ACE Game Show - A FUNN Event

This week, I would like to discuss the benefits of a including an evening event during an off site retreat, in particular, the ACE Game Show.

One of the founders of experiential and adventure eduction, Karl Rohnke coined the term FUNN which stands for Functional Understanding Not Necessary. Basically, if an activity is fun, there does not need to be any other valid reason to do it. You don't need to analyse and justify the underlying value of the endeavour, if its' fun...just do it.

Having said that there are some good reasons to include an enjoyable experience, such as a Game Show into a conference dinner.

1. Structured interaction
Colleagues may spend years in the same company without interacting or getting to know each other. By giving people a common objective (winning the Game Show), people are relying on each other for their success. The Game Show has been designed to encourage interaction between team members.

2. Share knowledge 
The questions, rounds and activities that comprise the Game Show rely on knowledge from different eras. For example, a music round, called Then Again requires teams to identify the original musical artist and an artist that has covered the same song. Depending on the age of  the delegates, it is common for people to be able to identify one of the artists, but they must use other people in their team to identify the other performer.

3. Showcase different talents 
'Still waters run deep' and it's not until people are given the opportunity to shine, that you realise that they have hidden skills and abilities, such as the ability to play air guitar or the ability to balance six dice on an icy pole stick that is clenched between the participant's teeth.

4. Share a common group experience 
The Game Show extends throughout dinner, usually over 3 - 4 hours and culminates in a finale round and the crowning of the champions. There is a good variety of music, movies, games and activities. People want to win, but nobody seems to mind if they lose. The enjoyment is being involved in the event, and not knowing what is going to happen next.

These are just four reasons to include an ACE Game Show in your next conference, but you don't need a reason, because it is fun, and any activity that is fun does not need a reason..just do it.

For more information, go to www.acetraining.com.au

Top 3 Tips for Corporate Team Building

As published in Australian Business Solutions Magazine, edition 28 Feb/March 2013

If we can agree that ‘practice makes perfect’, then it would make sense that to improve teamwork requires practice. Athletes and sports people endure regular and strenuous training sessions to improve their fitness, skills and teamwork, yet practising teamwork in a work environment is much less common.

A typical corporate team might undertake a team building session once or twice a year as part of an annual offsite retreat. If this is the case, then the team building session needs to be targeted, relevant and memorable if it is going to make a difference back at work for the rest of the year.

So, how do you improve an organisation? It sounds like a daunting, perhaps insurmountable question. According to Organisational Behaviour Theory it can be achieved in two ways. You can change the organisational structure or you can improve the effectiveness of the people within the organisation.

Structure or People

Improving the structure can be separated into three main areas. Firstly you can re-structure the number of vertical layers within the organisational chart.  In a fast changing environment, companies may attempt to flatten the structure to increase flexibility. The number of horizontal departments can also be altered. Secondly, it is possible to review the systems and processes. Documented processes and training programs allows for a consistency of delivery within the organisation. Thirdly it is possible to look at the decision making processes and either centralize or decentralize. All of these options are time consuming and costly with questionable long term benefits.

Tip 1 - Improve the People

Team building and team development is a strategy of improving results by increasing the effectiveness of the people within the organisation. There is no doubt that creativity and empowerment are two of the most effective ways to improve performance. People that are engaged in their work, empowered to make decisions and motivated to show initiative are invaluable.

However you need three things for individuals to be effective. Firstly you need people to have the appropriate technical and process skills to complete the job. Secondly you need staff that are suitably motivated. Thirdly, management need to provide an opportunity for staff to use their skills. It makes sense that having well trained staff that are either not motivated or not given appropriate opportunities will have negative consequences.

It may not be surprising that teams provide an excellent means for individuals to share ideas, show initiative and make decisions. Teams are one of the simplest methods for unleashing individual creativity, empowerment and problem solving. Improving individual communication and problem solving skills is the bedrock for the next tip.

Tip 2 – Improve the Team

Putting people into teams is not enough to guarantee improved results. There needs to be a systematic and consistent way that teams work together. In a team building program, an educational or theory component provides the basis for people to understand the various phases involved in team based problem solving.  The theory can be practiced and reinforced through a variety of suitable challenges.

An appropriate team building program should be matched to the group size, time frame and industry so that is relevant with the right amount of challenge.  Whilst the session may appear to be unrelated to the core functions of the organisation, the purpose of an experiential exercise is to simulate the group dynamics that can occur at work within a shortened time frame and to provide opportunities for discussion and learning.

Tip 3 - Improve the Organisation

As teams develop the skills required to solve complex problems, their productivity and morale typically improve. This observation is supported by psychological research that has shown that work satisfaction is closely linked to work place performance.  However the natural predisposition for teams to become tribal or insular needs to be overcome. Team building programs can highlight and overcome this tendency through a carefully designed multi team experiential exercise.  

A positive result does not happen by chance. Teams that are successful are able to apply the theories of teamwork and organisational learning into a tangible experience. They are able to demonstrate the behaviours required to plan, innovate and problem solve.  Team building provides an opportunity to highlight that teamwork is a strategic choice that requires sharing information and ideas within and across teams for the benefit of the organisation.

 

Healthy Team Building

Clients often ask me 'how often should we do team building?' and I think they are expecting me to say 'once a year', but it's not that simple. If a patient asked a doctor, 'how often should I be concerned about my health?, I don't think the doctor would say that they should go on a health retreat for a couple of days and then they will be fine. Team building, like health,  should be something that is embedded into the daily routine and reinforced every day.

An interesting case study with a leading university that wanted to improve teamwork amongst their graduates incorporated a holistic approach. They changed the recruitment or entry criteria to actively select candidates that had a history of social and community responsibility. Assessment procedures were revised to encourage collaboration and a ranking system was abolished. The curriculum was redesigned to incorporate team based learning tasks. The change was noticeable within an year, and after twelve years, there has been a huge positive change in the culture of the medical students and graduating doctors.

For more information about team building or to request a quotation, please check out our website www.acetraining.com.au

The Perfect Venue for Team Building

Here is my wish list for the perfect team building venue:

1. Plenty of space for outdoor activities
2. An undercover area if the weather turns nasty
3. Good vehicle access with free parking
4. High quality audio visual equipment built into each conference room
5. Pleasant, friendly, professional onsite staff
6. Some shady trees with an impressive view
7. At least one private dining room for evening events
8. Dining rooms must be soundproof so that other diners are not impacted by groups having a good time
9. Onsite accommodation
10. An appropriate level of security so that valuables left in the conference room are safe.

If you are looking for the perfect venue for your next conference, please check out our favourite venues: http://www.acetraining.com.au/contact_venue.php

Team Building Trends

I have been involved in the corporate team building industry since1996 and during that time there have been a significant number of trends and changes.

• Offsite retreats tend to happen less frequently. Instead of a yearly corporate retreat, it now seems more common to have a conference every two or three years.
• The length of conferences has decreased. The most popular conference is now a two day/one night conference. In the past, it was much more common to have two, three or four day conferences.
• The number of conference delegates is increasing. So whilst companies are having less conferences, for shorter lengths of time, there seems to have more people attending.
• Travel has become more common. We now conduct more interstate programs than ever before. 

In conclusion: 
Conferences are now shorter, less frequent but with more people in more widespread locations.

ACE Website Updated

ACE Website has been updated

We are constantly trying to improve the quality and readability of the ACE website. We have listened to your suggestions and made the icons bigger. We have added some new headings, sections and pages. Check it out and let us know what you think. Here is the link www.acetraining.com.au