Conference Facilitation & Team Building Blogs

Fresh Tracks’ 2014 in Pictures

We ran a lot of memorable events last year, with great feedback. Look and see if you made our highlights of 2014:

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3 Office Resolutions

As personal New Year Resolutions fade here are three revolutionary ideas to improve life in the office:

Most of us make personal New Year Resolutions, so why not try thinking of some for the workplace too?

1. Less meetings, better conversations
Ban formal meetings on Mondays and Fridays, instead encourage lunches and informal chats over coffee at either end of the week. …

4 Reasons Most Meetings Fail

Ever been to a meeting and not really known what it has achieved – or have you ever been to a meeting to talk about going to another meeting? These incidents are common and so what is it that makes a meeting a ‘fail’?

Grumbling about meetings for the sake of meetings is something of an art-form in business. Meetings are necessary though. As any manager will know – without a meeting all hell can break loose with miscommunications, undefined goals and missed deadlines. So why is it that so many meetings are seen as a complete waste of time by those who begrudgingly attend them?

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How team building exercises can help relieve stress

Work related stress is a common complaint. The latest figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show that the total number of cases of stress in 2011/12 was 428, 000 (40%) out of a total of 1, 073, 000 for all work-related illnesses. Team building exercises can help combat some of the reasons and symptoms of stress in the workplace.

A picture of stress in today’s workplace

Whilst a little stress can push people to achieve – too much stress can have damaging and far reaching effects not only on the individual suffering but for the company and other team members.

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5 leadership mistakes that need to be avoided

It’s not always easy being a leader and there are some big ‘no-no’s that should be realised when in a position of authority. Which of these five mistakes could be holding your team back?      

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5 easy methods to motivate your team

Motivating your team members can make a noticeable difference to their performance and the atmosphere at work. Here are five tips to give your team a boost, so they know you care.

1.       Say thank you more often and mean it.

If you thank every team member at least once a day and explain why they have done a good job rather than just saying a token ‘thanks’ this will make their day a whole lot better, empower them and you’ll see productivity increase….

5 Tips on Making the Christmas Party Memorable for the Right Reasons

The office Christmas party is often seen by staff as the place to let a year’s worth of tension out in one go and whether it’s Dave from accounts photocopying his ‘credentials’, the youngest member of staff throwing up on the carpet or the scuffles of the advertising team turning nasty – it might be wise to plan pro-actively for more thrills and less spills at the Christmas do.

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Why trusting your team drives results

For the ultimate exercise in developing trust, take your team out on the blindfolded 4×4 challenge for an experience that will never be forgotten.

Learn how to trust your colleagues!

Trust is something that is usually earned rather than gifted and without trust within the workings of a business, communication can become flawed, direction can be lost and ultimately the company can suffer as a result. Our blindfolded 4×4 challenge develops trust amongst colleagues. And it’s a real laugh too!…

The Team Machine in action!

The Team Machine is an fun team building event that requires participants to co-operate with other teams to achieve a common goal.

Each team is given a set of building materials to create a moving sculpture. The plans are muddled requiring sharing of data before building can commence. Components must be assembled in just the right way for the individual mechanisms to work. Later the teams must work together to find the correct sequence of mechanisms, so that, once launched each element will trigger the next in a chain reaction building to an explosive finale!

Have a look at The Team Machine in action at a recent Fresh Tracks team building event.

Leadership lessons from the LEGO success story

Over 70% of homes have at least one stray brick buried deep in a sofa or hiding in the dusty corner of a cupboard. With a net profit of 16.7bn DKK in 2025, LEGO is a serious business.

Alongside bacon and beer, LEGO is one of Denmark’s greatest exports, some might even say ‘Probably the best toy in the world!’. The LEGO phenomenon began in 1932 when Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who believed in the value of play, decided that the best kind of toys are those that can be built, and then rebuilt. Stimulating creativity and imagination, whilst developing character.

There’s much we can learn from LEGO as adults. The four letter name LEGO is derived from leg godt, meaning ‘play well’ in Danish, and ‘I study’ or ‘I construct’ in Latin. Underpinning the name is the company slogan ‘Only the best is good enough’. An admiral intention, but one that nearly led to the iconic toy’s collapse in 2004.

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