The Team Building Blog

If I think back to when I’ve seen people most stressed in my working life, the majority of instances were immediately before and during conferences.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...

Very often it’s not the speakers who’s nerves are showing or the AV technicians that are flustered, its the conference organiser.  These people know they are in the firing line if the lights go out or the timmings go aray.  They can often be heard to say “My job is on the line if this isn’t a success”.  Leaving unfair dismissal to one side the truth is there is little benefit in allowing the strain to show.

Earlier this week I was part of a live TV show in which the decision was made to rebuild the set 45 minutes before going on air, while rehearsals were still underway and the lighting and camera angles were far from set up.  Additionally the script was being adapted requiring changes to the autocue and the need to re-brief the presenter and guests. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always gratifying to be asked back and repeat business is the best measure of a job well done.  So we are very chuffed to be back on Channel 4’s Paul O’Grady show at 5pm today.

We're back on Channel 4 with Paul O'Grady on 22nd Sept

This time we have created an exercise that will have X Factor runners up JLS competing against Paul & Co to see which group can perform best as a team under pressure.  In a matter of minutes the two teams will have to first understand the task, before coming up with a plan that will utilise their strengths and earn them maximum points.

Being an entertainment show today’s challenge will involve lots of water and a fair amount of chaos but the essence is the same as in any other sports or business team – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Do tune in to Channel 4 at 5pm tonight but if you can’t get to a television do come back to the blog in a couple of days or follow us using your RSS feed because we’ll upload a video of the team building activity!

We all try harder when there’s a prize at stake, no matter how small.  The desire to win is in all of us to a greater or lesser extent and even those who wouldn’t be described as ‘competitive’ still enjoy playing.

The plan to increase productivity by canceling coffee breaks flopped!

In business, sales teams have included competitive measurement and reward to drive productivity for generations with such great effect that very few sales roles exist that don’t have some form of prize built into the remuneration package.  So it’s strange that other departments haven’t created their own ways to combine play with productive working. Read the rest of this entry »