Team Building Plus

A long time client of PCfL’s recently held their 2015 strategic planning session in downtown Calgary, Alberta. As is the case with most strategic planning sessions, the topics were forward looking and the conversation intense. Leaders from this consulting organization were tasked with developing their 2015 business plan in addition to reviewing their current business strategy. Our organization was asked to participate in the session and to develop a series of team building challenges to complement the intense multi day strategy session.

We pride ourselves on developing more than just fun team building challenges. Team building often gets a negative reputation in certain organizations because many team building activity providers are more focused on a ‘good time’. While good times are important and team morale can be lifted with extra-curricular activities, there is often a lost opportunity in getting valuable insight into a team’s dynamic if the activity is not conducted professionally.  Our team building activities are carefully designed to build on the strengths of the team and to highlight potential gaps in a variety of critical team competencies. We love it when the team walks away having a good time, but we get the most excited when we are able to assist leaders and teams gain valuable insight into their norms and decision making processes. This is the value of a high quality team building investment.

In this particular case, the client had worked with us in the past so they had some sense of what to expect. However, we went beyond giving the team a break from the strategic planning process and provided valuable insight into their approach to leadership, how they can onboard new team members, and what level of competition exists within the team.  When clients return for multiple team building and team development sessions, we can build on past experiences and truly help the team develop.

Our simple yet effective team building activities shaped the next day’s discussion as the topic of human resources came up on the strategy session agenda. Proactive organizations never miss an opportunity to be better and in this case our team challenges paved the way for a productive conversation and accelerated the team’s human resources strategy. Now that’s effective Team Building in our opinion.