The Sandstone Team Building Blog

Hi all. As Production Manager here, I’ve decided that my best contribution to our collective blog should be a “Team Building Event of the Month” slot. If nothing else, it saves me thinking too hard each time it is my turn! And I’m happy to make my first nomination.

During March, for me it has to be a Wild West event that we ran at the Abbley Hotel in Great Malvern. A very industrious group and between them they managed to pan more gold than any group before them. I must take my hat off - cowboy hat of course! - to the former geology student who set a new, impressive individual record of 140 pieces of gold!

Gunslinging was its usual fun activity, enhanced by the group banter - usually rude! - between colleagues. The finale may have been a bit more “Starsky and Hutch” than our more usual western-style shootout, but it still made for a fabulous finish and a wonderful addition to a great set of memories from this brilliant day.

Paul

When my gorgeous daughter was four weeks old (a lifetime and yet only six weeks ago) I sat on the sofa one morning and phoned my sister to ask where the off switch was. Francesca had been feeding and crying non-stop for a couple of hours and I was sure there must be some magical way to make her happy again. During the course of our chat my sister put her son on the phone, my three-year-old nephew Jack. As he came on the line Frankie started wailing again and I asked him if he could hear her. “Don’t worry Auntie Jo,” he said, “crying is just talking”.

Out of the mouths of babes! I couldn’t believe that a three-year-old had just shifted the whole thing into perspective for me. I have been involved in numerous team building events where the objective is to improve communications across departments, where colleagues complain that their point of view isn’t heard or that they aren’t made aware of important developments. My daughter was simply trying to communicate with me and I hadn’t been listening to her properly. It made me realise how important communication is, right from the day we are born. Maybe Jack should consider a career in team building…

Jo

Just a quick one for the blog today - everyone here at Sandstone would like to wish all our clients and visitors to our site a very happy Easter. For those who have to work over the long weekend, we hope you still get to enjoy some chocolate!

Barbara

While we’re waiting for one of our other team members to put pen to paper - well, fingers to keyboard - I felt the urge to add to my first blog. I am one of Sandstone’s Event Managers. You may have had the pleasure of seeing our online video – and yes I am the star! I am one of the main points of contacts for our potential, new and existing clients. I spend a lot of my time talking with people about what they want from a team building session. Once it has been booked, I also help sort through the logistics and make sure the day runs smoothly and, more importantly, delivers what they are looking for from it – whatever that is.

I enjoy giving this personal touch. The client has a single point of contact for all things Sandstone and we find that people appreciate this. I don’t attend all events, but I do use our excellent systems to ensure that our comprehensive briefing packs give my colleagues everything they need to deliver and at least meet - and usually beat - our client’s expectations. Those same systems ensure that if I am unavailable when one of “my” clients needs to speak with someone (even I have been known to take the odd holiday!) that my colleagues have everything at their fingertips and will be able to help.

I’ll blog again soon…

Nikki

If you have looked through our website you may already know we have designed our options to be completely mobile so we can run them anywhere a client would like well, as long as we have the space to safely do so! We’re happy to host our team building events anywhere in the UK and abroad. In fact our facilitators have recently gone as far as Dubai, Malaysia and even the middle of the Sahara desert! Of course, we also work closer to home, including venues near to our head office such as Chester Racecourse. We really aren’t fussy!

And our activities aren’t the only things which are mobile - so are our staff. We have team members based all over the UK - in Cheshire, Merseyside, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Kent, Sussex and Cornwall to name but a few! I myself spend most my time at our Nottinghamshire office or our Head Office in Cheshire well that is when I’m not out at an event.

And that’s one of the great things about this job the variety. One day I can be running a very intimate small team event the next I can be organising a 250 plus person event. It’s great, no two days are ever the same whether I’m in the office or out at an event. And that’s what we all like it keeps it interesting for us … and who wouldn’t want that?

Nikki