The Team Building Blog

Its not a real word I know but the principle of a ‘volunteam’ is an interesting one.

What can we learn from Moroccan builders?

I’ve been visiting a relief project in Morocco that is building new homes for widows and the very poor following the earthquake in 2004.  Incredibly over 5 years after 12,000 homes were destroyed an enormous number of people are still trying to survive without a home in the hills around Al Hoceima. 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!

From protecting the event equipment from monkeys to facilitating a team building programme for 140 managers, event management can require a lot of different skills.

Sir, I'm afraid your are over your weight limit.

Trying to explain to the curious staff at the Virgin check-in desk quite why we needed two aluminium pyramids, 65 hoola-hoops and 140 white baseball caps was the easy part…… Managing to make 200 lengths of rope, 35 pencil cases,  staff uniforms,  assorted event equipment and a bundle of paperwork meet the strict baggage restrictions was not so easy.

The look on the honeymooners’  and holiday makers’  faces as we struggled across the terminal with our  peculiar luggage was priceless at 5am in the morning. Little did we know what lay ahead; we faced a 9 hour flight sitting  with the Barmy Army England cricket supporters also on their way to the Caribbean . Let’s just say we got no sleep whatsoever! Read the rest of this entry »

To what extent does an “open all hours” policy with regards to communications give added value to clients, or  help generate new business?

Call us now on 01920 822 220

 Most organisations are now accessible online 24:7, and many individuals are contactable by email outside regular office hours.  Here at Fresh Tracks we don’t have any hard and fast rules about who should be available  at specific hours, but we want to offer as good a customer service as we can to both existing and new clients. As a result we’ve been trialling various options to deal with phone enquiries out of hours and wondered if anyone had any views, research information or comments?

In general we resort to the good old answerphone for any out of hours queries, with details of  emergency or urgent contact details given in our answerphone message. Does anyone have an opionion (or research) on what business might be lost if someone, calling say at 10pm on a Friday night, gets an answerphone and refuses to leave a message? Read the rest of this entry »

So far this year I’ve spent more hours than I care to remember trying to calm the nerves of fraught conference organisers.  Often days before the event has even started.

A great team performing under the pressure of live TV

Today I spent the afternoon on the set of a live TV show.  With just two hours to air the production team managed to deal with numerous unforeseen crises calmly and confidently.

Much has been written about stress and its impact on individuals but this afternoon’s experience got me thinking about team stress.

It’s surprising how often we allow anxiety to build from within our teams, limiting productivity, stifling creativity and eradicating the fun from work. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Collins has been invited onto live television to talk to the masses about team building.

Dan is live on Paul's programme on 4th March

As you all know, at Fresh Tracks we are passionate about how teams work and improving motivation, whether in business or socially. Therefore when we had a request from Paul O’Grady to appear live on his Channel 4 show today (Wednesday 4th March 2009) to talk about the importance of having fun at work and how to get the best out of a team, we jumped at the chance.

So if you would like to see Dan Collins run Paul and some of his production team through a team building exercise please tune into Channel 4 at 5pm today and then post a comment below and let us know what you thought.

 Here are some handy hints to make sure you get the best out of your event:

1. Be clear about your objectives
Before you even start thinking about content, the venue or even a date, you need to establish what it is you’re holding the event for. Is it to communicate a particular message,  to announce a new initiative,  to motivate staff, or purely as a social and fun occasion? In particular, ask yourself what would a sucessful event look like? The rest of the planning – style, content and delivery – should then refer back to these objectives. Read the rest of this entry »

As I write today I’m being pitched and rolled aboard a Stena Line ferry travelling from the Hook of Holland to Harwich.

Team building in Europe is only 24 hours away.

Below me a truck full of team building equipment is hopefully well secured to the deck.  Despite the high seas I’m excited to be part of a new chapter in the life of Fresh Tracks as we increase our overseas team building offering.  On many occasions in the past we’ve jumped on planes to deliver keynote talks and team building sessions at conferences and on occasions we’ve freighted equipment ahead of us. Read the rest of this entry »