The Sandstone Team Building Blog

We’re delighted to announce that our case study for our fabulous DNV KEMA Space Rescue event is now available.  You can view it here.

Enjoy!

Alan

The team building event of the month for February was a tough choice, but our eventual winner was an absolutely fabulous Memory Lane event held in Brighton.  Every single person there was in high spirits.  They were excited and looking forward to a really good fun day ahead of them.

And they weren’t disappointed – and neither were we!  Memory Lane has many potential highlights for everyone taking part, and this group certainly had many highlights.  Whether it was trying to out do one another (and our hula expert!) on the hula-hoop, with not one, not two but up to three hoops going at once!  Or showing their fantastic interpretations on disco moves.  Or everyone coming together to cheer on and encourage their nominated team members in their energetic performances to be crowned the best air guitar player.

A lot of fun and enjoyment, and a truly lovely client.

Nikki

When we run team building events with a learning focus for clients we always make sure that they understand we cannot change who their people are.  We can add to the their experience, working practices, but they are who they are.  It is important to understand that and to find ways for team members to work effectively together.  After all, when you were a child no matter how hard you tried, that square peg would never fit in to the round hole.  You learnt that lesson as a child, so try and remember that when you are working with your team.  It is not that they can’t learn new things and approaches, but if they are a square peg they will never fit in the round hole.

We can help you find the square holes for the square pegs, and the round pegs for the round holes.  Contact us to find out how we can help you on 01159 715690.

Nikki

Some friends of mine recently purchased some flat pack furniture.  They were very excited.  They had moved into their new home and wanted to get their furniture all built and in place so they could unpack and make their home just that – their home.  Unfortunately, for each bit of furniture some key parts were missing. Or the wrong sizes are been provided.  Not exactly the start they had hoped for, as without each of these keys bits the furniture was not usable.  As every part has it’s place and purpose.  Without one of those bits, the furniture is not solid and can fall apart.

And teams are not that different.  Teams don’t just come together and work because we want them to.  They need to be built and developed.  They need all the key components to ensure they work.  They need a direction, goal, functioning relationships, and strong leadership amongst others.  So to make sure your team stays together, just the way it should, don’t forget to spend time developing your team with team building events – after all, you don’t want your team to fall apart.

Nikki

It is important in whatever industry you are in, that you do not forget about your customer service.  Your customers are the most important aspect of your business – without them you will struggle to be here at all.  Not every team in every organisation will have customers external to the organisation, some have internal customers – so people in other teams.  It doesn’t matter if your customers are internal or external.  What is important is that you do not forget them.  Try and see the service you are offering them from their point of view.  Would you be happy with the service you are offering them?  Hopefully the answer is yes, but if not, it means there is a bit of work to do.

We have many activities including, but not limited to, Iceberg, Romanbar, Space Rescue and Wild West, that all focus on effective customer service. If you need to take a fresh look at your team’s customer service skills, why not contact us and we’ll help you identify the right team building activity to help you.

Nikki

Most team leaders and managers will at some point in time be faced with the dilemma of risk versus rewards.  This is when they need to make the decision “is the risk of making the decision greater or smaller then the reward?”.  So is it worth taking the risk for the benefit of the reward?

This can be difficult for many team leaders and managers, especially if they have had no previous experience of making risk versus reward decisions.  To help them prepare for these kind of decisions it is beneficial for them to practice in a situation which can have no negative consequences.  Our team building activity Liberation is a superb scenario for them to practice such decisions.  If you would like to see how Liberation, or one of our other team building activities can help your team leaders and managers, then please contact us and we’ll help you help your team leaders and managers.

Nikki

As you might expect, the majority of the blogs we write and put on here are related to team building and team work.  Not unsurprising given the nature of our work.  We like to draw inspiration from time to time from our own experiences.  This blog is one of those times.

In November Alan and I took a holiday to Egypt.  Our colleague (and more importantly daughter) Nikki had been on an amazing trip to Egypt earlier in the year, and we caught the bug from her.  We wanted somewhere that would still be warm and dry – we had unseasonably high temperatures for Egypt so it was even warmer then we have hoped for!  Nikki was full of praise and excitement for the Pyramids, so we knew we just had to take a day trip to see them.  We weren’t disappointed.  The sight is amazing, no description can do them justice.  But even more, the pure accomplishment of what was achieved is unbelievable.

Using no technology that we are aware of, they managed to collect stones, bring them to site and chisel them by hand into perfect size pieces to build an amazing structure.  It is somehow held together without any cement – that is how perfect the pieces and construction of it is.  But, they could not have achieved it without team work.  Everyone needed to play their part to work together to achieve these wonderful constructions.

We could all learn a thing or two about team work from the Ancient Egyptians.

Barbara

We are delighted to announce that we will be exhibiting at the Learning Technologies 2013 exhibition on Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th January at the Olympia 2 in London.

We are Stand 37.

Why not come along and meet us in person?

Alan

This week’s blog is something some people might consider quite apt and seasonal.  If you are anything like me, you’ll probably enjoy indulging yourself over the festive period – after all with such lovely food on offer it would be rude not too.  Or at least that’s the excuse I like to give myself!  Having said that, I do like to try and stay healthy.  I am aware that come the New Year I need to do a little bit more work to counteract my indulgent period.  And I’m ok with that, I am aware that to reach my target of keeping healthy I need to put more work into my exercise come the New Year.

It would be great if there was an instant fix that meant I didn’t need to put the work into it, but the truth is you need to put in work to achieve your goals.

And the simple fact of the matter is that is true for teams at work as well.  Teams do not achieve their goals by sitting back and relaxing.  They need to put the effort in.  But sometimes, just like in all other areas of our lives, teams need a bit of extra help.  This may be mentoring from a colleague or manager.  Or it might be about them spending time together identifying the areas they need to work on, so they can achieve their goals as a team.  And our team building events are designed to help you and your team do just that, and therefore to help you achieve your goals.

Let us help you achieve your 2013 goals.  Give me a call on 01158 715690 and I’ll help you identify the best team building activity to achieve your goal.

Nikki

A very happy 2013 to all of our existing clients, new clients and blog readers alike.  We hope that 2013 is a happy and successful year for you all.

The Sandstone Team