Lasting value

You can take it for granted that a Wizards team development programme will be inspiring, creative, challenging, energising and enjoyable.

However, for it to provide lasting value and behavioural or organisational change, there needs to be significant underpinning thinking and design, that can only come from establishing a collaborative partnership between Wizards and our clients. This enables us to ensure that the programme is relevant, timely and addresses the real needs of the individuals, the team and the organisation.

I would like some teambuilding

Here are some thoughts that might help you to look beyond “I would like some teambuilding”...

We often get asked for a ‘teambuilding event’, probably more often than any other type of programme. However, teambuilding seems to mean something different to almost everyone who asks for it.

‘Teambuilding’ seems to be a generic term used, on different occasions, to cover any of:

• some creative (and fun) experiential learning
• a team social, ‘corporate jolly’, or team reward
• improving team working skills and behaviours
• helping new and established teams to develop their working processes or improve performance
• helping an executive team function more effectively together
• improving inter-team collaboration and partnership working
• a facilitated team ‘away-day’ to help share and re-focus on business priorities

Ask the right questions

Here are some questions that Wizards development consultants use to help to unravel what is really being asked for. You might find them useful to help focus in on what you really need...

• What is the business need for this project?
• What is the wider organisational background into which this need fits?
• What will a successful outcome look like / feel like?
• How will you know if success has been achieved?
• How will the project help to improve individual, team or organisational performance?
• In what way do the participants actually function as a team?
• What needs to happen in the lead-up to and follow-on from this project that will help to engage participants, and to ensure effective transfer of learning?
• How is the leadership of this team being developed?

Here is an example of unpicking a teambuilding request...

“My sales team hasn’t been meeting targets, and we need to motivate them - we would like a teambuilding away-day, with lots of high energy activities, so that they really start to operate as a team once more”

Our response: you seem to be asking for a ‘jolly’. Is this really what you want or need? Why aren’t targets being met? Who sets the targets? Are they attainable? Do you want us to work with you to address the underlying causes of your team’s underperformance? Are the individuals in the team incentivised toward or against collaborating with their colleagues?

And finally...

One question that can be useful at the start of a conversation to help unravel the meaning of teambuilding and focus on what is really being asked for is:

• And how will you know if your team has been successfully built?

To start a conversation about how the Wizards can help you define your goals and design creative interventions to improve your team’s performance in a measurable way, e-mail Toby Rhodes at toby.rhodes@thewizardsnetwork.com