Tailored Team Building Exercises on Tap

August 2011 will mark Fresh Tracks’ 20th anniversary. During the past two decades we’ve designed, developed and delivered hundreds of experiential team building exercises.

Along the way we’ve created some classics that we use again and again but we still get excited when a client gives us a brief to create something totally new.

For many years we’ve worked with a water company, monitoring their staff engagement and delivering an annual company conference. Part of the brief this year was to create a 30 minute team exercise for the conference that would entertain, involve and educate over 100 people. …

The Big Picture – Communicating Corporate Values

Finding genuinely effective ways to communicate change in a business can be a challenge. Emails get deleted, newsletters get recycled and live presentations are easily forgotten.

With this conundrum in mind Foster’s Group approached Fresh Tracks to come up with a team activity that would bring to life the launch of their new company identity – Treasury Wine Estates. The strategic decision to separate the Foster’s beer and wine business marked a major change not just in name but also in culture, as the company transforms from a general drinks business to a wine specialist.

As with any change there was a degree of cynicism ahead of the conference, especially toward some of the new values and language being used.

Fresh Tracks responded by creating a challenge…

Our Latest Workshop: 20 Ways to Build a Better Team

Fresh Tracks have been in the business of building better teams for over 19 years and in that time there are certain messages – about the range of skills that are required for a great team to succeed, and the importance of communication and trust – that are often repeated.

However we all know there is a huge amount of collective wisdom out there and that we could all learn a lot by listening to each other’s experiences of creating and working with great teams.

So after the success of our last workshop, Creating Captivating Conferences, the next Fresh Tracks workshop will be about building better teams with examples drawn from our own expertise as well as from participants’ own experiences. …

New Resources: learn from over 19 years of experience

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand” Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC).

In a world of iPods, iPads and 3D TV, it is perhaps surprising that technology has yet to find a more memorable and effective way to put across a message than the simple act of doing.

For over 19 years Fresh Tracks have been coming up with practical activities that improve understanding. We appreciate that it’s not always possible to take a team out for a day and so we’ve developed a selection of resources that can be used in team meetings and training sessions….

What a laugh – Our new laughter workout

Much like exercise, laugh hard enough and your muscles will begin to ache. Similar to physical exertion, when we laugh the elation we feel combats the effects of stress, our body relaxes and endorphins (natural painkillers) are released into the blood stream.

Last week Fresh Tracks ran our first Laughter Workout at a conference for a team from the BBC. This 45 minute energiser led by our expert Amanda Bate had some participants crying with laughter. Although different people respond in different ways everyone felt able to participate and even the most reserved delegate came away having felt a natural high….

New Team Building Event: The Bigger Picture

Try our newest team building event and create a giant piece of sand art that represents your team’s strengths and character.

The day starts with a facilitated discussion about the nature of teams and what kind of team the group is. After a session encouraging creativity and different approaches to art, the team is asked to begin designing a piece of art that can be scaled up to a finished product of around 100m long. …

Why BA Baracus would like the launch of ‘innocent success’

During my first week as an intern at Fresh Tracks, I followed Dan Collins to London to observe the launch of the brand new training film, Innocent Success. Being no ordinary company, it is perhaps unsurprising that Fresh Tracks chose to launch this exciting new venture in an extraordinary way.

After experiencing my first ‘webinar’ (which, after a small amount of research I discovered was not in fact a German composer, but actually an interactive live seminar on the web), I’ve been contemplating the enormous effect of the communications ‘revolution’ that has followed the development of the internet. …