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How We Create a New Program

2009-10-01T19:16:42Z

I have to admit, my favorite job here at TeamBonding is discovering, developing and introducing new programs to our clients. We have over 70 programs on this site but with the customization and variations that we do, our offerings no doubt are over 100. The nice thing about working with us is that we have done these programs for teams like yours and have had great success doing so. Our most recent addition is a program we did in DC for over 700 people, for a repeat client who had done three similar events. They asked us to take one of our regular programs (Build Your Own Mini-Golf) and turn it into something that gives back to the community. Truly, our pleasure.

Tin Can Build Your Own Mini-Golf

We built and turned a miniature golf “course” into someone’s “main course”. The Tin Can Build your own mini golf course brought this team together for both service and team building. The idea was, first comes service. The group was divided into teams whose first assignment was to design their golf hole with the canned goods and other food items they were provided.

Once the can plan has was completed, the teams used them (temporarily) to build their own golf holes. They marveled as creative collaboration turned macaroni into a Master’s Course. Competition heated up as the teams competed in this Bogey, Birdies and Beans tournament.

And as competition play came to a close, every team felt like a winner as the canned goods and the indoor/outdoor carpet were presented to a local charities and the paper products were recycled, This is an event that keeps on giving and lends itself to a “19th Hole” celebration.

This is truly service with a swing!

Other new programs recently added include: Elves on a Mission (making toys for the holiday season) and Let them Eat Cake (a hybrid culinary and philanthropic program).

Ice Sculpting –World’s Coolest Team Building Event

2009-11-09T18:03:11Z

When I first proposed this to our staff, ice sculpting as a team building event, everyone laughed. When the laughing died down, they asked if we were providing chainsaws to our corporate participants? How is our liability insurance and finally – would people really choose to do it?

When developing programs for a company like ours with your needs in mind, these are challenges that each program must go through before being presented on the site for you to choose. Truth be told, I didn’t decide one day that teams would enjoy ice sculpting as I had seen it on a site in the UK. What I did however if find a great ice sculptor/facilitator on the East Coast (and now another one in San Francisco and Las Vegas) to facilitate these program so that not only would teams create something special as a team but would work together and the finished result would be something to be very proud of and a debrief would be lead.

Not a week after we put it on the site, we had our first client in the “coolest” of locations, the Castle on the Hudson and although it isn’t even cold yet, we have quite a few more on the schedule. TeamBonding is an innovator in bringing you great team building events, first in the US to do this program and your team can be next.

The Power of Play

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

To celebrate the relaunch of our website, I wanted to share with you the method behind our madness. We were founded and we design our events based on a strong belief that people need to play more. There is a growing mountain of evidence characterizing people who have fun at work as:

more productive
more creative
healthier
more motivated
more flexible and resilient
better able to meet job demands

A major benefit of team building play is learning to tap into the brain’s right hemisphere, which is often underutilized in the workplace. This is the cerebral real estate that hosts imagination, creativity and intuition. Long thought to be useful only to artists, writers and musicians, we now understand that right-brain thinking also plays a vital role in the business world.

So why is “play” such a wonderful learning tool?

1. Play is Involving. The best way to learn new skills is through action — actually doing things. Research shows that subjects who just sit and listen to a teacher retain only 20% of what they hear. But participants involved in active learning (doing a real job, a simulation, a training game, etc.) retain 90% of the information.

2. Play is Low Risk. Play offers participants a safe environment in which to explore, risk, try new ideas and make mistakes. Edison discovered over 1,800 ways not to build a light bulb. One of Madame Curie’s “failures” gave us radium. Columbus was looking for India when he found America. Mistakes are simply an integral part of innovation.

3. Play explores Team Dynamics. Team play allows a group’s dynamics to be examined and evaluated under controlled conditions. Every group develops a distinct personality of its own. How does your team function, breathe, eat, produce, communicate and plan? How does it make decisions? What are its unique weaknesses and strengths? How does the group adapt to change? Play gives us these answers.

4. Play promotes Self-Awareness . Just as a team can be evaluated in a controlled play environment, so can the team’s individual members. New experiences and new ideas set the stage for moments of self-examination and awareness. This also gives team members the chance to view teammates in a new light. We hear it again and again: “I had no idea Harry was so creative!” or “Who knew Mary was that clever?” Greater awareness of ourselves, and of those around us, can dramatically improve team effectiveness.

5. Play Builds Trust. Everyone within a group becomes more comfortable as members become familiar with teammates, sharpen their awareness of group dynamics, and begin to clearly understand where they fit in. Allowing people to work together in a play environment effectively builds trust within the team.

6. Play shows the Value of the Team. Play is an excellent tool for convincing the skeptics of teamwork’s value. Many workers are so competitive, or so inexperienced at working as part of a team, that they question the benefits of teamwork. Fun team exercises afford skeptics the opportunity to see that sharing information and responsibilities can bring amazing results. Group play also affords participants an opportunity to discover the strong value of diversity.

7. Play Promotes Pleasure. The pleasure of learning through play can work wonders to revitalize a group and rebuild morale. Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between pleasure and productivity. Pleasure also affects participants’ commitment to the exercises, helping them learn more and retain knowledge longer. It makes perfect sense that pleasure would be a powerful motivator.

8. Play Provides Specific Lessons. Each TeamBonding event delivers its own lessons, skills and experiences for participants. Many involve problem solving, while others tend to be more physical. Some are designed to enhance communication skills, with others focusing on organization. While some of these are group lessons, others are more individually targeted. TeamBonding has the expertise to fine-tune a program that meshes perfectly with your group and goals.

Play with us and you and your team will experience the Power of Play.

Team Building in Second Life

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

Yesterday I attended a presentation on Second Life on team building. As someone who prides himself in being a part of and offering programs on the cutting edge, I was curious. Being on the forefront of trends has been integral to the success of TeamBonding in scavenger hunts, culinary team building and currently, philanthropic team building so it only made sense that I explored something that I considered, new.

I admit, it took me a while to create my avatar, learn how to make it move and fly and I was stuck for 2 days in Brazil but clicking on my invitation link took me to a virtual island and conference center. There I met my facilitator and 10 other people from all over the country who were also interested in online learning. After brief introductions, we all went up a ramp and did a typical team building exercise called “Whale Watch”. All of us, one at a time got on a flat board and had to balance the board as more people got on. There was some interesting communication, some weight issues (or lack thereof) but overall, it was a good experience where 10 people were actually in one place, at one time, interacting and working together. That was cool.

After the program I was taken on a tour of the island where I was shown the conference center, the exhibit space, and breakout rooms and when all was said and done, I had spent three hours in Second Life, talking and learning with colleagues.

I definitely see the potential of this for our client with virtual teams. Now I need to determine how and if TeamBonding will get involved as I tend to be and we as a company tend to be a company that leads in that saying, Lead, follow or get out of the way. I would love any comments and experiences you have had in Second Life and if you think team building would be valuable in that space.

The Winner of our FREE Team Building Event

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

We sent out a newsletter back in March offering a free team building event to one deserving team and below on April 26th I announced the winner and why we had chosen them. Recently with the help of Kite Team Building facilitator Dave Shenkman, we delivered this program to this deserving company. It feels good to give back.

“What a great day it was! All 61 people in attendance had a wonderful time. The day was nearly perfect for creating and flying kites. Many employees have asked me when we can do it again! This is certainly a testimonial to your program, Dave. Everything about working with you was wonderful. Thank you for being patient and flexible with us. I know doing all the construction outdoors was a challenge, but it did not deter any of our teams from really “getting into it” and constructing some great kites. You said the event would be deemed successful if all the kites flew, and although all the kites did fly, the day was a success on so many other levels. Thank you for bringing this exciting and fun event to TeamBonding and to WIS.
A special thanks to Scott and Jayne for making this great day possible for the employees of WIS International.

We were certainly grateful in these tough economic times to be the recipient of your free TeamBonding Kite Flying event. I appreciate all you did to assist us in getting the event set up. I do feel the event was successful not only in breaking down some barriers, but in actually building some connections between employees and departments that were not present before this event. We hung the team kites in our main assembly/training rooms and when we are in those meeting rooms, often to discuss competing priorities, we are reminded of the teamwork and fun of that day. This may be a bit dramatic, but I do think that the presence of the kites reminds our employees of the teamwork that day, helping us to negotiate and resolve the issues that brought us into the meeting room in the first place.

Thanks again to all of you for a very successful TeamBonding event!”

What is your team doing to give back to the community? This was our first effort like this but it won’t be our last!

TeamBonding R & D

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

Yesterday we had a meeting with Paul Giroux, one of our most requested facilitators and host of our very popular team building game shows, Game Show Mania and Survey Says. The meeting was to talk about a new game show in development, Ballroom Blitz combining the physical challenges that some of the team building programs offer with the Cranium style questions that participants love. In addition, Paul shared with us a customization questionnaire for Survey Says (similar to Family Feud) which allows companies to customize the questions for each game played, making this even a better choice for team building and corporate entertainment.

We also met about a new philanthropic program that we will be debuting soon for the Holiday season. Santa’s Workshop will be available for team building and holiday parties where teams will build toys to donate to children through Toys for Tots and the Boys and Girls Clubs.

We are very excited about this program and if the responses from our Charity Bike Build are any indication, companies will respond well to this new program. We are trying to decide the name for this program. Do you think we can call it Santa’s Workshop in this day and age? Let us know.

Great Scott - Our Director of Client Solutions, West

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

Always interesting to dig down to see what the readers of my blog will enjoy while trying to give a little insight into the company and the people in it. This blog is dedicated to my friend Scott Flynn who has been with us for 2 years now, first as CEO and now as the Director of Client Solutions for our West Coast operations (sounds impressive). Seriously, I dedicate this to Scott as he had dedicated all his time and effort into Teambonding.

Today is a great day to talk about Scott. He is in Atlanta today assisting on our newest program, The Winery Team Challenge, a program he designed, along with TeamWork Poker and the Art of Team Building. His experience has made me comfortable in our expansions, our recession planning and investing in our back office database that is so client focused.

To think, when I met Scott, fresh out of Emerson College as my second employer that now, 25 years later we’d work together again. I have a lot to thank Scott for, first for teaching me marketing and then and now showing me the work ethic that made him successful in the two companies that he founded. Now as we navigate the current economy, I know that I can depend upon Scott to give it his all for the company and his clients. Teambonding is a company that specializes in team building and one of the things we are most proud of is our team. If you need help with a program and you are in Denver or the West Coast, contact Scott, you’ll see what I mean.

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2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

“The 14th of July is Bastille Day in France, my home country. To start celebrating this national holiday, David invited me to share my impressions with you on this blog after five months of serving as an intern at TeamBonding.

Before leaving France I told a French businessman, Pierre, that I was going to work for a team-building company. I was surprised by the look on his face, a large smile that said it all: been there, done that! Team building: a typically American thing that his French colleagues and he had boycotted by cutting the Parisian scavenger hunt short and relaxing in a café.

Is team building some sort of neo-paternalist management? Paternalist management in France started in the 19th century developing the idea that taking care of employees would make them enjoy their work more and be more productive and more loyal. Initiatives started off as activities similar to team building and then encompassed many different aspects of everyday life. Today however, the expression in France sometimes has a negative connotation that evokes a management trying to control employees. This might partly explain Pierre’s cynical reaction.

Do the French take themselves too seriously to enjoy team building activities? “On a passé l’age, n’est-ce pas ?” We are too old to be fooling around like kids. “Why did they not just give us an extra day off instead”?

During my internship here, however, I’ve assisted on quite a few events and have been surprised by the very different group reactions towards them. Regardless of the client, I loved watching the corporate culture manifest itself within a structured team building event, and it became clear to me that these events do influence our clients and how they are able to deal with challenges.

My experience with TeamBonding has shown me the true power of play – to help build and consolidate corporate team spirit. Getting a group motivated is the first step towards a successful team building experience. The most important question that a manager planning a team building event faces is: “How do I present this event to my colleagues to get them motivated?” That’s where TeamBonding comes in. They are experts the at helping clients figure out the most effective way to reach their group, which means that the client can focus on the great final results their team will achieve."

Happy Bastille Day Etienne. I think we both learned something!

Thank you Joseph Finder

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

Every month or so I get a call or an email from someone who has read the book Power Play by Joseph Finder. The last call was from my father-in-law who said “Did you know that the author thanked you in the acknowledgements of the book I just read?” Yes I did know and do remember and really enjoyed the conversation as he was researching team building and corporate retreats. We had a nice conversation, a few emails and a few months later, out came the book. I have to admit, I love when someone finds it and they think it is so cool and to be honest, I couldn’t wait to show my kids. It is not often that your teenage kids think you are cool but in this occasion, they did.

I also received a signed copy of the book which is a fast-paced thriller that I loved even more as it was set at a team building retreat that was a little more authentic based on our conversation. For Father’s Day I got a new Kindle from Amazon and I just got my first book, Paranoia by Joseph Finder and I wanted to acknowledge him. Thanks again Joseph!

How We See Ourselves

2009-10-01T11:10:39Z

I think one of the fun things about the blog is to let you see a little “behind the curtain” and this particular blog is fun because this is our entry to the Forbes Magazine “Build Your Business” contest for $100,000 cash and advertising prize and the first part of the contest is to send them 500 words on who we are, what we do and what we would use the prize money for. I think you’ll like it!

“TeamBonding is a fun, dynamic company that designs and facilitates custom team building programs for groups of all sizes. TeamBonding also delivers team and leadership development programs including Myers-Briggs, Change Management, DiSC Profile, Change Management and Effective Communication.

We’ve been considered a cutting-edge leader within our industry since starting the business in 1986 with a personal loan. For the past 22 years, our company has been fully funded by cash flow from operations. Typically our clients are companies and organizations located in North America, though we do work internationally as well.

Our pricing is competitive. We establish pricing for each program by building a profit margin into our costs which include professional program design and customization, production materials, marketing, travel and expenses, top-shelf facilitators and staffing.

Company founder David Goldstein has been in charge since the beginning. Our management, sales staff and lead facilitators are all active in business and social networking, and attend the meeting and conventions of leading industry organizations including ISES, MPI, NACE and PCMA. Many have been interviewed and/or asked to contributed information for articles by a range of industry publications. We’ve also made the Inc 5000 each of the past two years.

TeamBonding offers over 70 different customizable programs through our various websites including TeamBonding.com, Scaventures.com and RecipeForSuccess.com. Our events are as diverse as our clients: indoor, outdoor, low tech, hi tech, culinary and philanthropic programs are all part of the mix. We even have a complete line of custom scavenger hunts and game shows. Our event designers are continually dreaming up new programs; for the past two years, we’ve focused primarily on Philanthropic and Go Green team building.

Our philanthropic programs include a Charity Bike Build that has participants assembling and donating bikes to kids in need; a Team Teddy Rescue Bear program for making and donating stuffed animals to children in distress; a Fare to Share program that involves cooking and donating food to shelters; a Habitat for Humanity event that designs, builds and donates accessories to new Habitat homeowners; plus an Operation Military Care program that packs and ships care packages to soldiers serving overseas.

Once you’ve seen one of these amazing efforts first-hand, it’s hard not to be moved by power and potential we all have when working together. You simply cannot forget the joyful face of a terminally ill child receiving a bicycle assembled and donated as part of a corporate event. The grateful eyes of a man without home or family who has gone too long without tasting a home-cooked meal. Our military care package events are emotion-filled gatherings as well.

All of which makes answering the next question easy: TeamBonding will use the $100,000 contest money to continue developing and implementing CRS programs that focus on environmental awareness and education, and Philanthropic team building programs that gives back to the community. We’d also like to expand the network of chartable organizations that receive the fruits of our philanthropic team building programs. There is still much to be done…"

Wish us luck!