Conference Facilitation & Team Building Blogs

Trust in your team

We often take trust for granted when it’s there, and don’t realise. When that trust isn’t present, it can actually create more work for the team. This blog goes into the importance of trust and how this can affect productivity levels.

What is trust?

Trust means you communicate without hidden agendas; you share information and resources; you rely on your colleagues to help out when required and put your hand up when you get things wrong without fear of huge recriminations.

Can a successful team function without trust?

Although our session included event managers, admin staff and senior managers, it was fairly informal and allowed participants to look at their own views on trust –  how and why trust is important at work and at home; what does trust mean to the individual and to the team; what would happen if there was little or no trust in colleagues.

In our team at Fresh Tracks, we have quite a lot of trust; everyone seemed to take it for granted that they would be trusted and that they would in turn trust their colleagues. For us, that makes for an easy and friendly work environment, part of the reason we choose to work here at Fresh Tracks. But it also made me realise that trust is ultimately at the heart of this office culture….

The Relationship Between Sleep and Productivity

Our relationship to tiredness is paradoxical, a source of shame, indicating our inability to cope; but also a badge of honour, signifying the importance of our work. For some its become an ‘affordable’ status symbol. In reality, tiredness leads to irritability, either bad decision-making or worse, procrastination and low productivity, poor concentration and reduced creativity. Fatigue also reduces our immunity, leading very quickly to ill health.

The dilemma of sleep today

In our 24/7 world, time spent sleeping is in decline, so it’s little wonder that some of us find it hard to wake up in the morning.  It’s reported that we sleep at least one hour less each night than we did a half century ago.

An American study found that during a two-week period, 40% of workers reported fatigue. Of those, 65% reported health-related lost productive time. According to the researchers, workers with fatigue cost US employers $136.4 billion annually in health-related lost productive time.

Two-thirds of adults report frequent sleep problems; however, only one in eight say those problems have been diagnosed.  The ‘sleep deprived’ are also more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, psychiatric and gastrointestinal disease, and impaired immunity.

Sleep quality and quantity matter

So it’s not just the quantity of our sleep that matters but also the quality; snoring loudly, daytime dozing, trouble falling asleep or waking unrefreshed are just a few of the signs that a person could be ‘sleep deprived’

“Sleep is sort of like food,” says Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School.  He adds, there’s one important difference: “You can be quite starved and still alive. But many of us live on the edge of sleep starvation and just accept it.”…

The History of Team Buildin

The theories behind team building could be much older than originally thought.  In fact, Plato may have been the first ever team building expert!

Is team building over 2000 years old?

For some years we’ve been saying “teams that play together, work together” and it seems that although team building is thought to be a comparatively new addition to business training Plato, one of the world’s most influential philosophers, had a similar view over 2000 years ago; “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation” Plato

So we’d encourage you to make time to play with your colleagues this week, take a ball to the park, eat ice cream in the afternoon or play darts at lunchtime – whatever you think would be fun.  We spend most of our waking lives with our colleagues so let’s enjoy it.

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Beers: A Metaphor for Energy Levels

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

What is the mayonnaise jar and 2 beers?

The mayonnaise jar and two beers is an old story, which provides a good metaphor for energy levels, and something we can take a lot of learnings from.

The Story

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was….

The relationship between competiton and productivity

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. Here, we look at the potential benefits of adding a bit of friendly competition within your team.

How can competition improve productivity?

By adding an element of productivity, like giving a prize to the person who has performed the best on a certain task, or praising people who have achieved a particular outcome, you might be helping create a motivated workforce. Having an element of competition can:

• Boost motivation
• Provide clear milestones
• Encourage communication between peers to reach a certain goal
• Break down set barriers in an organisation
• Prompt creativity

Example 1: Sales

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….

Volunteering: team building from a different angle

We often call volunteers in a team ‘volunteam’. We know it isn’t a real word, but the principle of it is an interesting one, and can often be a good alternative way of looking at team building.

What is the value in volunteering in a group?

Volunteering in a team can often leave you with higher energy levels, whether you are volunteering with your colleagues or some people outside of work. When you volunteer, you aren’t getting paid; you’re giving back to the community and are helping to achieve something good.

Working towards this end goal with other individuals who want the same outcome can make you feel part of something bigger, which is a positive feeling. Working in a team also means you have to communicate to others about what role each person has, and how they contribute.

What are the benefits of corporate volunteering?

For corporate teams, volunteering as a team on a project outside of work can help bring the team together and improve communication skills. It can help increase motivation and develop a cohesive team.

In addition, you are having a positive social and environmental impact, so you are contributing to these values and targets.

What can we learn from Moroccan builders?

A while ago, we visited a relief project in Morocco that was building new homes for widows and the very poor, following the earthquake in 2004.  Incredibly, over 5 years later, 12,000 homes had been destroyed, and an enormous number of people were still trying to survive without a home in the hills around Al Hoceima….

A guide to Belbin team roles

Fresh Tracks often uses ‘Belbin Team Roles’ to help develop teams and allow them to learn about one another’s strengths and weaknesses. But what are they and what do they do? Keep reading as we delve deeper.

What is a Belbin team role?

A Belbin team role, as defined by Dr Meredith Belbin, is: “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.”

What Belbin team roles are there?

There are nine different Belbin team roles that you will be scored against. These are

1. Resource Investigator – likes researching and finding ideas to share with the team
2. Teamworker – is a key team player and identifies ways to support the team
3. Co-ordinator – is able to play on the team’s strengths and delegate work if necessary
4. Plant – is very creative and is one of the ‘ideas’ people in the team
5. Monitor Evaluator – someone who is quite logical and can weigh up different sides and views
6. Specialist – has more detailed knowledge about specific areas that can be valuable to the team
7. Shaper – can maintain momentum and drive change within a team
8. Implementer – likes to work efficiently and create the necessary plan of action
9. Completer Finisher – gets satisfaction out of completing and finishing tasks to a high quality

Check out the Belbin website for more information about the strengths and weaknesses of each role.

How do you find out your Belbin team role?

When we run team development days and events, we ususally request that teams fill out a Belbin test on the Belbin website, and then once this data has been collected, each person will be sent a report. It is often useful to print this out so you can easily turn between pages and discuss it with your team.

At our team days, we usually take the team through the report, explaining what it is, what each role is, and how you can start to make use of these. You can split off into different teams depending on who you work more closely with, to see how you can play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

What are the benefits of Belbin roles?

If you understand the different roles within the team, you know who likes doing what kind of work. For example, if someone scores higher in Plant, but doesn’t like actioning their ideas, another person in the team who is an implementer and a co-ordinator will help make that idea happen. Knowing this allows you to work most efficiently in a team.

Ten reasons why meetings fail

Meetings can take up a large portion of anyone’s working day, and for many of us, demands on time in the office are already high. So in an ideal world, every meeting should count, with specific objectives and results making the time invested worthwhile.

All too often though, meetings – even during and afterwards – are perceived as a waste of time by those invited. This can usually be attributed to a lack of understanding about what the meeting was for. To avoid the sense that it was all worthless, here is a list of ten reasons why meetings can fail for you to use as a checklist when planning your next meeting:

1.      No agenda = no purpose

Ensure you are creating an agenda for each of your meetings. This will help ensure that you are discussing the points you need and want to.

2.      No advance communication = surprising behaviours/responses

If you have created an agenda before the meeting, share this with the team members who are on the meeting invite. This will allow the other team to prepare for the meeting and collect all the information needed. It helps the meeting be smoother and more productive.

3.      Not encouraging participation = no interaction

You want team members to be engaged in the meeting and contribute the ideas they have to make the most out of the meeting. Try to prompt other people to share their ideas and take part by asking them questions.

4.      No time management = cost to organisation – time is money

If you aren’t prepared for a meeting and don’t have a clear agenda, it may take more time than is needed, which could otherwise be spent on more proactive tasks.

5.      Allowing conflict to get out of control = chaos

In a meeting, it is important to have a relatively clear structure and spot conflicts early in a meeting and ahead of a meeting. Try to bring people together and work as one team.

6.      Not reaching consensus = waste of time and company resources

If the aim of the meeting was to discuss a specific point and come to a conclusion or consensus, try to steer the conversation so each person shares their views and compromis if necessary.

7.      Allowing sub meetings = no focus or direction

If you have a meeting and decide sub-meetings are needed, this may slow down progress. If those conversations could be had in that initial meeting, try to keep them there to maintain focus.

8.      Not controlling difficult behaviour = everyone becoming difficult

This is something you should try to observe and be mindful of in a meeting. You want to ensure nobody becomes too difficult and set on one idea, rather than listening to other people, because this may cause conflicts.

9.      Not summarising actions = misunderstanding of next steps

After a meeting, it can often be useful to send a summary email or message afterwards, setting out clear next steps, assigning them to the relevant team or person if necessary. This will ensure everybody is on the same page and understands their role.

10.  Not motivational = attendees leave feeling flat and despondent

Try to stay positive during the meeting. If the meeting ends on a bad note, this may affect productivity, so it is important to try to end on a positive note and leave team members feeling energised.

This list is based on an article written by Nuggets of Learning and Development.

What is the difference between Team Building and Team Development?

What is team building?

The phrase team building has risen in prominence in recent years as employers realised the value of a happy workforce where, despite their differences, team members are able to get along.  For many, team building is simply about getting away from the office for a celebratory meal, drink or day out and there is some value in this.  It creates a social context and allows colleagues space to become friends.

What is team development?

In the same way that a builder differs from a developer in the property world, team development is similar but distinctly different.  Builders will turn up and build a wall, whereas a developer sees the potential for that wall to become a terrace of houses.  Team development is a process in which a team takes time to explore its potential – how it can become greater than it’s been before….

A day in the life of an event manager

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. Here we share an example of what a day in the life of an event manager might look like, based on an event we ran in the Caribbean a few years ago.

Getting to the Caribbean

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!…