The Sandstone Team Building Blog

Regular readers of the blog will know that I like to introduce examples of where animals work together.  This time I am looking at two separate species who have very different strengths and skill sets, which seemingly have nothing to do with one another, yet they compliment one another.  They are the Watchmen Fish and Pistol Shrimp.  These two contrasting species work together to prevent being attacked and eaten by their predators.  The Watchmen Fish and Pistol Shrimp share a burrow, created by the shrimp and the Watchmen Fish looks out for predators.  The shrimps are fantastic at building burrows but do not have good eyesight.  Whereas the Watchmen Fish has excellent eyesight and can look out for predators, but struggles to build an appropriate burrow.  The two work together, one builds their burrow and the other looks out for potential predators.

This is something that we frequently see with the teams that we work with.  Those who have different skill sets are usually those who compliment one another the most – just like the Watchmen Fish and Pistol Shrimp.

Nikki

I am delighted to announce that we now have our second activity fully operational on our web based team building options web site Team Building Rescue.  It is our activity MiniTreasure, which is a web based treasure hunt.  From just £1.25 per person it is certainly worth a look!

Alan

With the growing use if, and interest in, networking sites we felt it was appropriate that Sandstone joins in on the fun.  We now have profiles on both Facebook and LinkedIn.  Feel free to follow us!

Nikki

May saw us, for the first time, run one of our world-leading online activities within a mainstream event.  MiniTreasure was integrated within a day that was headlined with Vision Idol and it was as fascinating for us to watch as it was fun for the participants to be involved in.  Held at a brilliant, shiny new venue – Moddershall Oaks in Staffordshire – we organised the group into two different sets of teams – 3 teams of 6 in their natural workgroups for MiniTreasure and 3 different teams of 6 to give them a chance to work across their natural teams for Vision Idol.

Vision Idol was its usual huge hit.  The teams loved using the props and came up with some truly unique images, but the thing that impressed us the most was the inter-team collaboration that we always encourage but rarely see on the scale we did with this group.  They were excellent.

But we have to say that MiniTreasure stole the show.  We suggested it as a relatively short (it ran for about an hour and forty minutes including a short preparation time and an excellent debrief) opportunity for the natural work teams to have some fun together before we mixed the teams up.  As it usually runs online without our involvement, what we didn’t realise is just how quickly people get into it and how much fun they have during it.  It was great to see and really pleasing to get some great feedback.  As much as they enjoyed Vision Idol, everyone agreed that MiniTreasure was the highlight of their day.

As it was ours.

Alan