Team Building & Experiential Learning is not a “distraction” from the training BUT a part of the training. As long as you treat this as an ‘energizer’ it will be a silly game that you had us play.
If you treat this as an opportunity to connect the content (whatever it is) to an actual behavior change and how we get work done – you will be seen as a person who adds great value to the organization and made the training connect in the heads of the participants.

• “We need an energizer!”
• This content is boring – a short team-building activity will liven it up!
• “OK, OK, now that we had some fun, let’s get on to the serious work. Turn your packets to page 36.”
• There is a 20-minute space on the agenda … can we fill it with a team-building game?

The above statements make me want to scream … and I get it. Team building is sometimes fun, and people laugh, interact, & move out of their seats. Team building is occasionally awkward. And people are asked to do weird things, and people interact and may not like each other.

There is an idea that still permeates corporate board & meeting rooms – if people are talking, they are not being trained …. if people are laughing, they do not understand the tough work that happens on the floor … if they do not walk out of the room with an 80-page packet, they have not gotten anything from the training… the “serious” nature of our work can only be understood by serious training.

I am not fetishizing team building or interactive learning as a ‘cure-all’ … and  I am suggesting that it may work just as well – it may be better than sitting in a chair staring at a PowerPoint for 6 hours.

Working with any company – team – person, Create-Learning returns to the work & these 4 questions.

1. What business need(s) will be met?
2. What will people do differently and better?
3. Who will confirm that people are doing these things differently and better?
4. How will you measure and document the results?

We plan to incorporate as many hands-on – interactional – team-building-type activities that will best achieve the workable goals & changes desired from that discussion.

The focus is on structuring the Team Building Leadership Development or Organization Development to match the work that has to get done from now into the future.

Often it is some power-point lecturing &  small group discussion & team building activity & a content packet of information.

What works best matches the work that the people are doing & expected to do with the best way to make that happen.