As we move into bad weather - the rain is pretty bad again today - it makes me glad that most of our clients are utilising our extensive list of indoor teambuilding activities.
These activities have been designed to be both fun and insightful. Depending on each individual requirement, we can tailor your session to give you the best balance.
We feel that here in the UK, companies offer the best menu of activities in the world! Our unique blend of weather means that we have to offer activities for all seasons and every eventuality. As such, the diversity of activities is huge - from cooking events to team development workshops.
All this requires creativity and a will to offer clients something different. For those who have attended tembuilding sessions for a number of years, they will have seen a massive shift from 'traditional teambuilding activities', such as the trust fall (closing your eyes and falling into the arms of a colleague), to activities such as Calendar Creation and Animation? activities where clients get to make their own Wallace and Gromit masterpiece! We are constantly told by participants on our sessions that they were greatly relieved by the activity they had as they were dreading the day after finding out that they would be 'teambuilding'.
These perceptions have created barriers and ill-feeling towards teambuilding for a number of years. This has been added too from two sides - organisers picking activities completely unsuited to the participants and by teambuilding companies not understanding the dynamic of the group and just going for the easy sale.
The success of a session lies in understanding. Organisers need to look at the dynamics of their team and get a handle on what will work for them all - not just think about what they themselves might like. Secondly, if a company is asking for a type of event that will require people to operate well outside their comfort zones, the sales person should really ask the right questions about the possible expectations and limitations to the attendees.
As an example, a colleague once had to work on an event where the attendees were expected to camp and face boot camp type challenges. This is fine if the context works for the team and is appropriate. However, the previous year they had stayed in a 5 star hotel and done some great 'experience' activities. Added to this expectation, the participants were not told they would be camping until they got to their location! Cue lot's of discomfort for participants and the team trying to motivate what was a very disgruntled group. The management wanted the team to know that because their results were not as good as the previous year, there would be repercussions in terms of what their off sites would look like. This would have been better discussed in the office, rather than in the middle of a field where a 'punishment' mentality was being created.
Clearly, this is an example where both parties would have been better working out in advance the best way to internally sell this event to reduce the negative impact! It's also a great example of picking an activity for the wrong reason. The delegates from that session will now have a very negative view of a 'teambuilding session'. There is a great statistic that tells us that if you have a positive experience, you will tell a couple of people, however, if you have a bad experience, you will tell a lot more! We know have a situation where lot's of negative comments are associated with a 'teambuilding' day. We believe that this can and should have been avoided. That great word Communication should have been employed to a far greater extent.
Our hope is that we will do our best to not fall into that trap. We will do our best to get to the bottom of each and every enquiry to make sure we understand the reasons behind running the session and any pitfalls that we may see occurring. Right now, we suggest that the majority of events take place indoor. What I'd like to emphasise is that indoor doesn't mean that the activities are not to the same standard as outdoor options. They all stand alone on their own merit as they have been designed with the environment at the forefront. As a great example, our Countdown activity has been specifically designed to provide a table of delegates an opportunity to attempt up to 101 challenges - the details of which are all contained within the box. The challenges are mixed so that there are ones that appeal to a wide rank of people - from individual puzzles to team activities.
The message, therefore, is this - if you think great teambuilding can only happen outdoors, we ask you to think again. It's never been easier to add some fresh ideas to your off-site meetings. In the UK, you are in a unique environment where our typically British weather has had the effect of promoting creativity. All you need to do is make the most of it!
Kite Making
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and Pete for your facilitation of the Kite activity yesterday. Feedback from the team has been fantastic, we all enjoyed it immensely and look forward to reviewing the ads & photos....
Venue Treasure Hunts
The whole event was a lot of fun and very engaging, we learnt a lot from a behaviour perspective both working and communicating effectively with in a team. The staff were funny and relaxed and provide a great service. I will be sure to pass on my rec...
The Great Decoration Bake Off!
The Great Decoration Bake Off!
It was good to meet you and we had a great time in Cambridge. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the cake decorating - it was good fun and got everyone's creative juices flowing after 3 days of late nights. I would definitely recommend Team Building Solutio...
Teambuilding Activities
The day was a complete success and Andy, Steph and the team were brilliant. Steph was very organised and always easy to contact in the lead up to the day. Andy met is on site a few weeks before which helped me to see how everything would work. The eq...
I have to say that we had a brilliant 2 days at Careys Manor, the team building exercise was seriously good fun and brought us all together in a way that we hadn't previously. The dinner was excellent, and we ended up in the pub playing games and hav...
Emperors Aqueduct
The team at Team Building Solutions are brilliant. We find the tasks they do real help our staff come out of their shells, and definitely work better as a team. Quarterly team building sessions are now a regular feature our ongoing training sessions....
Teambuilding Activities
An excellent day which achieved all the objective that we set out to achieve. The staff were very good, made it fun and knew their stuff. I will recommend to others in the business....
Clay Shooting
Just wanted to thank you and the team for a terrific event yesterday. Everyone, without exception, really enjoyed the clay shooting so please pass on our thanks to Andy and Pete for their time, guidance and sense of humour ... and for laying on such ...
Country Sports
My contact was Steph who was very professional to the point of even on her holiday she was emailing me with updates. On the day of the event Andy & the team were very helpful. We had a great morning with the events chosen. Would recommend Teambui...
Food & Drink
Bespoke Cooking Event - I was really impressed with the presentation/setup of the activity and the quality of the team insight....
iPad Film Making
The iPad movie making was a huge success with the 80+ team. It brought out dormant talents and skills that aren't normally displayed in a professional environment, which allowed the team to really connect and appreciate each other. The challenge divi...
Country Sports
A fantastic day, great fun, the activities made us work together and support each other. I have been asked if we can do it again. Everyone throughly enjoyed it. Andy and the team were super. Hopefully will book our third event with you next year....
All For One
SDI & All For One - Very good doing the SDI feedback, very interesting. Need to keep this in front of mind when back in the office.
An extremely positive and informative day. Lots of learning to take away and take back into...
Sushi Making
Sushi making went down well with the senior leadership team. The activity allowed the team to split into three groups and test their dexterity and creativity in a competitive & safe environment. The event was run extremely well by Team Building S...
The Krypton Maze
We all really enjoyed the afternoon, and both Andy and Pete were understanding when our morning session overrun. I think the explanations at the end of each activity were great, and did make us think about things. I would definitely recommend your co...
All Activity Ideas
Belbin Team Roles - The day was very enjoyable. Better than I expected. I learnt a lot about myself and others and would recommend others to try the teambuilding activities. Excellent day that fully met the brief of what we were tryi...
The Krypton Maze
A somewhat apprehensive bunch quickly got "stuck in" and enjoyed the challenges - good variety of tasks. Everyone agreed that the event was far better than just go karting...
Canapé Creation
We had over-whelming positive feedback about the Canape making session. Pete & Steph were friendly, lively, funny and informative and offset each other very well. Despite the teams being pretty tired after their prior activities, the session rein...
Dash
It was a great set of activities engaging our staff. There was something for all to do. Well done to the team for coordinating such a great Dash Activity....
Countdown
The day and staff were all excellent, we had a great day and it really brought everyone together. Many Thanks...
The Krypton Maze
The feedback I had was brilliant, everybody had a really good afternoon and enjoyed the event....
Countdown
I just wanted to say thank you for making our event such an energised, dynamic and fun affair last week. Your guys were great, always smiling...You really listened to our brief and aims and adapted the activities to meet our agenda!...
Dash
Conference, Photo Mission, Dash And Quiz - A brilliant day was had by all and we have had some great feedback regarding the activities. You provided the right balance with nothing too strenuous and even those with health issues were able to participa...
The Krypton Maze
Andy, a quick note to thank you and your team for yesterday's event at Twickenham. It really was a masterclass on how to keep 60 competitive sales folk interested and active for almost three hours! The positive feedback has been flowing in today from...
Country Sports
Thanks for a great event today. All feedback has so far been extremely positive. Thanks...
The Krypton Maze
The feedback is very positive, everyone enjoyed the day and many people even commented that it was the best team building event they had been too!...
All For One
The day went down very well. All For One was a very effective vehicle to highlight some key patterns and brough out some of the key things that we had set out to achieve. Of particular note was the handover process and how there was some "blame" betw...
Casino Night
I just wanted to say what a wonderful evening we all had last night. I received lots of positive comments this morning from staff saying how much they enjoyed the Casino. Fantastically organised and excellent customer service - we would highly recomm...
All Activity Ideas
Change Management Workshop - Good blend of activities. The whole day just happened to fit perfectly in terms of timing with what is currently facing us. Thanks. Good balance of action vs setting and fun vs learning and serious messag...
Teambuilding Activities
Teambuilding & Belbin 2 Day Workshop Really enjoyed the workshop. Good mixture of theory and activities to keep the mind active. Good communication before the event and high quality course notes. Would definately recommend. Reall...
The Krypton Maze
Just wanted to say a big thank you to you and your team for the session yesterday. It went down really well, with many colleagues asking me how/where I found you....
All Activity Ideas
Interactive Orienteering Challenge - Just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for yesterday, feedback from everyone has been excellent and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The egg toss was still being mentioned this morning!!! Needl...
Teambuilding Activities
Shoot 'Em Up Challenge - The teambuilding people were friendly and motivating. We would like to use them again!...
Just a quick note to say thank you for your time on Monday, the feedback from the staff I have spoken with has all been very positive! So well worth the effort, I'm just disappointed I didn't have the time to take part....
London Monopoly Treasure Hunt
The team are usually a quiet bunch but they had an amazing day doing something completely different! A great day and I will definitely keep your details for any events like this in the future. Thank you for all of your help organising the event and p...
Forest Adventures
Bush Tucker Trial - Thanks so much for today, it was brilliant and went really well - and was exactly what we hoped it would be!! - Lola You guys were brilliant. Thanks so much again. - Hannah...
Paul did an excellent job of keeping us interested and sharing his experience with us. He certainly left us wanting more. We had so many questions but not enough time to ask them all. Although we very much heard his message about how important team w...
The Krypton Maze
Thank you so much to you and the guys for helping us with our clients event. Everyone mentioned after how much fun they had throughout the day. I was really impressed with how well organised the day was! From the initial brief to the end, the day's l...
