Team Building

A Fun Way to Make Your Department A Team

Many Los Angeles Companies today seem to be enamored with team building activities, games or tasks designed with the idea that throwing a mismatched group of employees into a situation outside of the normal workplace environment will somehow result in improving their ability to work. A lot of employees moan and grouch about the worthless waste of time that is Los Angeles team building, but despite skeptics and bad attitudes among some staff, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that Los Angeles team building activities do improve productivity and have been a rewarding experience for all sorts of companies.

Whether you’re working in the high-paced bustle of downtown LA or a small office in a suburb you need to be comfortable with your team. Careless comments and mean spirited office banter can lead to mistrust and awkwardness amongst colleagues, which can have a huge impact on the way they work together and collaborate on projects.

Smart employers recognize this and adopt simple Los Angeles team building exercises and events to ensure that co-workers have the not only the skills but the trust and comradery needed to function well in a group dynamic. There are several important factors to note when trying to bring a team closer together. In today’s companies of spread out offices and cubicles you often only bond with the people sitting next to you or in your specific department, leading to the common rifts between accountants and salespersons or customer services and middle management. In team building activities all these people are brought together in an event that requires a balance of skills and teamwork to improve their ability to collaborate.

Establishing joint goals is key to the success of any corporate Los Angeles team building event. It’s important that the team-leader explain to his or her colleagues the purposes of the event so that everyone involved has an understanding of why they are there, and to give a sense of value and importance to the activity, and to stifle complaints and keep people happy. Assigning roles to team-members is, of course, commonplace in an office and by using the same techniques in a team building exercise people can begin to take charge of their roles and improve their quick decision-making and learn responsibility in a non-work environment.

Any good team is a communicative team, colleagues should have the ability to speak-up if something is preventing them from reaching a sales target or goal, it has been well researched and shown that corporate teams work best when they are not afraid to take up an issue and communicate openly with their colleagues or management. Corporate events promote this ability to express needs and wants within the work environment.

Lastly and most crucially for the success of a Los Angeles team building activity, everyone should have fun; a team building event can bring team-members together in a competitive task while also giving the boss a run for his money.

Watson Adventures (http://watsonadventures.com/)helps your Los Angeles Team Building activities be a spectacular success with creative and fun team scavenger hunts. The author Art Gib is a freelance writer.

Access Your Power In Communicating Using Personality Type

Communication is central to our life – we communicate with others every day, throughout the day. Understanding, appreciating and accommodating personality differences in communication style can bring major success to our effectiveness as a friend, spouse, employee, supervisor, trainer, leader and team member. People have different preferences in the way they take in and evaluate information and their orientation to the world around them. As we develop our awareness, understanding and appreciation of communication differences, we will reap the benefit in our relationship with others.

Extraverts & Introverts are opposite in how they communicate

Extraverts are energized by lively and enthusiastic discussions, with rapid-paced conversation and often interrupt as they elaborate on and process thoughts. Introverts are energized by quiet conversations with space for reflection and conversation pace is slower, taking time as they build thoughts and ideas internally. Extraverts’ communication approach doesn’t allow time for Introverts to reflect and then give their opinions. Extraverts like to “think out loud” and don’t realize that Introverts feel unable to respond quickly in a conversation, preferring to internalize the information first. Thus, the Extraverts’ reaction sometimes is that the Introvert is not providing input that energizes the Extravert.

How Introverts & Extraverts share information

When Introverts share information, it has been carefully thought through and evaluated. When an Extravert is in the-thinking out loud-mode they may not give the input the full evaluation it merits. Similarly, Introverts may put too much emphasis on what is said by Extraverts, not realizing they are-hearing themselves think-and need to process information this way. This can cause difficulties for both preferences as Extraverts may miss valuable contributions by Introverts, and Introverts may take what Extraverts say too seriously and make decisions based on the input.

Communication differences can create conflict

These communication differences can be especially dangerous in conflict situations, as Extraverts want to handle a situation immediately and Introverts require time to think things through before giving their ideas on possible solutions. Because each preference is requiring something the other type does not prefer, tension can increase. Extraverts can become impatient, wanting to move forward and make a decision not giving time to the Introverts who need to process the information internally and, then, make a decision.

Extraverts in communication
Strengths
Energetic & enthusiastic
Think out loud
Give a lot of information
Network well

Communication Approach
Speak out freely in groups
Think out loud
Like to discuss lots of topics
Interrupt often during discussion

When Communicating with Extraverts
Listen attentively
Be actively responsive
Be energetic & enthusiastic
Support their need to communicate

Introverts in communication
Strengths
Quiet, reflective presence
Respond carefully and thoughtfully
Know a few people well
Listen without interrupting

Communication Approach
Listen more than talk
Talk one on one
Need time to reflect before responding
Process information internally

When Communicating with Introverts
Value their need for privacy
Allow them time to change focus
Ask questions to draw them out
Do not pressure for an instant response

With careful study of the preferences for the Extravert and Introvert, and a little bit of practice, our communicative events can be both positive and productive creating harmony throughout our professional and personal lives.

Pamela Hollister, Author, INTJ, The PEOPLE Process, is author of personality type training products,
The
PEOPLE Process

How to turn a Group into a Team

Every Los Angeles office wants the same thing for the individual departments within the office; to transcend the individual competition stage and work as a cohesive team. They want every department to be an energetic group of diverse individuals who are committed to achieving common objectives, who work well together, enjoy doing so and who produce high quality
results.

Of course, when you throw this diverse group of people together how likely is that to happen on its own? Not very. Chances are most, if not every member of your team is a competitive individual who thinks his or her ideas are the best. The ability to prove that they are better at what they do than others is probably what got them the job over several other applicants in the first place.

Critical comments and sarcastic office banter can lead to a lack of confidence in ability and awkwardness between colleagues, which can have a huge impact on the way they work together and collaborate on projects. This is more than destructive for team building, it prevents colleagues from even wanting to work together or cooperate as a team.

After the hiring process is over and the position has been secured, it’s time to work together. The time has passed for competition. It is now time to collaborate and become a stronger, smarter, more efficient team than any individual could be on his or her own, regardless of ability.

Los Angeles team building activities can help accomplish this goal. Although employees often moan and complain about Los Angeles team building activities being a waste of time, studies have shown that they really do increase productivity as well as satisfaction in the work place. They have proven to be a good investment for employers. But Los Angeles team building activities have to be well planned, have definite and clear objectives, and actually be fun in order to be successful.

Spending an entire day in a group with people you’ll never need to interact with again working to accomplish a meaningless task may be an okay way to meet new friends you might otherwise not have known, but is probably not be the best Los Angeles team building activity to help with interdepartmental relationship building.

Taking team members out of their usual work setting and giving them a fun task, such as a creative scavenger hunt or team race, will do more to build friendships, open doors of communication, allow people to step up in leadership roles, and address problems they may foresee in plans to accomplish goals. These types of activities are more appropriate for Los Angeles team building.

There are many resources available to help you plan an unforgettable Los Angeles team building event, and many companies have budgets for such activities. You’ll see that it’s worth the time and money spent to build an enthusiastic committed team when you’re team surpasses your expectations for creativity, problem solving, and cohesive accomplishment.

Watson Adventures offers amazing Los Angeles team building (http://www.watsonadventures.com/los_angeles.html) activities to help your department become a team. The author Art Gibb is a freelance writer.

Scavenger Hunts for Team Building and Site Seeing

New York is the largest city in the United States, and as such it naturally has assumed the status of corporate capital of America, if not the world. Additionally, New York is one of the most often visited cities in the country due to its huge variety of sites and attractions. Even though there are countless landmarks and famous sites in New York, most tourists are still intent on using guidebooks to help themselves along. The problem is that most of these guide books only explain how to get from attraction to attraction and don’t go into much detail about what to do once you get there.

A corporate scavenger hunt can be a great way to immerse oneself in a more interactive experience of the city – both for tourists, and for residents and corporations. New York Team Building activities, such as scavenger hunts, allow groups of people to form small teams and explore places across the city, such as Times Square, local Museums, Grand Central Station, area Zoos, and Central Park, by following clues and trivia that help you get from one place to the next. All the while, someone is prearranged to guide you through each attraction so you can learn more about each attraction than any guide book could possibly provide.

As a corporate solution for team building in New York, these scavenger hunts can help a company to get to know each other, build relationships, forge a competitive spirit, and simply have some fun together. Just as any other New York team building exercises, corporate scavenger hunts offer unparalleled opportunities for departmental camaraderie and teamwork and can provide a unique way for companies to take a break from the everyday monotony of the corporate world. But, perhaps best of all, scavenger hunts are just plain fun!

These team building scavenger hunts utilize every member of the team, so they help build teams on from the individual level as well as the team level. They truly are a great way to build relationships, learn trust, create confidence, increase communication skills, and strengthen a company one team at a time. If you want people to work hard together, sometimes they have to play hard together, too.

So, whether you are trying to build a better team, strengthen a company, or just enjoy a vacation in New York, a scavenger hunt is a fun and exciting way to invest your time and money.

Art Gib is a freelance writer and Watson Adventures is a scavenger hunt organizer for team building in New York and other cities. They specialize in corporate scavenger hunts.

Team Building Games Are Valuable Tools

Teams are valuable because of their ability divide and conquer large tasks in an efficient and creative way. Everyone wants their teams to be strong and unified, but they need to be diverse too. In the best teams, team members are able to understand each other and work together without losing their sense of individual worth. After all, unity doesn’t mean that differences need to be homogenized out of existence. Rather, it means the team has learned how to capitalize on group dynamics and individual strengths that contribute to the team’s effectiveness as a whole.

Creating this kind of team unity can definitely be a challenge. To attain this kind of unity, team members must learn about each other through good communication in addition to having common goals. Knowing each other well is important because it helps team members form realistic expectations and avoid unnecessary frustration. For example, it is harder to be patient with weaknesses when they pop up as surprises and nigh impossible to capitalize on another individual’s strength if team members don’t even know that it exists.

One of the best ways to get people to work together without sacrificing individual strengths is through team building games like rope courses, trust falls, relay races and scavenger hunts because team building games do more than force people to work together. They bolster enthusiasm, build relationships and establish channels of communication that can also be used in an office environment once they have been formed. Teachers, coaches and managers have all been so impressed with the results of team building games that many of them are willing to invest time and money into getting employees, students and athletes out of the office, school or field and into the games.

Games are such an effective tool because they usually take place in a less stressful environment than work which makes it easier for people to open up and be themselves. Games are also useful because they create shared experiences that everyone enjoys which will help them bond together and become a better team. By adding a little fun into the mix, the activities you choose can also function as a release valve that rejuvenates and recharges your employees.

If your team building games do prove successful and your teams become more effective in the office, make sure you reward them for meeting their goals and becoming more efficient. Reward can come in the form of simple thanks, praise and treats but the form of appreciation isn’t nearly as important as making sure it is expressed. Work may not be as fun as team building games, but meeting their goals and being recognized for their work can go a long way in keeping people motivated.

If you want to invest in tried and tested team building games that have been acclaimed by the New York Times, check out the scavenger hunts at Watson Adventures (http://www.watsonadventures.com/team_building.html). The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.