The Sandstone Team Building Blog

Hi folks – me again.  March has been a particularly busy month for us, a fact that would normally have made my selection process that much harder than usual.  But not this time.  Despite that fact that there are still a couple of days to the end of the month, my mind is made up.  To be fair, it has been made up since very early on in the month.  A single team Liberation event set the bar so high it was highly unlikely to be beaten this time in my estimation.

So, 10 senior people working together at our flagship offering when it comes to learning outcomes has got our team’s vote this time.  Interestingly, part of the reason for their dominance in our thinking was because their performance was one of the least successful we have ever seen.  So why did they get our vote?  Simple.  They really threw themselves into our structured debriefing process and got a huge amount out of it.  Their failings during the activity were down to a number of team methods that were far from supportive and there is nothing quite like a Liberation session to uncover better ways of doing things.  I have no doubt that they are now a significantly improved senior team back in their workplace.

The team was observed by two even more senior folk, both directors to whom the team members report, who commented how Liberation had managed to capture the team’s efficiency issues exactly as they saw them at work.  This of course happens time after time, but we have never failed to enjoy helping teams have a good, challenging experience that they enjoy and get so much out of that they leave the session better than they arrived.

I have a feeling April’s selection may be harder…

Paul

An odd title, I know.  Quite a while ago now I wrote a blog entry titled Team Building the Elephant Way, borne of my love for elephants.  So when I saw this article on the BBC News web site about bees and ants being real team players, I thought immediately that its detail added to my previous entry and that I should therefore write a little about it here.

The essence of the articles is that it distinguishes between two types of animal group behaviour that on the surface look almost identical.  One type is motivated by selfishness while the other by a natural, in-built desire for the common good.  Many animals can be seen to effectively “swarm” as a means to offer protection from larger predators.  One of the most obvious examples are schools of fish that swim closely together to provide protection from sharks and the like.  On the face of it, there is little difference between fish and bees, who also gather collectively when threatened,  However, what the researchers – scientists from Edinburgh and Oxford Universities – found is that bees and ants have very different motivations behind their similar looking behaviours.

Individuals in a fish swarm not only recognise the importance of sticking together, they also recognise that being in the middle is the safest place to be and do their best to get there.  The strongest tend to achieve this with the weakest being picked off if any are.  The same happens with other animals such as bison and other cattle.  Bees and ants, on the other hand,  co-operate to mount the strongest defence they can with those most capable of protecting the group as a whole naturally moving to the outside to defend with the best strength the group can muster.

Now I know that these are simply two different, natural mechanisms to help a species survive over time.  I appreciate that they are formed over millions of years of evolution and I am not expecting any fish reading this to change its behaviour and think “Ok, I want first crack at Jaws next time”, but most of our blog readers are intelligent, thinking beings who really can consider the upsides to the bees and ants shared approach.

Whereas fish and bison under threat are driven by personal survival, group survival is actually better served by the approach taken by the bees and ants.  For them, those most suited to the front line accept their responsibility without reservation and do their jobs to the best of their abilities.  In doing so, they maximise the chances of group survival and minimise the amount of damage done to their community.

That’s what I call true team behaviour and I would like to think that our team building options help teams achieve something similar.  Food for thought in these difficult times?

Nikki

One of the events I was at this week was in London.  Just a three hour session, 30 or so people in Covent Garden with our excellent Iceberg activity.  It was the size of group that meant one person could handle it all (I was scheduled), with all the equipment fitting neatly into one large suitcase.  Wheels are a wonderful invention.  This meant that I could take a train rather than be forced to drive in order to be able to carry the equipment.  A much better option for central London – or so I thought…

The outward journey.  I was booked on the 09:29 from my local mainline station, which actually turned out to be the 09:37.  I’ve been on more delayed trains, but rarely more crowded ones.  It seemed that this one was delayed in order to add another train’s complement of passengers somewhere up the line because it was feeling poorly and unable to cope with the demands of the day.  In turn, this meant that the catering side of the combined train was unable to cope also, running out of many drinks before I joined.  Why the orange juice couldn’t have transferred at the same time as a few hundred people, I don’t know.  Anyway, these things happen.  Seats were at a premium with many having to stand for about 15 minutes while the staff found where seats were available.  I think everyone got a seat eventually.  Mine was pre-booked, but I never got near it.  I was lucky in getting a seat in the carriage in which I was booked and close to where I could see the aforementioned suitcase.  The train got in just a few minutes late, no big deal but nothing for the operator to be proud about either.

Waiting for the return train, London.  One happy but hot and sweaty event facilitator after a successful event.  40 minutes to the scheduled departure time, neither first class lounge open.  Only a small thing, I know, but I was looking forward to the relative calm of the lounge after a excellent, boisterous session and a fast clear up.  A chance for them to win back the brownie points lost on the way down spurned.

The return journey.  The departure was bang on time and my seat was not already occupied.  Drinks were unrestricted and all available – they even had Orange Juice this time.  Things were looking up and some of the brownie points were making their way back.  After a while, the Train Manager announced our imminent arrival at our first stop and we duly stopped there on schedule.  Several people got off, one or two got on.  So far, so smooth.  A little while later we stopped at the station before our second stop.  No one got off, no one got on, but then we hadn’t been scheduled to stop there.  I assumed that the lights were against us there.  Maybe not.  A few miles up the track and the Train Manager announced our imminent arrival at our second scheduled stop.  I heard it.  Those wishing to depart there heard it, stood up, put on their jackets etc., picked up their bags and made their way to the doors at either end of the carriage.  As far as I can tell, the only person who didn’t hear it was the train driver.  We sailed right by.  Someone must have then mentioned to the driver his or her mistake because we slowed to a halt the odd mile or two the other side of the station.  A minute or two later, the Train Manager made an announcement to the rest of the train but for some reason not to our carriage.  A minute after that, someone else relayed the message to us.  Apparently, the driver was talking with the Station Manager.  Several announcements (none of which were properly heard in our carriage and none of which were this time relayed to us) and some 10 minutes went by and then the train reversed into the station.  Another 10 minutes went by with nothing happening and finally we resumed our journey, now 20 minutes late.  I’ve been delayed by more so no big deal but nothing for the operator to be proud about either.  Again.

So I got to thinking, if we ran our events in the same manner, what would one look like?  Well, we’d turn up late to set up for the event, not really sure how many people would be there and with nowhere near enough equipment to make it run properly if there were as many people as the room could hold.  We’d break early for refreshments and the venue wouldn’t be expecting us then, so we’d get everyone back in and just sit there for a while.  Then we’d try again (late this time, obviously) and the venue would run out of drinks anyway and have nowhere for the participants to sit during the break.  When it came to the equivalent of the journey home, the all-important debriefing session, we’d address all but one of the teams, who would never get to hear what we were saying, but, who knows, maybe they’d be able to work it out for themselves.  And of course we’d miss at least one of the client’s 3 main objectives for the session, waiting until people were laughing at us and completely unreceptive to what we had to say before shamefacedly going back to see if we could cover the missing objective after all.  Finally, we’d finish late.

Or not.  Trains in this country may not have been a nationalised monopoly for many a year, but the reality is that each major line is still a monopoly.  So if I go to London on the train, I don’t really have a choice who I go with.  We know our clients do have a choice who they go with for their team building events, so even if we didn’t have a natural, in-built passion to please (and we do!) and a determination to get everything right every time, we’d simply have to find both anyway or our clients would actually be someone else’s clients.  And we’re proud that they are ours.

Alan

A few blog entries ago, Nikki wrote about our new team activity that is due to be launched at the end of this month.  I’m not one of those who are in the early development team for this one – which means I get to be one of those that tests it!  And I do love playing with our new activities, seeing it for the first time – albeit while still in development – as our participants see it.  All fresh and new!

Well, I can tell you – it’s a fantastic new offering we have coming up.  I’m not going to spoil the launch by telling you any details, but I can tell you it’ll be streets ahead of the competition!  And yes, that is a small clue…

I can’t wait now until the first time that we actually run it with a client.  It has all the hallmarks of its stablemates – fun, challenge, learning for those who want it and it will surely be remembered for years to come by all who take part in it.  With it, I think we’ll be helping steer teams to ever greater heights.

And, yes – that’s another clue.

Steve

Well, it’s that time of the month again.  As usual, I have canvassed everyone’s opinion here and I am delighted to pick a relatively small Iceberg from our February events.   Iceberg was very popular in the month just gone as I write this – it is funny how our activities tend to take turns at leading the way.  Anyhow, sixteen very committed people in two very competitive teams in Warwick triumphed for us in February.  They had their own business session in the morning and when they came back from lunch were amazed to see how we had transformed the room from its presentation-style layout to something more suited to saving people on a stricken cruise ship in the Bering Sea.  We didn’t see any real icebergs though on one of the milder afternoons in mid month!  Not that Warwick University’s excellent conference centre sees too many icebergs this time of year anyway.  As usual with Iceberg, the teams got into the activity very quickly and were soon keeping warm building steamships and cracking open their Captain’s safes to get at the very important information contained within.

Importantly, they were as engaged with the debrief as with the activity itself and everyone commented on the quality of the outcomes they were taking away with them.  So they were as impressed with how they had spent their afternoon as we were with the talent on display in the room – even the team that came second (I could have said last but I’m feeling generous!) managed a very creditable score!

March has some interesting events booked, so I am really looking forward to my entry next time.  And I hope you are too!

Paul