one of these team-building weekends, and if they tried it with the people where I work it would be a complete and utter shambles

I have been on ordinary courses were they play games of throw the pretend ball around!
....give me strenght.

I've always found the best team building happens in the pub. Problem is, in this 'ere multicultural & Grauniad reading society the pub isn't an inclusive option.

I've tried organising team lunches. Nightmare.

'I'm vegetarian'. No problem.
'I don't eat pork.' No problem.
'I don't like spicy food.' OK, should be able to find somewhere.
'I don't do pizza.' Right, so that's the obvious option done away with.
'I only eat halal'. Fine.
'I won't eat halal.'

Right then. You lot can arrange your own lunch - we're off to the pub.

People always have problems and no solutions and in the end one gives up.

I don't think we're helping Mr Pink Paisley too much are we

We had a team building exercise in which we did a road rally. Sort of a scavenger hunt in cars. Since you have 20 you could have 5 teams of 4. You have to have a bunch of clues and then have someone at each estination distribute another clue. The end spot is usually a pub or house with food and drinks. For example, we all started out with a clue that led us to pizza hut. The people at pizza hut gave us a clue that led us to a local grocery store, the people at the grocery store gave us another clue which led us to another destination. At the end we got to someone's house. Whoever got there first and last were awarded a prize. There were the usual rules about obeying traffic signals, but it was alot of fun. The teams were set in advance so no one got to pick who they were with. We all got a little competitive but had a good laugh. By one of the final destinations we had people that would be doing silly things such as barracading doors with their bodies so people couldn't get the next clue until their team figured it out. Oh yea, the clues are in sort of a code or rhyme. There is guesswork involved but it should be very easy.

Ok, more helpful then, how about a trip to a theme park, famous art exibition, zoo, etc.
....these involve no eating/drinking problems, or at least they could bring their own sandwiches, etc.
There is no competative/conflict element anyway.

But it's the competetive/conflict element that, oddly, lead to the team building.

Besides:

'Tate Modern?'
'Nah, I don't do modern art.'
'Tate Britain?'
'You're joking! Turner's so passe, darling.'
'National Gallery?'
'Too much marble, and I don't like sandwiches.'

I work 15 minutes (on a 29 bus) from the National Gallery. So far I've managed to get the grand total of three people to go...

...as a brief interlude on the way to 'Halfway To Heaven', a gay bar opposite St Martin's In The Fields, next to the gallery.

As a serious answer, I think paintballing's a good idea. You will *never* be able to please everybody. Unfortunately the people you can't please are probably exactly the ones that need the team building.

That would be me then

If you have a bit of cash, there are various organisations out there that will organise activities that are designed to give everyone a bit of a go, not be too agressive, and create some 'light' team building.

Treasure hunt type activities, often with a bit of a Sherlock Holmes type theme, or game playing for a younger team can both work.

If the entire team is pissed off, these won't (obviously) solve the actual problem. If they are just disgruntled it can help to clear the air and make people feel a little better about the company and their colleagues.

There will always be one cynic who will moan about everything. Still, at least that way you can identify who you need to get rid of at the next redundancy round...

sprout

Pub-style quiz with a good mix of questions/puzzles? I say pub-style because not everyone is comfortable in pubs.

Calvinball!

Went to one of these once where we all did maybe thirty ganes over the course of a day. Some were a bit painful, but some were great fun - blindfolded jeep driving was good - 4 people in the jeep that has to go around a course 4 times. Each time there is one blindfolded driver, and one 'director' but everyone is in the car and you learn how to communicate better with each circuit - our last round was *much* quicker than the first, but there was no within-car competition. The aim was to complete all four circuits faster than another team, not to see who got the fastest individual circuit.

We also did a kind of treasure hunt thing around london where each team of 6 had a disposable camera and were given a series of photos that had to be taken - but the precise location was given in the form of a cryptic clue. You got all the clues at the start of the day and had to get as many pics as possible - I think points were deducted for getting any of another team in shot so you had to try to get round everywhere in a different order. At the end ofthe day it was back together again for tea while a one-hour photo place printed the pics, we then had half an hour to stick them on a board and then got to see how all the other teams had interpreted the instructions and the silly photos over a drink or six. This was a good fun day.

Has anyone actually looked at defining their professional roles? Do they really just need to sit down together with a neutral chairman/facilitator & discuss the issue?