Team Building Exercises At Work - help me...!

[Anonymouse]

Has anyone here undergone this American-inspired hell? They're doing it at the Crewe site of Expert Logistics, or rather the parent company, ao.com, is inflicting it on us because they're opening operations in Germany. I've talked with a couple of workmates who've done it, and they say it's the utter nonsense I expected - the usual meaningless exercises that "promote team building", straight out of the pages of Dilbert.

Yeah, right. When my turn comes up on the 14th, I'm going to ask certain searching questions, such as:

What does writing poems and making a triangle out of straws (no, I'm not kidding) have to do with loading (overloading, if we're honest) trailers and vans to the gills with heavy white goods?

How do you "build a team" when you're almost never working with the same people two nights in a row?

Most importantly: a loading team consists of a picker, an FLT driver to move goods to the loading bay, a scanner and two loaders. As effective communication is by far the most crucial aspect of a team, how is this achieved when the scanner and one loader speak Polish (or Ukranian, or Romanian, or whatever!) - and the other loader, e.g. me, only speaks English?! In fact most of the time only 20% of the team is English...and I'm the 20%.

Hence I'm left totally in the dark when the scanner and the other loader are discussing what goes where (believe me, it's crucial - loading a trailer with 200+ white goods is a nontrivial task in terms of planning, especially when we're required to load 'em in drop order) - and I haven't a clue as to what's being planned!

Even when they do speak English, most of them speak a broken (broken? Shattered, more like) pidgin version of it - and usually in accents so thick and strong I can't make head nor tail of what they're saying. Worse, they mispronounce words - I was struggling on night with this erk who kept telling me "White", or so I thought...he was supposed to be saying "Wait". How exactly is this problem conducive to team building?

[jb66]

Just play the stupid politics in the workplace game, nod your head and say it was useful and was a benefit to you, will help you go further in the long run

[rhyds]

The IT department response to team-building exercises has always been to time a critical systems failure to coincide with them, meaning we get let off...

[joglynne]

Do not put your head up above the parapet Annonymouse. The people directing these exercises aren't interested in your views on how relevant what you are being asked to do is to your everyday job.They don't even care what your normal job entails. All they are looking at is how you interact with the others on your 'team' that day. In fact the more unrelated to your reality the tasks are the more information they can harvest. Just try not to be a passenger, show that you can listen to others and speak up when you can add a reasoned non-controversial opinion/suggestion.

As jb says don't try to win the politics in the workplace game whilst you are taking part in this exercise, you can't succeed and it will be noted down and could count against you in ways you wouldn't want in the future.

Nodding sagely whilst others spout rubbish is something you could practice in front of a mirror prior to the day.

... And besides, it's a day off driving your fork lift, on full pay, and with any luck some free coffee and biscuits thrown in. What's not to like? Some Dilbert somewhere is fulfilling his own annual targets by inflicting this on you. Pity him and just get on with it. Worse things happen at sea.

[Hom3r]

A friend has done similar, he used it to get to know his colleges and even picked up a few words, he even got to try new foods they brought in.

[Russ]

I work at a large company that goes in for the whole Americanised "team building" etc thing and funnily enough they actually manage to get it right which seems to be a rarity these days for most businesses.

Whereas we do get days/nights out (often based on performances) they also effectively build team spirit in subtle and usually more effective ways. For example a stranger entering the building (or my floor) would not know who any of the seniors or managers are - nobody has an office, they all 'work-mingle' with us and not in a looking-over-your-shoulder way either.

They also delegate real responsibility and duties to everyone which makes us all feel valued and a genuine part of the team.

It doesn't have to be about grand gestures, smaller and more subtle things can make a massive difference.

Well in teaching it's called the Friday Night Session..

Actually it's not but I can't really type what it is as the swear filter doesn't like it..

[mrmistoffelees]

Last place I worked we did the via feratta (sp?) at Honiston great day out and everyone mocking each other

I work for a U.S. Company now and they're huge on it so we have meals out trips to alton towers etc. going over to San Francisco in about 9 weeks and we're all going out to football and baseball games cant wait !!!!

[progers]

My team buildings have included:
A week at John Ridgeway's adventure school (remember he rowed across the Atlantic) but with no one I ever worked with, they had paid for the place, I made up the numbers!

High rope exercises ( hated that)

Go Karting, tried to beat the youngsters to no avail

A day at various financial institutions in London and a meet with Lord Weinstock, that was ace!

[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by joglynne

The people directing these exercises aren't interested in your views on how relevant what you are being asked to do is to your everyday job.They don't even care what your normal job entails. All they are looking at is how you interact with the others on your 'team' that day. In fact the more unrelated to your reality the tasks are the more information they can harvest.

Mmm, I have to admit I hadn't thought of that. Good point, though I still think the tasks could be a bit more relevant.