The Sandstone Team Building Blog

Our team building event of the month for December had to be a fantastic Memory Lane, our largest one to date, run at the Reebok Stadium.  With the majority of our facilitation team being avid football fans, the venue was perfect!  We even managed to get a sneaky peak of the pitch with its floodlights on the night before when our preparations began.  This event wasn’t just chosen for the event of the month because of the venue, the client didn’t let us down: they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were a laugh a minute!

With it being December, there was a subtle Christmas theme throughout, with each team having their name after the twelve days of Christmas.  With more than 12 teams we had some inventive ones mixed in as well.  We had lots of “gifts” and “true loves” amongst the many “maids a milking” and “lords a leaping”!  Continuing the Christmas theme, we created our very own pop band who played a brilliant rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ which had everyone singing along, some in the audience even got up on their feet to get a better glimpse at the new pop stars and to dance along!  Whether it would ever rival Band Aid in the real charts is something that you’d have to decide for yourself…

Everyone got involved with all the tasks available, whether they were pouring over the many artists from each decade, competing in PacMan, completing wordsearches, hula hooping or creating beautiful flowers for the origami garden.  The stand out highlight for us, the facilitation team, and quite likely the client as well, had to be the Air Guitar contest.  The winner was certainly one of our best competitors to take part to date!  Even the others guitarists competing were watching the winner rather than concentrate on how to entertain the audience themselves!

All in all, it was a brilliant event to end the year with.  We’re looking forward to 2012 bringing us more of the same!

Nikki

It is that time of the year again.  And everyone at Sandstone wishes all of you a Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings.  We hope you enjoy whatever you chose to do over this festive break.

Until 2012 …

Barbara and everyone in our team!

It is great when managers decide to arrange something special for their team and to treat them to a team building event.  The only issue comes when they arrange the same thing that’s been done to death already.  What’s the point?  They’ve already done it and learnt from it.  People like to try something new.

It’s like when someone goes to a restaurant and always orders the same thing.  They never try anything else to see if they like it.  They are scared of change and not enjoying what they select – even though all the ingredients are things they’ll enjoy!  When they do eventually get convinced to try something new, you can pretty much guarantee that they will like it.

So don’t be that person the next time you are going out for a meal or are arranging a team building event.  Instead, order something new.  Either off the restaurant menu, or call us on 01158 715690 and see what new and exciting team building activity we can offer you for your next team building day.

Nikki

Press Release:

It’s hard enough – and expensive enough – arranging a proper team building session for a group of people who all work together in the same place. For geographically spread “virtual” teams, though, the logistics and the expense both go through the roof. Travel arrangements are a nightmare with a price tag to boot. And even those organizers forward-thinking enough to see it as an investment, rather than a cost, struggle to see the relevance of an activity that relies upon people being physically together when the group clearly works in a different way entirely.

Enter Sandstone, team building specialists with a flair for innovation and a proven track record in using technology to deliver great results. Having already created the world’s first team building activity that is delivered 100% online with their “Space Rescue” offering – and the world’s second for that matter with “MiniTreasure” – they have trumped themselves with their latest addition to their portfolio.

VirtuWall is a fully facilitated, 100% on-line, full-blown team building activity designed exclusively for virtual teams. Team members join in from wherever they are – all they need is an Internet connection and a browser. It combines fun with team learning that has direct and real relevance to virtual teams. And it isn’t just Sandstone claiming that – the first client of theirs to benefit from this new experience is in full agreement:

“We had a fantastic day and I have had great feedback from all regions.” says Glynis Moreton, Marsh & McLennan’s Director of Finance Infrastructure Solutions – Global Support. With over 50,000 employees, Marsh & McLennan companies are among the world’s leading global advice and solutions providers in risk, strategy and human capital. The FIS team supports the whole group, with a presence on every continent except the Antarctic.

“It’s not practical for us to all get together.” Moreton continues. “There are some 120 of us and as much as we’d love to get everyone in the same room, the negatives outweigh the positives for that to happen. Apart from the logistics and the cost there’s the fact that we work together through technology and any team activity that didn’t duplicate that would be missing a key parallel back into our workplace. We wanted something that everyone could enjoy – whether they were in an office with a few colleagues or on their own at home – and that offered some insights that would help us develop as one, big global team. VirtuWall certainly delivered all of that for us.”

Sandstone’s web-based technology is the glue that holds it all together. For those with a technical interest, it is AJAX based, hosted on a dedicated server with partners Titan Internet and incorporates the lead facilitator through an embedded, dedicated “pro” video stream served by Livestream.

Describing the action is best left to Sandstone’s Nikki Hunt. She explains “VirtuWall is fundamentally collaborative. The ‘wall’ part of the name refers to a large client-supplied image that is relevant and of interest to the group. At the start, it is covered up and, organized into teams, the group as a whole need to work together to uncover it by tackling a huge variety of tasks the system sets them. The sheer variety means people can choose to do things they enjoy, whether cerebral in nature, creative, lightly physical and so on. Some tasks can be tackled quickly by individuals while others require a few people to work together, sometimes across locations. Others still require all teams to work together. A few of the tasks are competitive, and these often generate the most laughter.”

Hunt concludes “At the end of the session, we’ve delivered many parallels for the client to the way the team works day-to-day. Sometimes people have to get on with individual tasks, sometimes they need to work in their teams and always for the good of the group as a whole. They’ve had to use technology to co-ordinate their actions in order to deliver the most that they can and communicate across locations effectively. We’re able to use those parallels in a focused debriefing session at the end to send teams away ready to improve and with huge smiles on their faces.”

The last word should surely be from the client, though. Glynis Moreton again: “I’ve already recommended it internally.” Perhaps it will not be long until there are more faces with huge smiles on them.

Nikki Hunt, Lead Facilitator, Sandstone

The VirtuWall Interface

Formed in 1992, Sandstone is a family-owned and family-run business that cares about quality and client satisfaction.  It develops and runs unique activities that mixes participant enjoyment with team, departmental and organisational improvement.  Based in the UK, it operates both nationally and internationally through a worldwide network of partners and its innovative web-based activities.

The team building event of the month for November was a very close call.  There was a joint Iceberg and Liberation held in Cardiff that went brilliantly! They started with Iceberg and the following day ran Liberation. The client gained lots of insight and learning that they were excited to take back to work.  However, it was just beaten by the first running of our brand new event VirtuWall.

Just like at all of our events, our team were fully prepared and excited to start.  We were all watching the clock waiting for the lead facilitator to start the event with the opening line “Hello all, and welcome to VirtuWall“.  It was just like any other event, but with one major difference… we couldn’t actually see the client!  VirtuWall is run over the Internet.  No one involved even has to be in the same room.  We had participants from 5 different continents, many countries and time zones!  Even our facilitation team, while all in the same country, unlike our client, were in two locations – our lead facilitator was some 80miles from the rest of us during the event.

I can tell you now, seeing only our lead facilitator from the live video and not being in touching distance with those involved made no difference to our client’s experience.  Using the “Chat with Your Team” and “Chat with Everyone” function there was plenty of banter going back and forth not only within teams, but across teams as well.  If anything, it enhanced the banter, it was written down for all to see and join in with!  Our team facilitators even found themselves getting involved!  The level of competition was high and not just between the teams – our team facilitators were racing to tell their teams good news before the lead facilitator could “steal their thunder” when announcing it to everyone over the live video.

It was clear to see from the various chat boxes and the number of tasks being attempted that everyone was engrossed in VirtuWall and our facilitation team were no different.  At the facilitation team ‘hub’ where most of us were based, we had a colleague at the ready to get us drinks – however, everyone got so involved following their teams progress the need was quickly forgotten.  They were busy marking answers in the team chat, looking (and occasionally laughing) at the pictures the teams sent in, watching how the teams were faring on the leaderboard and following the numerous banter-filled conversations.  The ‘drinks-getter’ ended up hovering over everyone’s shoulders to keep up with the action herself!

Our client mirrored our facilitation team’s enjoyment during the event and delight after at the success of it.  We received many thanks from all those involved, including some amazing feedback the next day.

All in all, it was one for the books and we can’t wait for the next one!

Alan

P.S. Keep an eye out for our press release in the coming weeks!

A brand new client asked for a lecture on team building. They are building a full lecture programme on each of the competencies in their management competency framework. Four of the competencies are considered “core” and team building is one of those four. They are inviting recognised world authorities and opinion makers on each subject to deliver between two and three hour lectures to their top 150 managers. And they asked us to deliver for them on the subject of team building.

In Brazil.

I was the chosen speaker and as hard as I tried I really struggled to come up with a good enough excuse (my colleagues rather uncharitably feel that I didn’t put up the greatest fight!) to avoid travelling to one of the most fabulous places on Earth. The Barra da Tijuca (just Barra to those who have been) area of Rio de Janeiro. As a residential area, it’s very popular with some of the most talented footballers on the planet, among others. It also is home to the largest shopping centre (mall) in South America. Trust me. I walked through it. It’s on the big side.

The set up was very professional and, for those who wanted it, a small team of two talented people offered continuous simultaneous translation into Portuguese. Fewer than 5% of those attending opted to wear the compact headsets though, so clearly the level of English competence in the room was very high and I’d like to think that the pace and delivery style I used was just about right for the audience.

I covered major models on team effectiveness and the vital roles that team leaders play in turning a group of individuals into a high performing team. The feedback was very positive from our contacts and the participants alike and everyone went away with an action plan of things to implement to improve their teams wherever in that vast country they are based in. With some 10,000 employees all over Brazil, the audience came from far and wide.

My lecture was in the morning. In the afternoon, they had booked one of the most famous people in Brazil – the explorer Amyr Klink. He tackled his subject from the viewpoint of his explorations around the world. I was able to stay and watch and listen to his presentation. It was in Portuguese and so I couldn’t follow any of the detail, but the laughter of the audience and his relaxed speaking style told me that he was a big hit with the group. And his photos were stunning. Very Frozen Planet. It was an honour to share a platform with the man.

An excellent relationship has been established and we’re hopeful of a return journey there to build upon the initial work we have done with that client. If only to see more of one of the most beautiful and longest beaches in the world. Around the time of the Rio Olympics would be good. They’re hosting the beach volleyball there. Count me in…

Alan

As a child, or perhaps even an adult, have you ever stretched a rubber band?  I imagine you have.  I also imagine there have been times when you stretched it just a little bit too far and it snapped.  I’m sure you remember it, as I’m sure your fingers got a little stung!

Our teams at work are no different.  If you keep pushing them and pushing them, without ever letting them relax and getting rid of some of that tension, then they will end up just like those rubber bands.  They will snap.  Instead, you need to look after your team.  Yes it is good to push them, but you need to know what their limits are and when they need a rest.  This is something that comes up in the debrief sessions for our team building activities.  Some people feel stretched to the limits and like they are about to snap – what they really need and want is for others to help them out.  So, a key learning from team building is helping people realise when they need to ask for help, but likewise making others realise when they need to offer help to their colleagues as well.

Alan

When making cocktails, there is rarely one set recipe you have to follow.  There are many different style cocktails, and even many different versions of a cocktail which has the same name.  This is because people have different preferences.  Different versions of the same ingredients work well.  It is about finding the right combination or the perfect blend for you.

Creating your own team at work is the same.  You have to find the perfect combination for your team.  You need to find out which strengths people have that complement one another and are beneficial to the team.  This can be difficult to achieve without a little bit of help.  Team building activities are an excellent tool to use to identify what skill sets and strengths you have in your team, but also what skill sets and strengths you are lacking and will add to your team.  They can, in essence, help you identify your team’s perfect blend.

Nikki

I’m pleased to announce the winner of the October team building event of the month.  It was a brilliant First Contact in Northumbria.  Even if our group were a little doubtful to be thrust into space so “early” in the morning, they were students after all, everyone had to be brought back down to Earth once it had finished.

Despite initial concerns that the lighting in half of the room was not working – leading to us referring to it as “The Dark Side”, rather fitting with the space theme – it could make completing tasks a little challenging.  The onsite technician was fantastic and came up with excellent fix for us.

The maze and Max the robot were as big hits as ever.  The highlight of the day for me has to be the competitive tasks, for a number of reasons.  Firstly, I had a role change within the facilitation team.  It was the first time I had the opportunity to run these tasks.  Which leads me onto my second reason, I got to see just how much the client loved taking part in them!  There was plenty of laughter and banter within and across teams, even from those not taking part in the tasks themselves.  Most competitive tasks were run in heats, yet teams were so eager to take part that they would stand on the sidelines watching the first heat waiting for their chance to join in!  Finally, every team did brilliantly in them.  Every heat and final were really close, everyone put up a real fight to be crowned champions for each task!

An excellent day with some great suggestions for what the group will all take away from the day during their debrief session.

I’m looking forward to our next First Contact event, especially if it brings the same results, both for us the facilitation team and the client, as this one!

Jenny

A team is a bit like a piece of machinery.  It needs maintenance to ensure it is working to it is maximum capacity.  If we look at cars, as an example: cars require regular (usually annual) services and MOTs to ensure they are in a safe driving condition to be on the road.  If they pass the service and MOT they are safe to drive.  If they don’t pass, then work will need to be done on certain areas to ensure they are safe to drive.  Once those modifications have taken place the owner can drive his or her car.

So, what does this mean in regards to our teams at work?  Teams are like cars and other machinery; they don’t just work because we want them to.  They need regular maintenance as well.  For teams, the equivalent of a car MOT is a team building event.  The team building will help identify areas where the team are performing really well, but likewise will highlight areas where there is, shall we say, room for improvement.  The team then knows where they need to work and improve to ensure they are working as they should be.

Regular team building events are just as important and necessary for our teams at work as MOTs are for our cars.

Paul