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March 19, 2008

11:02 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Team Building and Change Making

| posted by Kevin Ohannessian

Karl Bimshas wrote a blog entry, Need Help? Be Specific, on team-building and team communication. My experience with team-building mirrors his closely. The activities were generally fun and got us communicating -- but I am not sure those exercises left a measurable impact on myself and my colleagues.

But even if the team-building games did not turn us into high-performance business machines, they had another effect. Team-building events, and off-sites in general, get everyone out of their normal comfort range. They let people do things they normally do not, in a place that they usually do not exist. In such a change of status quo, co-workers can learn new things about one another and gain a new sense of camaraderie -- if only by a small amount.

What have your team-building days and offsites been like?

Tags: Management, Work/Life, Team building
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Comments | 1

March 20, 2008 at 3:10am

Karl Bimshas

Kevin,

I think it frequently boils down to communication. When you are forced to slow down, learn about each others needs and allow yourself to be vulnerable, people quickly find common ground. Unfortunately, old habits are hard to replace. When we get busy and frantic the last thing we do is call a time out and regroup. It's counter intuitive, yet exactly what we need to do.

As for other team-building days; I can honestly say all have then have started with a shrug, groan and placating smiles and ended with a better understanding of each other. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

--
-Karl Bimshas

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