I used to work for a well known telecoms company. Every now and again we would be advised that a ‘team building’ event was looming, much to the dismay of the staff. When the fateful day arrived we would invariably be subjected to the drudgery of scrambling through assault courses, building bridges out of chairs or constructing pyramids.
One of reasons why these proceedings were met with moans and groans by the staff themselves was that it highlighted the significant costs involved. “The best way to incentivise and ‘build the team’ would be to give us the money to go to Newquay for the weekend” I remember one junior member of staff complaining. I quietly agreed with him…
For many companies it’s been a while since they were able to allocate budgets to team building and corporate development. Having a job at all has been enough motivation for most people! However, just because you can’t afford to send your sales executives to boot camp for the week doesn’t mean you can’t create a lively, team building environment.
One activity we hold each year at Office Response is our Sunflower Growing competition. Yes, you may laugh at the thought of groups of people willing on the growth of their plants but you haven’t considered one important thing. People like to win – it makes them feel good.
The competition entails each department being given a sunflower pot, 6 sunflower seeds, a small stick and some soil. They have until our Summer Party on 14th August to see who can grow the tallest sunflower.
Simple? Except the only rule is, there are no rules. You can use whatever method you like to encourage the growth of the sunflower. This can, and has included using Miraclegrow, cold tea, Baby Bio, strategic positioning on windowsills, keeping the soil warm, talking to the sunflower and massaging the leaves as well as other more ridiculous growing aids.
Our sales team is already using multiple flower pots to gain a competitive advantage. I’ve heard talks from the training team that they are buying their own pots so that they get bigger as the sunflower grows and the IT department had a bit of a scare when they gushed water into their pot and realised it only contained 2 inches of soil.
As a manager I can clearly see the positive effects this activity has on our staff such as improved morale, the exposure of leadership skills, breaking down barriers that thwart creativity, identifying strengths and weaknesses and improving problem solving skills. The fact that the task is spread out over a 3 month period also makes people appreciate that some things in life require patience.
Its not the first time that Office Response staff have been elated with games that you would assume are purely for children. Recently our Sales Director came into the office with a toy helicopter that he had “borrowed” from his son. Within minutes everyone was queuing up to fly the helicopter around the office and just a couple of days later they were buying their own!
My advice to anyone who is aware that their staff need a morale boost or want to get their competitive juices flowing is to not automatically think of something that will cost lots of money. When it comes to team building our experience has been that ‘the simpler the idea the better the result’.
By Steve West
Marketing & Business Development Manager
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