It's time to innovate! Web Conferencing by eBLVD can be useful to build morale and motivate your team - editor

Web Conferencing: Sucessful Team Building

Team building can give a powerful boost to the spirit and effectiveness of any group. Well designed and delivered team building programs can lead to better understanding, clearer alignment and much stronger motivation.

Organizing a "team building event" is a big responsibility. Use these ideas to make your event a well-planned and memorable success.

Set the Tone With an Inspiring Theme:
Telegraph the tone and purpose of your event with a theme that hits the mark. "The Second Annual Team Building Program" is not going to excite many participants. Here are examples of themes to motivate and communicate: "Rocket to the Top, Together!" (for a software company seeking to achieve dominant market share), "The Winning Team" (for a financial services company seeking to overcome competitors and economic adversity), "Forging a New Alliance" (for a medical services group managing a reorganization of roles and departments).

Prime the Pump for Full Participation:
Use internal communications to get everyone interested and ready for the event. Don't stop at generating the eBLVD meeting and invitation. Also use memos, bulletin boards, posters and the telephone to arouse people's curiosity.

You might circulate a list of objectives and issues for the meeting. You might conduct a survey prior to the meeting, announcing actual results during the program. You might task certain individuals with preparing a business presentation, or selected teams with creating and rehearsing an entertainment item.

Allow participants to attend 'from anywhere':
Give your participants the choice of where they'll be during the meeting. This allows participants to attend when they aren't distracted with their normal office tasks. Get your participants away from the workplace physically (minimizing disruptions) and mentally (opening their thinking to new points of view).

Use a Mix of Energy, Enterprise and Entertainment:
Stimulate interest and get involvement by using a full range of team building activities. You may have PowerPoint presentations about the future and workshops on current business problems. You may have "demos" and "previews" of upcoming products and features.

Allow Enough Time to Process, Discuss and Apply
Allow enough time between each activity for discussion, learning and application back to the job. It's better to allow enough time for discussion, than a "stuffed" meeting packed with agenda items with little time for reflection.

Focus on New Actions with "More", "Less", "Start" and "Stop":
During the meeting, have participants develop clear answers to the following questions:
"What do you want (the other person, department, etc.) to do more of?"
"What do you want (the other person, department, etc.) to do less of?"
"What do you want (the other person, department, etc.) to start doing?"
"What do you want (the other person, department, etc.) to stop doing?"

Towards the end of the meeting, participants can make another list of personal commitments:
"What am I committed to do more of?"
"What am I committed to do less of?"
"What am I committed to start doing?"
"What am I committed to stop doing?"

Use Photographs and graphics to Extend the meeting's Impact:
Engage a photographer and/or graphic artist to document your team building program. Give copies of meeting materials to participants after the event. Post the best ideas and outcomes on your bulletin boards, in the cafeteria, or publish them in the company newsletter. If you put them up on your company's Web site, then staff members can log-in and view them from home.

Harness the Power of Peripheral Players:
When selecting participants for your meeting, be willing to include those tangentially related to the core group. Internal customers, suppliers, neighboring departments, etc. can all yield a few participants who are "closely related" to your core group.

These "peripheral players" will often add significant value, perspective and insight to your program. They can also help with communication back into the organization after the event is over.

Get Personal:
Make sure everyone sees the link between "group team building" and "individual actions" on the job. Have each person complete a commitment card, action planning list, personal promise statement or some other vehicle to ensure application of appropriate new behaviors. Closing a team building event by having everyone share their list is a good way to gain buy-in from individuals, and the entire group.

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