Team Building? Oh No, Not Another Pointless Activities!

Sometimes I feel frustrated at the way some trainers use activities. In short, the activities can be excellent, but you really need to know why you're using them and what people are going to get from them.

Let me give you an example.

There are a lot of "team - building" activities based on problem solving. You've probably seen, you're stuck on the moon or lost in the desert (yes, the situations of daily life for most of us - you have lost your car in the supermarket may be more appropriate).

You can get a list of items and you have to arrange them in terms of what would be more use to you. People gather in groups and discuss their thoughts to come up with a group response.

Now, I do not mind these things, I use them myself. But people mind exaggerating what you can learn from them.

For example, as I said, I've seen them called "team building" - activities. They are nothing like that. They encourage discussion, practice communication skills and, perhaps, trading styles.

Because everything that's happening is people are having a discussion. So you get to see how people would behave in situations where they are having a discussion with others and trying to put his case.

Except, of course, you also need to consider that nothing is riding on the outcome of this activity, so people do not necessarily show their true colors. Some people will be more aggressive than usual, others sit back and do not worry because I do not care enough to get involved.

Anyway, the point is that this exercise can be useful, but only in certain ways.

That is something that does not show much about how the teams really work together.

If you want an activity to explore roles within the team, needs to be much more elaborate and long, with opportunities for people to assume roles, such as creating and making a film together.

This is an example of someone who does not really understand what the activities were used and what are the learning points were TKey. As an attendee, I find it annoying when this happens because I feel the coach has not thought things through enough.

You can work in their own way, and activity may be too elaborate to the point he is doing. I saw long activity in which teams must play a year, while some of you are tied together and blindfolded (no, not a strange fantasy, I have seen it happen).

Then, after an hour of this, the conclusion is something like: "The teams work better when communicating with each other." Yes, and work best when half the team are blindfolded and bound with rope.

So what I'm saying, besides having a good cry?

If you intend to use an activity on a course, you must be clear about two things.

First, what exactly are the key points of learning activities that can help explain? Can the activities to support the points you want to pull out? In contrast, the activity is too complicated if you want to make a simple enough? Be careful how you choose in terms of length and complexity.

Secondly, how are you going to question the activities to extract learning? How long have allowed for debriefing, which will form, as it is open to the possibility that people may raise points other than you expected?

If you facilitate learning, you must select an activity that embodies the main points you want to discuss, but you must accept that other things can come out. People can draw their own conclusions or see things in it that they did not expect and you must accept that., I can not prescribe exactly what people will learn.

That said, if people do raise a lot of points they did not expect, perhaps you chose the wrong business.

So make sure you really ask, "Why?" Before using any activity. Do not assume that any business must be good, must have a clear goal and be interrogated in order to be justified .......