All team building consultants and facilitators have a ‘Will Not Do’ list – whether they keep it inside their head or they share it…we all have some activities and simulations we will not do.
This happens for a variety of reasons.
Here are some team building activities that are on my ‘Will Not DO’ list:
- Trust Falls – for a variety of reasons, see video above…and Trust Falls Make me Hate You More
- Anything that involves blindfolds – people need to constantly have the ability to choose, blindfolds remove choice.
- Choose an Animal Sound and Find your Mate – Sitting in a meeting once, a woman shared her horrific story of this activity…Why is this appropriate? Are you just trying to embarrass people?
- Nose Jousting – yes that sounds awesome. Putting tape on your nose and getting that close to anyone to win the nose jousting with masking tape.
- Lap Sit – What you don’t want to sit in your managers lap and feel the creepy guys excitement? Again why is this relevant to teams?
- I tend to waver on ropes-courses – I feel that are effective for individual achievement and self-esteem…they can also be a mess for corporate team building.
There may be more and that is what I can think of right now.
What would you add, and why?
Team Building is effective when is relates back to how the work gets done and examines the organizational and team systems-that-drive behaviors. While many talented team building facilitators can point to how the activities can improve team performance, we all have our own styles and perceptions of what works.
I recall an email exchange I had with Laurie Ruettimann of ‘The Cynical Girl’ (formally Team Building is for Suckers!) about using ropes and activities with High Potential employees. She just responded I’m paraphrasing here “Don’t use ropes with High Potentials use real organizational case studies and their experience and knowledge” I sort of agree …
Teams and people on teams need real examples of how to do their work and sitting in each others lap is not a close enough approximation.