The Sandstone Team Building Blog

I stumbled across an academic paper the other day that really gladdened my heart.  We have long believed that the image that the phrase “team building” conjures up in most people’s minds – a group of people doing something physical outdoors, be it in a field, half way down a cliff or suspended in mid air in a variety of ways – is about as far away from actually building a team as you can get.  Feel free to view this article for more detail on our thoughts on this matter.  But this blog entry isn’t about our thoughts.  It’s about the thoughts of Dr Gene Benter, an International House Professor currently plying his trade in Saudi Arabia, the author of said paper.  It’s several pages deep and if you really want you can read the full article here or here.  But I think a significant chunk of it is wrapped up in his final conclusion.  Time to share some wonderful phraseology that sums up our own approach…

“Team building activities such as mountain climbing, cooking contest, and fire walks are ineffective exercises to develop team work because what is at stake in these activities is survival and not camaraderie.”

I love it.  In my view, these kind of team sessions can do more harm than good.  It’s one thing for an organisation to choose to use outward bound type sessions to test and develop people who have put themselves forward as potential leaders, managers etc.  It is quite another to subject every team member to something that, for some of them, is their very idea of hell.  He goes on to say that…

“Giving rigorous and difficult exercises for team building only discourage participants to commit themselves to the firm.  It is good to remember that people join the workforce to earn a living and not to subject themselves to pain and hardships.”

Dr Benter, you have at least one fan here – and a whole portfolio of activities that comply with your clearly well researched view.

Alan