The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. –William James

Most people have one defining need that very rarely gets satisfied.  Many of us will move Heaven and Earth to satisfy this need.  This one attribute is the single most motivating factor that leads to success.  It is the need, the want, to feel important.  The person who can satisfy this need in others, the person who can sincerely make other people feel important, can be very influential and is typically regarded by others as a good leader. In fact, you can tell a lot about an individual by what makes him feel important.  My dad builds houses, and one of the most satisfying things to him is to complete a building and have others admire his work.  Al Capone got his feeling of being important from power and control.  Mother Teresa got her feeling of importance by helping the helpless.  There are usually two reasons why people do things.  The reason we tell others… and the real reason.  When we give money to charity, do we really do it to help others or do we do it because of the satisfaction we get from helping others.  We feel important because we feel like we made a difference in someone else’s life.

We you look around your office, you will see people from all walks of life who crave this feeling of importance.  If any one of those people all of the sudden stopped doing their job, it would cause a lot of challenges for your company.  Every single job that they do is important to the success of the company – to your success, because without them you couldn’t do your job effectively.

When was the last time that you told them how important they were to you?

One of my class members about ten years ago decided to use this principle with his sales assistant.  She was the assistant for five different salespeople, and her job was to put together marketing materials and, ultimately, their contracts when they sold a big deal.  During the class, this salesman decided that the work that this woman did for him was critical to him closing deals, so on his way into the office, he bought her a big container of popcorn and just put a sticky note on it saying how important she was to him and to his success.

When he gave it to her, she was shocked and surprised, but awfully grateful as well since he was the first person in years to treat her like an equal in the office.  When he came back to class the next week, he told us that she had taken the sticky note off the can and stuck it under the plastic protector that covered her desk so that she could see it every day.

I saw this man a couple of years later and asked him about the sales assistant.  He told me that she is still there and still doing a fabulous job.  He said, though, that she now has over a dozen of the sticky notes on her desk.  She keeps every one.

Great leaders use this aspect of human nature to make people feel important.  One way to be a great leader is to find some way every day to make the people around you feel important.

Team Building Principle #15: Acknowledge the Importance of Other People

Do you really want to have fun at work or just add fun to an ordinary work day? Below are a few simple team building tips that will help you have fun while building the team.

Go to Lunch

One of the most overlooked team building activity is the lunch. Really… Just a simple lunch out of the office. Quite often, coworkers will run to get a bite to eat with each other, and they will likely group together when they do. Every once in a while, if you are the boss, invite yourself to the group. “Hey are you folks going over to Chili’s for lunch? Mind if I tag along?” If you have never done this before, you will likely get some subtle resistance. (I mean, who wants to eat with the boss, right?) However, when you pick up the tab at the end of the meal, the whole group will be appreciative. You are likely during the meal to really get to know your team on a more personal level, as well. It is easier to communicate with your team when you they like you and trust you, and food is a great conversation starter.

Share Success Stories

When you get a compliment from a client or a project runs very efficiently, make sure and share the story behind the success with the whole team. Most managers think that just telling the result is good enough, but the team will only get to see the complete picture if they get access to the whole story — the story behind the numbers. For instance, instead of “We hit our goal by the skin of our teeth. Good job, everyone,” tell the team what put us over the top. “On Thursday afternoon, we were still $25,000 under goal and had just one day to get the generate the last bit of revenue. John was able to go back to an order that was shipping on Friday and called the customer back to offer to double the order in exchange for a 2% discount. That was just enough to put us over the goal!”

By the way, most of the people that work for a big company do their job very well without ever knowing how their work affects the bottom-line. They are the part of the team who need most to hear about the success stories that occur at the end of the project. They will feel more of a feeling of accomplishment as they hear how their activities led to the success.

Make Time to Play

One of the big mistakes that I see big companies make is that they try to re-create a team culture from another organization. For instance, a lot of high-tech companies have started creating gourmet meals for their employees for free and bring in pool tables for recreation because Google does it. Or they try to add comedy to their announcements because Southwest Airlines does it. Remember that it took years for these organizations to create their culture, and if you take what works for them and insert it into a different culture, you’ll likely get a lot of resistance and confusion. Instead, start slow and build on the team culture.

A good way to start is to and a small fun activity. It could be a goal for the group to accomplish like a sales goal or customer retention goal, or it could be an outing where you shut down the office early on a Friday night and go to a ball game or go bowling. In reality, it doesn’t really matter how you start as long as you build on the first step. You can’t do something fun once and then stop. Instead, get creative an add fun activities to your culture in a step-by-step fashion.

So if you want to build a team culture and have fun at work, go to lunch with your team from time to time, share success stories, and make time for play. If you do, you’ll begin to build your team culture.

Atlanta, Georgia — Participants in the Atlanta Fearless Presentations public speaking class Learn How to Handle Adversarial Questions. Every once in a while, someone will try to purposely trip you up in a presentation by asking a question that’s main intent is to make you look bad or show that you don’t know what you’re talking about.  This is one of the reasons that people develop a fear of speaking in public or give a presentation.  Usually, they are just having a bad day and want to take it out on someone, but we have to understand that as an effective speaker, we need to stay in control. It is human to respond to these types of attacks with a negative reaction, but this will destroy the rapport that you have spent your entire presentation building.  So the most important thing you need to do is stay calm and never attack back!!  Always respond back in a positive manner so that it will keep control of the situation and keep the audience on your side.  If the person continues to attack, almost always, someone from your audience will come to your aide and tell the person to just keep quiet and listen to the presentation.  But, this will not happen if you attach back or say something condescending to the rabble rouser.

So, if this ever happens to you while giving a speech, always remember to kill them with kindness and remember to never fight back.  Keep control of your presentation and keep it positive.

For more help with this chalenge and overcoming the fear of Public Speaking go to www.fearlesspresentations.com

Team Building Activities Support Best Places to Work

How do team building activities help your company become one of the best places to work?  Fortune Magazine recently released its annual list of the 100 best workplaces and while the perks are nice, that’s not what really motivates employees to do their best.

More and more decision makers are turning to charity team building workshops as a way of keeping employees engaged.  You might think that the best workplaces on the Fortune list have fantastic perks and lots of fun every day – and that’s part of the formula.   Teresa Amabile, professor at Harvard Business School, and her research team analyzed nearly 12,000 work diaries from professionals in seven different companies.  “Sure, the techies at Google love the free gourmet food, and Zappos employees get a kick out of playing Nerf Dart war. But all of that misses the most important element of employee engagement: helping them succeed at work that matters.”

Team building activities are an important tool for setting the tone with new employees and reinforcing the message to those with tenure.  Instead of reading about the company values in the employee handbook, the message is much more powerful when delivered in a team building workshop.  For example, Nestle Purina subscribes to the servant leadership model, so including team building activities like the Build-A-Bike where they can serve their local community is a natural fit as part of their meetings.

According to Amabile, “The single most important thing that can keep workers deeply, happily engaged on the job is moving forward on work they care about — even if the progress is an incremental ‘small win.’ Your bosses — and how they manage you — make all the difference.”  When you have a quarterly or annual meeting it’s a great opportunity to reinforce your corporate culture through interactive team building activities.

The best managers in the Harvard Business School study set clear goals and gave people autonomy in meeting those goals. As a result, their employees stayed committed, productive and creative. Top performers have to be clued into and bought into a shared vision in order for company results to remain strong.

Sure, cool perks are nice. But many businesses see an inspired workforce as key to creating a great place to work – they go hand-in-hand.  Consider adding team building activities to reinforce your corporate culture and engage your employees…and create a great place to work!

This article was written by Colette Johnston. Colette is a Corporate Team Building Consultant with The Leader’s Institute headquartered out of Dallas Texas. You can reach Colette at 800-872-7830.

KP means what it says, every body walk, ride, run – just get moving.  They want us all to “get healthy.”  Families of Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta, Georgia met along the Beltline for the second year holding a Build-A-Bike team building event for kids along the old railroad track bed.  The rails have been ripped up, and wood chips laid down as part of the “Rails To Trails” program.

Folks from Kaiser Permanente want families along the old route to get healthy, to have what other kids have – a bike.  So 250 Kaiser Permanente employees, plus their children, came together to do a little team building and make some lives more mobile.  Together they earned the pieces of the bikes, put them together, and made them shine.  They tried not to be competitive, but human nature won out.  The “first finishers” were mighty proud.  Kids from along the old rail line, came to see that people outside their immediate family care that they do well in life.
Mayor Kasim Reed came by to meet the kids with their new bikes, and people from Kaiser Permanente got to feel really good about themselves.  Since 1945 KP has been at the forefront of healthy living, providing local jobs and giving back to the communities where they do business.  This day, it was all about the kids, living healthy, and having a little competitive fun in Atlanta, Georgia.  40 new bikes are ready to be tried out along the Beltway, yes, safety first, always – a helmet.  By Connie Timpson/Sr. Instructor/Performance Coach/The Leader’s Institute.

Over 120 employees of Wells Fargo came together for a unique team building opportunity. They sponsored a Build-A-Bike Team Building Event in Charlotte, North Carolina, that resulted in 20 new bicycles being built and given to the local Boys and Girls Club. It was a fun and fast-paced experience where the participants got the opportunity to have some fun, learn some team building principles, and see one another in a little different circumstance than they are accustomed to. It was great experience to laugh, learn and give back to the community.

What can a Build-A-Bike event teach us about teamwork? One simple lesson that is experiences is that teamwork goes beyond the immediate team to involve a larger team. In this instance there were 18 teams given various tasks, but it wasn’t until they learned to work together across team boundaries that the problems were able to be solved. When the each of the teams enlisted the help of others the team work provided the benefit. Often time companies are divided by location, divisions, departments, etc. But when we work across those boundaries to help each other progress really occurs. We may compete for limited human resources, time, financial consideration, budgetary appropriations, and any other things, but competition can become detrimental to the overall welfare of the larger company. If one branch succeeds at the cost of another the company at large suffers. This was an important lesson for the participants and they experienced the learning a fun and practical atmosphere.

This event was produced by our Atlanta, Georgia based team. Thanks to Wells Fargo for a great Build-A-Bike Team Building Event. And thanks to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Charlotte for providing recipients for the bicycles.

Times are tough, and as a result, morale can suffer. So what can the leaders of an organization do to help team members feel more confident and at ease? Below are a few simple tips:

1. Give Sincere Compliments: When times are tough, we can easily be distracted (sometimes just trying to stay above water). That is the time that your team members need reassurance, and a sincere compliment can go a long way in helping your team feel more comfortable.  Remember that the team member doesn’t have to be perfect — just improving.
2. Share Information: People fear the unknown a lot more than reality in most cases. If your team knows what’s wrong, they can often help you fix it. Often, leaders will try to protect the team by keeping negative information to himself/herself, which just makes the team wonder what you are hiding. Fear causes people to react aggressively, so share information, and your team will help you.
3. Set a Goal: A shared goal can help the team work together toward a common result. A number of small successes can improve morale dramatically.
4. Brain-Storm: Challenges are often opportunities in disguise. When challenges develop, get your team together and brain-storm solutions.  One big idea can open up additional revenue streams.

Get your team working toward a common goal by praising them and working on tough challenges together. Your team culture will grow, and you will be way ahead of the game when things turn around.

Everyone has been a part of or led some type of fun team building game or team activity. What was your favorite? Was an event, an outing, or just a fun game that everyone loved?

When the economy is slow, company managers and leaders have to be very cautious with every expense. As a result, we will often put off hiring new employees until more certainty in the marketplace develops. Although natural efficiencies will develop in a downward economy, can team building activities help increase productivity so that we can avoid the expense of adding on new personnel? The answer to that question is… “Well… It depends…”

Don’t Confuse “Morale” with “Productivity”

Team Building is almost a generic term that is used for both “morale building” activities and “productivity building” activities interchangeable, but if you confuse the two activities, you can make some costly mistakes. Morale building activities can include anything from going out to a movie together to an office holiday party to entertainment style activities at annual meetings ans conventions. These activities provide a shared-experience that builds temporary camaraderie and provides a fun relief to the normal day-to-day rat-race. Productivity building activities are training events or innovations that help teams do more with less. Although people will often call both of these types of activities “Team Building”, the activities themselves get totally different results. Both are needed to create a team culture, but quite often, managers and leaders will schedule one type of activity hoping to get the needed result from the other type of activity and be sorely disappointed.

Although productivity will often improve (sometimes dramatically) when morale improves, an increase in morale doesn’t always cause a team to be more productive. For instance, if a manager came into the office and announced that the entire team would get the whole week off and still get paid, morale would skyrocket, but productivity would drop to zero for the week. Morale building activities like team outings and company parties are extremely important, but they can’t entirely replace productivity building events and activities.

Since the team atmosphere created by morale building activities can be temporary, you’ll want to schedule activities like this regularly so that the individual team members get to interact with each other in a more fun way to build camaraderie. Charity team building events at annual meetings or conventions can be a great way to insert a morale building activity. These team building functions are very economical, because the company can generate great public relations without increasing the cost of conducting a convention or annual meeting. For instance, most conventions are going to have some type of entertainment or at least a company outing of some kind. Many companies are replacing these activities with a charity bike build or a team scavenger hunt where team members build gift baskets for soldiers. The investment in each activity is fairly similar, but the results of the charity activities often provide impactful, lasting memories that build great camaraderie between team members.

Build Teams by Training Team Members Together

In addition to morale building activities, a team also needs to develop new skills in order to keep them productive. Many years ago, a mentor of mine told me that “You can’t build a team by training individuals, but you can build a team by training individuals together.” I didn’t really understand the power of this advice until I started my own business, but I understand it more and more as my company grows and grows. For instance, many big companies offer tuition assistance for higher level degrees for their employees, but what often happens is that a company will invest a ton of money into the development of an employee only to have the person leave the company and start working for a competitor. This happens because the individual employees is growing, but the team as a whole is stagnant.

Oddly enough, any skill development activities will work to build the team culture in an organization if the skills developed gives the team a competitive advantage in the marketplace. For instance, Apple decided to eliminate cash registers inside their Apple Stores and replace them with the ability for any employee in the store to be able to use their smartphones to ring-up items for purchases on their smartphones. Because Apple is doing something that no one else is doing, the employees who have been trained in this new technology feel like they are a part of an elite group that is different from other retail stores. Whether they are or not doesn’t really matter, because the team believe that they are ahead of the curve. Customers can find an Apple employee and within seconds create a purchase and have the receipt sent to the customer via email and be on their way. A dramatic increase in productivity and decrease in cost while creating more of a team atmosphere among employees.

“Soft-Skills” Team Building Training is Most Productive

The most effective team training to increase productivity comes from “soft-skills” training, though. While Hard-Skills are ones essential to doing individual jobs within a company — for example hard-skills for an engineer might be calculus and physics — soft-Skills are skills that improve productivity no matter what specific role that a person has within an organization. Soft-skills would include communication skills, presentation skills, the ability to persuade people, the ability to coach and mentor others, etc. If the engineer improves in any or all of these soft-skills, then he or she will likely improve their individual success as well as the overall success of the team.

When teams train together in these soft-skill areas, they automatically develop that same type of team culture that Apple developed with the technology change. Team members know that they are a part of a unique, elite group that is different from most organizations (because most organizations don’t train this way).

For example, a few years ago, I was hired by a commercial construction company to help them deliver high-level sales presentations better. Companies that build skyscrapers or have groups of construction projects often bid out these huge projects in one big contract, so they will often ask for huge proposals and have each qualified contractor come in and do a presentation to narrow down the field. The company that hired me was closing about one out of six of these presentations, but wanted to increase their numbers. So we conducted a series of presentation skills classes with the teams of presenters. Because they trained together, they developed a team culture that showed up when they conducted their presentations. Quite often, at the end of their presentations, the board members who were in the audience would say, “We chose this group because they just seemed to work very well together.” The team culture showed, because the individuals within the group had been trained in soft-skills together, so they saw themselves as having an advantage over other presenters (and they had one.)

Presentation skills, people skills, coaching, mentoring, and other soft-skills training can really help teams become more productive as long as the teams are going through the training as a team. I remember my college football coach telling us, “You don’t fight for records or awards, you fight for the guy who is next to you in the trenches.” When teams train together, they build a rapport that lasts.

Want to jazz up your Christmas Banquet, holiday event, or year end meeting this year? A quality team building activity can add some fun and enthusiasm to the meetings and support a charity in the process. Charity team building events are still a fairly new invention, but these activities are growing in popularity by leaps and bounds every single year. These activities combine fun (and funny) exercises to build camaraderie to either build something or accumulate something that will later be donated to a charity on behalf of the sponsoring company or group.

For example, the grandfather of all of the charity team building events is the world-famous Build-A-Bike® team building event where participants work together to accumulate pieces of bicycles to build brand-new bikes for underprivileged kids in the area. This event is still the most popular, with good reason, because it combines fun and energy with an emotional appeal of helping kids. The big ending for these events is when kids come rushing into the room, and each individual team gets to donate their individual bike to a single kid. This leaves every participant feeling that his/her contribution was important to the success of the activity. Lots of fun!

Golf team building for a cause is the newest charity team building activity, and it is quickly becoming a popular choice because of the new economy that we are working in. This activity has participants accumulate non-perishable food items that are used strategically to design a custom golf-course for the group. Of course, once the course is dismantled, all of the food items are donated to a local food pantry. These food pantries are really struggling to keep up right now, because the number of families coming to them for food each week is increasing while donations are really low because of the economy. So they directors of these pantries are extremely grateful for these big donations (most often over 1000 lbs of food).

Another good choice is to do a scavenger hunt where participants race to accumulate items that are used to create care packages for soldiers who are away from their families. Especially around Christmas time, these care packages are a welcome to soldiers who are stationed in foreign countries.

For information about a charity team building event, call an event specialist at (800) 872-7830.

I saw this ad from American Airlines on TV a few nights ago. It is about a bad team building event, and it cracked me up. Rough week for American Airlines, but this is really funny. I guarantee that our team building events are NOTHING like this one.

Just because your city has under 20 million people doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to schedule one of the best team building events in the world! Because of the size of The Leader’s Institute® Team Building company and because our team building instructors are based in cities across the United States, we can deliver team building events in just about any city in America, Canada, and Europe.

The following is a list of cities where we offer teambuilding programs and team building activities.

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Austin, Texas
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Colorado Springs, CO
• Columbus, Ohio
• Denver, Colorado
• El Paso, Texas
• Fresno, California
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Long Beach, California
• Louisville, Kentucky
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Mesa, Arizona
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Omaha, Nebraska
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Portland, Oregon
• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Sacramento, California
• San Antonio, Texas
• San Diego, California
• San Jose, California
• Tucson, Arizona
• Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Virginia Beach, VA

We offer over a dozen different programs including philanthropic events, workshops, seminars, and breakout sessions. For details about all of the options that are available in each location above, click the Team Building Events link in the tool bar at the top of the page. We look forward to working with you on your next program!

Our instructors travel all over the world to conduct team building events for our client companies, and we each have our favorite locations to travel to and lead team building event. This list is not necessarily the “Best Cities” but they are the cities that we most like to travel to and teach in. We hope you agree.

• Las Vegas, Nevada: Las Vegas is still an extremely fun and cost effective location to hold an annual convention or team building event. Hotel expenses are literally a half to a third the expense that you’d invest in other cities, and the huge casinos are like cities in and of themselves. Your team will likely never have to leave the casino and still feel like they have seen “it all.” Also, because the hotels and event planners are well seasoned, planning and delivering a world-class event is very easy and turn-key. More information about team building in Las Vegas.
• Orlando and Miami, Florida: Orlando is probably one of the most popular convention cities in the world because of the great weather and famous attractions. Just like in Las Vegas, a great bonus is that the event planners and hotel staffs are well-seasoned and very easy to work with. Be sure to insert free-time into your agenda so that your participants can enjoy the resort-like atmosphere that most convention hotels in Orlando have. Miami is also very popular for similar reasons, but Miami is a little more tropical and “adult oriented.” Either location will give you a fantastic convention or team building event, but Orlando is a little more family-friendly. More information about Orlando Team Building and Miami Team Building.
• Chicago, Illinois: The Navy Pier, The Magnificent Mile, and a nice compact city center make Chicago a fantastic place to hold your annual convention. In many locations, participants can walk to additional attractions and location, but a short cab-ride is also easy to find. Just like with the Florida location and Vegas, Chicago has a vast pool of great event planners, but because hotel space is a lot more limited in Chicago, your event will take a little more planning. A Cubs game is a nice bonus for visitors as well. The food in Chicago is impeccable as well. Whether you favor a Chicago Dog or Deep Dish Chicago-style pizza or a great steak, Chicago is a great place to gain a few pounds. More Chicago Team Building information.
• San Francisco, California: San Francisco is a great place to hold a convention or annual meeting, but logistically, San Francisco can cause a few transportation challenges. Because of city politics, many of the big convention hotels are located outside of San Francisco proper (and also because of the high concentration of companies south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley. So getting your group from their hotel to some of the attractions can increase your total cost a little, but the hotels are still a great value compared to other major metropolitan areas. Attractions like the Wharf, Alcatraz, and Candlestick Park offer great outings for your group. San Francisco Team Building information.
• Washington, DC: Although it takes a little more planning because of the congestion, Washington, DC is one of the absolute best places to conduct a convention — especially if your group favors a historical perspective. The city has a number of nice convention hotels and attractions galore. The city is easy to get around in via walking or cab rides as well. The major drawback to Washington, DC is the customer service. Unlike cities like Vegas and Orlando where, no matter who at a hotel you communicate with, you will always get a warm and friendly response and immediate service, in Washington, DC, So, you might have to make simple request more than once to get satisfaction, and the service may not be as fast as you might require. Information about Washington DC Team Building.
• New York, NY: New York city is a fabulous place to hold a convention, because it is the center of economic activity and the home of Broadway and Times Square. The sites and sounds of New York can make any convention a memorable event. The city has three major airports and taxi-rides into the city are fairly inexpensive as well. The one major problem with New York as a convention destination, though, is the hotel rules. Most of the staff at the hotels have strict union rules that can cause a few challenges for the uninitiated. For example, the union rules demand that setting up a station at an event generate a minimum of two hours of labor for the waiters/waitresses, so you will often find a waiter standing next to your food or beverage station while you team is on break — not refreshing, but just standing — and then often pack up station early. As long as you know their rules, you will have fewer challenges, but a good, local event planner in New York is really worth it to you. New York Team Building information.

These are just a few of our favorite cites for team building, so this is, by no means, a comprehensive list. For instance, our home base in Dallas, Texas is a great place because of it’s central location and attractions. Atlanta, Georgia is also a great team building city because of it’s airport and great downtown area. Seattle, Washington is probably one of the most overlooked location to do team building, but has a lot of advantages. And, of course, Los Angeles and San Diego are fantastic team building locations.

Whatever location that you choose, make sure and contact one of our team building staff for details about delivering one of out world-famous team building events.

Below are a few team building articles and team building tips that we published on the blog in past months. (Sometimes, real good ideas get buried, so here is a review of a few.)

Team Building Game: The Helium Stick

One of my favorite team building games or team icebreaker activities is sometimes called The Helium Stick or even Lighter than Air. The rules are pretty simple. Organize your group into small groups of eight to ten people (you’ll need at least six people per team to make it work, but more than eight or [...]

Do You Really Know How To Motivate Your Team?

Leadership, And Management Skills Are Not Coded Into Our DNA. Do You Really Know How To Motivate Your Team? Leadership and management skills are not coded into our DNA. But you hear people say, “He or she is a born leader.” Well….not really. They may know less about their own team and what motivates it [...]

Free Team Building Activity-Playing Card Shuffle

Here is a free team building activity that can insert a ton of energy into your meeting right as you get started. If you have a big group that you need to organize into smaller teams (or tables), The Playing Card Shuffle is a great way to do it. To setup the room in advance, [...]

More team building tips at http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/free-tips-videos/free-team-building-tips

One of the most common challenges that event planners or convention organizers encounter is picking the perfect team building event for each group that they represent. We always want to organize something new and fresh, and we often want to have a memorable experience that participants talk about for weeks or months. So how to you determine what the absolute best team building event is for your group? Answer these simple questions, and the options will be narrowed down to just the events that will work for your team.

How Big is Your Group?

The main aspect of your group that will exclude many team building options is the size of the group. If your group is relatively small, many events just won’t work as well, and if your group is too big, other team events will need to be excluded. The general rule of thumb is that the smaller your group is, the better “behavior change” type team building events work, and the larger the event, the more you will want to look at Charity Team Building Events.

Small Groups: For smaller groups, team building skills like communication skills, people skills, conflict resolution, and coaching are a fantastic way to create a team culture for your group. If you have 15, 20, or 30 team members, you can create a real esprit de corps among team members, and team building events like this are really cost effective as well. A half-day event can typically be scheduled for as little as $2,500. So teams can generate great results for a smaller fee.

Middle Sized Groups: If your group size is between 30 and 50 people, experiential non-charity team building is a better fit. Events like outdoor team scavenger hunts or murder mystery events work extremely well for this sized group. If you are organizing a team scavenger hunt, you can organize the team into eight to 12 small groups on the treasure hunt, and they will have a blast. The murder mystery event can be delivered in a similar way. With less than 10 groups, every team is active and having fun. However, if you only have 10 people and you organize either one of these events, you’ll have a competition between, at most, two groups, so a lot of the fun is drained out of the events. If you have 20 or 30 teams all participating in and event like this, it will be confusing and the small groups will be stepping on each others toes — not what you want in team building.

Larger Groups: Once your group gets bigger than 50 people (and even as big as 500 or 5000 people) Charity Team Building Events are a much better choice. The reason why is that a Charity Team Event like a Build-A-Bike Event or Ace Race is extremely high energy team event where big groups of people can interact simultaneously, and the bigger the event, the bigger the impact. If you have a group of 20 people building bikes for kids, four or six bikes is not all that exciting, but if you have 500 people building bikes, and you donate 100 bikes to the Boys and Girls Club, it is a big deal. The bigger the group, the more necessary it is to conduct charity team building.

What is Your Venue

Choose an event that is appropriate to the venue. Often, if the event is at a tropical resort, event organizers will often hear, “Let’s do something outside,” and since the team building event is one of the few things that can be conducted outside, they decide to conduct the event outside even though it may not be practical. For instance, if you organize a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt at a fabulous resort, it won’t be nearly as fun as one in a downtown area. They may get to see the pool, and the cabanas, and the spa, but they will just see them in passing as the move around the resort. In a downtown area, though, they can uncover the history of the city, identify often-overlooked art masterpieces, and more. Often, when you hear the “Can we do something outside,” comments, that is code for, “We are at a fabulous resort, but we don’t get any time to enjoy the location because we are in stinking meetings all day.” So just give the participants a little more free time, and you’ll get better results. One of our favorite events for resort locations is the Ace Race Golf Team Building Event where we have participants build an entire mini-golf course out of non-perishable food items that later get donated to the local food bank.

If you use these guidelines, you’ll pick an awesome team building event for your group!

Team Building Tip-The Entertainment Value of Team Building Events

I’m ashamed to say that in the early part of my speaking career, I totally underestimated the value of entertainment in team building. Don’t get me wrong. I knew from day one that the best way to teach was to do so while people are having fun. Since I came from a teaching background, I learned very early on that people learn faster when they are laughing, so there has always been a focus on making the learning process entertaining. However, in the last ten years or so, a whole new team building industry has come onto the scene, and as a result, the entertainment aspect of training — specifically team building activities and events — has taken on a much bigger prominence.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends invited my family to go to Six Flags for a corporate event that his company throws every year. The company has about 3000 employees, so they rented out the entire theme park for their employees for the whole day, and they have been doing it for years. It was entirely designed as an entertaining reward for their employees, and it was quite fun. Conventions, incentive retreats, special events, and the like have long been a part of the rewards for working with big companies, but in recent years, the “shared experience” has expanded into charity team building events where the entire group actually works together for a common goal. These types of team building experiences have had a fantastically positive effect on corporate cultures and charitable organizations all over the world.

Corporate Team Building Events are More Complicated than Standard Corporate Entertainment Event

Because corporate executives and event planners have been organizing these entertainment packages for decades, they sometimes think that a big team building event should be organized the same way. This common mistake can cause big challenges, though, and the event will often flop.

For example, about once every couple of months, our instructors will receive a request to do a bike building event, but they will specifically ask that the event be just the building process without really having any team building activities. Last week, we got a call from an event planner who wanted 400 people to build 200 bikes as a “day to give back to the community.” After conducting over 3000 Build-A-Bike® team building programs, we’ve learned a lot about the bike building process. One of these truths is that the actual building of the bike is not that fun or exciting in and of itself.

When was the last time you were sitting up on Christmas Eve looking at a box of parts and thinking to yourself, “Man, I can’t wait to put that thing together”? The putting together of parts is not really fun — it’s work. Another problem is that most of the bikes shipped from Huffy or other bike companies come fairly assembled. It might take someone who is a bike novice about 15 to 20 minutes to put assemble one, and maybe 5 minutes for someone who has mechanical experience. So it would take 400 people a maximum of 20 minutes to put all 200 bikes together, and at the conclusion, there wouldn’t really be any type of shared experience created.

Most participants would walk away thinking, “Okay, I did my duty,” but they wouldn’t take a lot of pride in their work. It’s also not something that they would remember as being fun or entertaining.

A Great Team Building Event is Fun and Challenging!

This is where great team building events come in. Just like on a sports team, the fun and teamwork comes from overcoming adversity together. The pride and sense of accomplishment come from achieving something that was challenging. And delivering a challenging activity in a fun and memorable way is an art. The very best team building event facilitators are those who sweep the audience into a fun activity making it appear as though a competition is occurring within the group. Those who can get positive peer pressure working in a way to build up energy along the way and add a little bit of comedy can ensure that the events are effective every time. One of the reasons why charity team building events like Build-A-Bike and The Ace Race are so popular is that while these events are going on, team members are laughing and having fun, and because of the shared challenges that they overcome as a group, they feel a great sense of accomplishment at the end. So when the bikes are donated to cute kids at the end or when tons of food items are donated to the local food bank, the emotional impact is very high at the end.

A nice bonus is that when these activities are conducted at conventions or annual meetings, that feeling of pride and accomplishment tends to spill over and leave the participants thinking of the entire event as a major success.

So schedule a professional team building event for your next convention or annual meeting, and you will entertain as well as instruct your team!

This weekend, my family and I went camping with our neighbors. Keep in mind that, although I’m a country boy from rural Arkansas and spent many-a-weekend in a tent, I’ve become accustomed to king-sized beds and concierge lounges in my recent years. In fact, it was funny when my wife told me about the invitation…

“I know you’re not really the camping type,” she said.

I was offended… “I can skin a buck and run a trot line, I’ll have you know.”

Well, within a few hours I was back in my rustic roots. My neighbor pulled in his camper and expanded the sides to fit the queen beds. I plugged in my portable hotspot and unpacked my iPad. Just the great outdoors and a little Direct TV. (This is way better than I remember when I was a kid.)

Anyway, the point is that my wife and I have known the neighbors for a year or so now, but we got to know them much better throughout the last 48 hours. We talked about different things. We laughed together. It wad nice and relaxing.

It was a shared experience.

One of the reasons that team building events are so valuable is that they create a shared experience for the entire group. It is something that is not work. It’s not the normal stress and pressure at the office. It let’s the group get to know each other on a personal level.

Teams work much better together when the members of the team have strong friendships. Those strong friendships develop from the shared experiences. So when you schedule your next convention or annual meeting, make sure and look for ways to create a fun, shared experience for your team. Good team building events and activities like charity team building events can create that emotional impact in a shared experience.

At first glance you wouldn’t think building a team is like hiking a mountain.  The last weekend of summer, Labor Day Weekend, I had an opportunity to hike Mt. Audubon in the Roosevelt National Forest with a group of friends.  As much as I enjoy my job I make it a general rule to try not to think about work on the weekend. But listening to and observing my hiking mates I couldn’t help but think about how building a team is like hiking a mountain.

Be clear

Within our group we had a range of physical abilities from those who are accustomed to 10,000 foot elevation to those who are more used to sea level altitude. At the beginning of the hike it was important to be clear about expectations and what success meant for each person – it wasn’t necessarily reaching the 13,233 foot summit for everyone. That same good clear communication is vital in the workplace.  It’s important for organizations to be clear about goals – from sales goals to safety goals.   Building a team environment is enhanced when you celebrate milestones like many companies are doing with philanthropic teambuilding.

Be consistent

I noticed a lot of leap frogging during our five and half hour hike.  Some hikers went in bursts passing us, then later we’d pass them as they were resting, and they’d pass us again after a recharge.  Others took a “slow and steady wins the race” approach with a more even pace to the top.  Like personality styles, there’s not a right or wrong way, it’s neither good nor bad – it’s just different. For example, when our clients learn about personality styles in our teambuilding workshop Rescue Bear, they see that each style adds value to the team.  A Driver is a Driver and an Expressive is pretty consistently an Expressive.  Once you come to understand and appreciate those differences the resulting communication will be consistent.

Be collaborative

Everybody brings something to the table. On our hike there was a person with a map and GPS, another person keeping an eye on the time and any impending weather to ensure we got to the top and back safely.  Even the person with a quick joke to take our minds off how tired our feet are was an important member of the team.  Good leaders realize that when building a team it’s important to draw in people with varied skills for peak collaboration.

When the day is done and you’re rounding the final switchback and the parking lot is in site you have the satisfaction of knowing you accomplished something great together. Every day at work won’t be like climbing a 13,000 foot mountain, but when building a team you can strive to be clear, be consistent and be collaborative to make your workplace a better environment.

This article was written by Colette Peterson. Colette is a Corporate Team Building Consultant with The Leader’s Institute headquartered out of Dallas Texas. You can reach Colette at 800-872-7830.

Corporate team building is important in a struggling economy. As we all know…These are tough economic times! During tough economic times it is the tendency of most companies to button down the hatches, hunker down, and hopefully wait out the storm. While this may feel like the safest thing to do it is actually the wrong thing to do and can in fact be detrimental. When things turn around…and they WILL turn around…you need to be positioned to take full advantage of the changing winds. During these tough times it has become too easy for employees or even whole departments within a company to feel under-appreciated which in turn leads to under-performance. This is a cancer that can spread quickly through a company and suddenly before you realize it…it shows up in the profit margin or lack thereof. The result can be devastating. There is a fix however, and it is actually quite simple. Invest in your own company.

One of the safest and rewarding investments in your own company is start doing corporate team building. Team building events are a great way to bring your people and departments together in order to help remind them they are all on the same team and it will take total team effort to pull through. It is through corporate team building that you can show your employees the most important part of your company is the people you hire. A team building event is a great way to bring your folks together, build trust, infuse energy, and improve communication. A positive environment, a sense of purpose, and a team culture is what will make the difference between having your company run like a highly tuned well functioning machine or sputtering and on the verge of breaking down.

Building and maintaining a positive team culture and atmosphere is every bit as important as paying the electrical bill. It’s not just something you should think about. It something you need to start on immediately and is crucial to your company coming through these tough economic not just barely hanging on for dear life but charging forward.

Written by Joe Jessop:
Joe is a corporate leadership consultant with The Leader’s Institute® headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The Leader’s Institute provides dynamic and high energy leadership training and corporate team building events for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities all over the country.

Increasingly businesses are finding that philanthropy is important in team building efforts as a component of their corporate social responsibility.  Initially some may have held these types of workshops as a public relations move or for perception, but the reality is people who participate in philanthropic team building programs not only love it – they remember it along with the team building skills they learned. They get so much more out of it than if they had done an individual recreational activity.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy and USA TODAY released the results of a survey conducted recently to find out find out how much money the 300 largest U.S. corporations give to charity and to which causes.  “Leading CEOs say they are interested in the deep connection between society obstacles and business obstacles, that they are intertwined,” says Margaret Coady, director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), an international forum of business executives interested in improving corporate philanthropy.

One of the reasons philanthropy in team building is so important is because it is ‘hands on’.  So often when we give to a charity we know it’s doing some good somewhere but we don’t really get to see the results of our giving.  In team building workshops like Build-A-Bike or Rescue Bear, the receiving organization comes in at the end of the workshop. As one participant exclaimed, “It was the best event I’ve attended in my career — the result of having a bike to hand out at the end to the children was just so gratifying!!”

In 2010, Wal-Mart kicked off a five-year, $2 billion pledge to fight hunger in the U.S., which includes 1.7 billion pounds of food donations and $250 million in philanthropic support. According to Wal-Mart’s Leslie Dach, executive vice president of corporate affairs who also oversees the foundation’s charitable work, “The only way we successfully deliver on these commitments is by engaging all parts of the business, whether it’s our associates who are volunteering their time to local food banks or the heads of each division who are weighing in on the strategy, or our foundation’s checks to our charity partners.” So the Ace Race team building workshop was a perfect tie-in for their summer intern program recently, where boxed and canned food items were donated to a local food bank.

Wal-Mart is not alone when it comes to taking this strategic approach to sharing the message about company values. Many of the nation’s largest companies are using philanthropy in team building as part of their University, much like are Goldman Sachs Deloitte.  It sets the tone immediately with new hires that these companies go beyond saying that they’re making a difference to actually making a difference

Companies are taking their giving efforts more seriously than ever before as a strategic part of their business because they see the impact these efforts are having.  When it comes to social engagement, the question now for companies is, ‘How do you break through?’ What better way than adding philanthropy to your next team building workshop.

This article was written by Colette Peterson. Colette is a Corporate Team Building Consultant with The Leader’s Institute headquartered out of Dallas Texas. You can reach Colette at 800-872-7830.

Why team building is an important incentive to retain top talent

A challenge many leaders face is, “How do you attract and retain talent with a workforce that is increasingly plugged in to social networking as a way of life?” Corporations have to adapt both how they recruit and how they work with people once they join to suit a new generation.  More and more decision makers are turning to philanthropic team building workshops as an incentive for intern programs or goals achieved.

Celebrate your success

What better way to celebrate reaching a sales goal or for a manufacturing facility reaching a safety goal than with giving back to the local community? And with many philanthropic team building workshops you get a double bang for your buck – incentive for the achievement plus building team skills. In a recent Wall Street Journal article PricewaterhouseCoopers chairman Dennis Nally was asked how he defines talent. “Having the technical skills is important but that’s almost a given these days.  Having the right softer skills in terms of being able to work in a collaborative environment, teaming with people, good communication skills, good sensitivities to cultural diversity.”

With experiential team building your team goes through activities where good/bad communication or collaboration is demonstrated so any issues rise to the surface. This is a much more effective way to address team building skills than in a lecture format.

Connect employees to the company values

Team building workshops are an important incentive for setting the tone with new employees.  Instead of reading about the company values in the employee handbook, the message is much more powerful when delivered in a team building workshop.  For example, WalMart contacted us recently because they wanted to add a “wow” to their intern program.  Using WalMart brand food that was donated to a local food bank in our Ace Race team building workshop reinforced their Feeding America campaign and connected the interns to this important company value.

Invest in your assets

In most companies the biggest asset is the people who work there.  Like any asset, if you want a return on that asset, you need to invest in it.  Top performers have to be rewarded in order for company results to remain strong.  As the economy slowly improves across various sectors team building as an incentive helps your team feel connected to your company, your culture, your values.

Inspiration is the key. Many businesses see an inspired workforce as key to expanding. Consider adding teambuilding as an incentive to celebrate your success, connect employees to your company values and protect your assets.  Companies have to grow again, and you need an engaged, motivated and retained work force to do that.

This article was written by Colette Peterson. Colette is a Corporate Team Building Consultant with The Leader’s Institute headquartered out of Dallas Texas. You can reach Colette at 800-872-7830.

SunTrust Bank held a Build-A-Bike Team Building Event in Atlanta which culminated with the group donating 16 bikes to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Atlanta. Over 90 people participated in the event. The group was divided into 16 smaller groups that each had to participate in several activities, problem solving, and even some math to get the parts to build the bikes. Each team had to work well together, and work together with other teams to complete their projects and get the bikes ready for the children. Once they got all the parts they could assemble the bikes and at the end of the program children from the boys and girls clubs were introduced to receive the bikes. It was a great event, with opportunities for fun and learning, and a great “feel good” ending.

The group from SunTrust came from around the Atlanta area to participate in a day of meetings which culminated in the Build-A-Bike team event. The group participated well and worked with each other showing that SunTrust Bank is a great company with great people.

During the Build-A-Bike there were many opportunities to learn great team building and leadership skills and put them into practice. It is stressed from the start of the program that it is not a competition. The idea is to support and work with one another. It is a hard concept, especially when you’re divided into groups. By dividing into groups competition is almost automatic, even if it is discouraged. The problems that needed to be solved to get the bike parts were most easily solved when working with other teams. The most effective and efficient way to solve many problems is to ask others for help, but it is a hard thing to do, especially if you view it as a competition. But divisions, different locations, branches, departments; any thing that segments one company into many parts, can create unhealthy competition that keeps them from sharing vital information with other groups. Ultimately, the 90+ from SunTrust realized that they were one team, not 16 teams, but one team- made up of 16 groups, with one goal- to build bikes for kids. They did a fantastic job and not only did the 16 children that received the bikes benefit but so did the communities they live in. Thanks SunTrust for a great event.

Below are a few team building tips and team building articles that were publish in the past. (Sometimes, real good ideas get buried in the blog, so here is a review of a few.)

Three Requisites for Corporate Team Building and Motivation

There are three attitudes that need to be present in each team member to make the team a peak performer. Those three are confidence, humility, and commitment. When these three are present in each member of a team then the groundwork is set for an efficient, effective team. Of course a team can be effective [...]

Team Motivation: Teams Learn Faster When They’re Having Fun

Need some Team Motivation? It’s common knowledge that people learn faster and produce more when they are having fun. So why should work be any different? There are several ways to add fun to any project [...]

Improve Your Team Culture with Team Building Activities

Team building activities help build a purposeful team culture within your organization. One of the reasons companies have offsite team meetings is to, not only share and gather information, but also to improve their team culture by giving people “face time”. If you’re planning an offsite meeting, here are some things to keep in mind [...]

More team building tips at http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/free-tips-videos/free-team-building-tips

Just wanted to let you know about one of my absolute favorite websites called www.selfgrowth.com. It has one of the most comprehensive libraries of motivational and self-help articles, videos, websites, and more, and it is a great place to spend a few minutes early in the morning before the work day. If you are a fan of the site, let me know by hitting the LIKE button above.

Want to get a really big bang for your training dollar? Combine Soft Skills Training and Charity Team Building for a great solution. For years, companies have realized the value of combining fun team building activities with a charitable donation to underprivileged kids or families. In fact, after we invented the Build-A-Bike® Team Building Activity, a whole new industry called philanthropic team building was created. These charity team activities fit really well into conventions or annual meetings, because they add a lot of energy and camaraderie to these annual events. But what happens when you have a smaller group, and you want to achieve some real team oriented behavior change such as conflict resolution, communication skills, or even supervisory skills or management training? Well, we’re gotten some really good results in combining classroom skill-building sessions with charity team building.

Classroom Skill-Building Team Activities

Classroom training will generate better skill development and retention than the game-type training that usually makes up the bulk of the high energy team activities. However classroom doesn’t have to be boring. Typically, classroom teachers have a habit of lecturing audiences, so although the material might be instructional or informative, retention is low because the audience is bored. A better way to deliver classroom training is to give a little bit of information, and then reinforce it with activity that improve retention and makes the training fun. In fact, one of the techniques that we use is to add some type of “Wow!” activity as well. For instance, in creating a team culture, we show participants how to improve their memory so much that they can remember, pretty much word-for-word, 28 Leadership Principles. Most participants are shocked at how easy it is to remember a huge list of items when they learn this secret.

Add Charity Team Building

So once the group is having fun and surprising themselves with how much they have learned and how easy it was to retain and use the information from the morning session, you can add in a high-energy charity team building event in the afternoon to add real emotion to the day. Charity team building events are compelling because they often reinforce skills from the earlier session. For instance, a Personality Temperament session in the morning might poke fun at the temperaments a little and show how each will react in a stressful situation. Then, if you add an outdoor scavenger hunt in the afternoon and set a time limit, the reactions of each temperament really take over. The “drivers” just want to go while the “analytical” want to form a plan first. The practical application of the classroom session really comes alive in the charity team building session.

When you combine soft-skills training with charity team building, you get a valuable combination of fun activities and real skill development, so you achieve a big bang for your investment.

Building a team or increasing teamwork in an organization can be more challenging in a tough economy, but it is critical that good leaders spend time building a team culture or a team atmosphere when things aren’t going so great. When the economy is booming, many organizations focus on team building activities because leaders want to make sure that they attract and keep the highest quality employees and associates. Often, though, when uncertainty in the economy occurs, leaders often cut back on training and team building investment. This can be a big mistake, though. When morale is down, teambuilding activities can give a team a much needed boost in energy and increase their positive expectations of the future. If you increase the morale, you decrease the fear that many associates will typically experience.

Improve Morale with Team Building Activities

When morale is down, normal communication that is important to the success of an organization decreases as well. When this occurs, mistakes increase and re-work becomes more prevalent as well. An easy way to boost morale very quickly is to invest in a fun, professional team building activity that gets your team to focus on the good that your organization accomplishes every day. Charity team building events can be a fun way to improve morale because each of these types of activities also donate proceeds to charity give a double return. Your team feels good about themselves and the company, the charity receives much-needed proceeds, and your organization might even get a nice bump in positive publicity.

Decrease Fear and Increase Efficiency

In addition, when there is a challenge in the economy, most people, good hard-working people, go into a defensive stance. They want to keep their head down and not make waves. We do this out of self-preservation, but this type of behavior takes away the enthusiasm and creativity that companies, especially young companies, rely on to create those breakthroughs that give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Fear in the workplace makes this creativity go away, so a good team building activity or event can help foster this creativity — at least for a short period of time. One of the important things for leaders to do during these times is to go to their people individually and let each of them know how important that they are to the success of the organization. Encourage them to share their ideas. Great leaders make this dialogue a part of both their normal day-to-day discussions with their people as well as a part of the communication to the organization as a whole at conventions or annual meetings.

Team Work Starts at the Top

The team will always be a reflection of the leaders at the top of the organization, so if the leaders are scared of the future, if the leaders are keeping their heads down, then the team members will follow suit. So any time communication comes from the leadership within an organization, whether the communication is internal documents, press releases, or just communication between executives, that communication needs to reflect optimism and a team culture. Edify your coworkers and your company, and you’ll see morale and teamwork improve very quickly. When you organize conventions and annual events, make sure to focus very specifically on the perception that is created by your speeches, guest speakers, activities, and events. Recently, I was asked to help deliver a team event in Orlando where the company actually rented out the entire Omni Hotel just so that they could really customize the entire event for their team. I was pretty impressed when I was walking around the pool to get to the outdoor restaurant and noticed a huge logo for the client as the centerpiece of the pool. My first impression was, “Wow, this company is doing really well.” In reality, though, that logo printing might have cost about $100 or so to create. Those small additions to your events add a lot to the perception that you are creating.

So when times are tough, make sure and use this as an opportunity to build your team culture by improving morale and decreasing fear. Make a conscious effort to present positive communication to your team, your coworkers, and the general public, and you’ll build a stronger team while your competitors “keep their heads down.”

Many companies are focusing on building a team with creativity these days.  Why? Creativity pays off in a lot of ways.  Whether you’re building a sales team, expanding product offerings, or encouraging a team atmosphere, put on your creative thinking cap to do business in a different way.

Stimulate your sales team. People who can come up with something different will stand out for the customer. Dr. Lisa Gundry, Professor of Management in the Charles H. Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University and Director of the Leo V. Ryan Center for Creativity and Innovation at DePaul says, “effective sales performance relies on a series of relationships. Most business competitors already know all the strategies and tactics we use to win business.  Creativity can come up with unconventional ways to sell and bring the unexpected to a sales relationship.  Being able to properly identify what customers really need and finding new ways to solve their problems brings loyalty and satisfaction above and beyond what you are currently doing.” Creativity makes the difference between an audience that snoozes and one that listens.

Generate new product ideas. Even those who don’t think of themselves as creative will surprise themselves – and others – when they are free to work in a creative atmosphere.  The premise behind Rick Highsmith’s Squish Creativity is that the fundamental building blocks to success are easily stifled when managers “squish creativity like a bug”.  According to Highsmith you can foster creativity by allowing open discussion of any and all possible solutions.  “We call this Green-Light thinking. It is the quantity not quality of ideas that is emphasized. There are no wrong answers in this process. Your role is to encourage the freewheeling generation of ideas. If you defer judgment, people will hitch hike a solution on another idea that had little merit. In this atmosphere the magic of creativity flourishes.”  Fostering this type of atmosphere is a critical piece for building a team that consistently comes up with new product ideas.

Cultivate a positive environment. Positive language is itself a creative tool in reshaping thought and building creativity.  Take the case of a major luxury hotel who a few years ago began a positive language campaign.  When asked a question, employees could not imply reply, “OK” or “All right,” but had to respond with an enthusiastic “Great!” or “Happy to do so!”  This simple change in language actually translated into a change in attitude among employees.  That change resulted in new ideas on how to serve customers, which in turn has helped build a strong customer service model.  Small shifts can make a big change. Brainstorming in a relaxed atmosphere helps when building a team with the ability to think not just outside the box, but beyond the box.  Take our newest teambuilding activity, Ace Race Team Building.  If you have a pile of boxed food items and canned goods, the first thing that pops into your mind is probably not, “Oh, a mini golf hole.”  But that’s exactly what your team will build, with a little creative thinking.  One of the values of interactive team building activities is that you get an opportunity to practice and receive immediate feedback on skills you’ve just learned, like creativity.

Everyone is creative, or at least started out that way.  When he was younger one of my nephews could conjure up many different adventures from a large cardboard box.  It’s a race car, a rocket, or a ship depending on his mood.  Somewhere along the line as adults creativity fades, or is squished as Highsmith suggests.  Adults need to create an atmosphere where they can practice creativity and enhance it in themselves.  Like highly creative environments at Facebook and Google, the more inspirational your workplace is, the easier it is to break the creativity block and discover new ideas.

This article was written by Colette Peterson. Colette is a Corporate Team Building Consultant with The Leader’s Institute headquartered out of Dallas Texas. You can reach Colette at 800-872-7830.

A survey by Accountemps indicates Managers spend an average of 18 percent of their time intervening in employee disputes. That is more than seven hours a week or nine weeks per year.   Past Accountemps studies from as far back as 1991 show very similar results.

These survey results show what it is important to be a Strong Boss.  Employees’ personal problems are messy and like a tidal wave of emotion can eat up a lot of time.  The touchy, feely folks at Accountemps offer five tips for minimizing personality conflicts.  I have added my own suggestions.

1.     Know when to step in. You don’t want to interject every time a minor issue arises, but you can’t afford to turn a blind eye to problems that jeopardize the group’s output… Steele says, “Punish all parties involved in the disruption.  This will keep employees from bothering you with their petty problems.”

2.     Don’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch. When friction is clearly stemming from the actions of a single individual, remind that person that the ability to collaborate and treat coworkers with respect is a requirement of the job.  Steele says, “Collaborate?!?  No, Elaborate your dissatisfaction with the employee twice and then fire the troublemaker.”

3.     Help employees get to know each other. Provide opportunities for your staff to interact in non-work activities, such as lunches or volunteer activities; familiarity can breed greater understanding.  Steele says, Oh please!  Strong Bosses don’t get involved in familiarity.  Remember familiarity breed’s contempt.  Keep your distance from employees and don’t waste time on socializing.

4.     Reward positive role models. Dole out praise, promotions and choice assignments to individuals who contribute to a supportive work environment. Recognizing staff for being team players sends a clear message that how they interact with others is as important as their job performance.  Steele says, “You can tell eggheads from Human Resources are involved with this suggestion.  Nothing is as important as job performance.  To suggest that being a team player is the same as being the top producer is just silly!

5. Make good hiring choices from the start. Hiring individuals with excellent interpersonal skills who are a good fit with your organization’s culture will reduce the potential for future conflicts.   Steele says, “It is a big mistake to look for interpersonal skills in hiring.  People like that talk too much and want to be happy.  I think you look for the best talent with the least interpersonal skills.  This way the new employee keeps their mouth shut, head down and focuses on the work in front of them.

Steele Steadiman is a Bosses’ Boss.  After a successful career in the business world, he is committed to showing weak leaders the path to control.  Steele is the author of “Squish Creativity Like a Bug.” He lectures and travels the world helping bring managers and leaders to his level.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s, corporate vision “Value through Innovation” has lead them forward in pharmaceutical discoveries and practices for 125 years! It practices what it preaches – corporate and social responsibility. As part of its affirmation of family values, they extended a hand to The Atlanta Ronald McDonald House, that Ronald built 30 years ago.

Kay Camacho, House Manager, had a Christmas wish; a dollhouse to put in the playroom. Boehringer Ingelheim, made her wish come true. As part of an semi-annual gathering, folks from Boehringer Ingelheim, built a stronger team and a doll house for Ronald through a team building event with The Leader’s Institute.

It was easy and fun. Solve a puzzle, get a piece, use some glue, a little tape to hold it until it dries, the strengths of each team member and voilla! A beautiful dollhouse stood ready to travel to its new home – the Ronald McDonald House. And yes, Kay Camacho loved the house, and the folks from Boehringer Ingelheim felt very good about building the house and their team at the same time. Amy Shabazz, the team leader, said the event “far exceeded her expectations. It was an excellent program. We learned a lot and had fun doing it.” Connie Timpson Sr. Instructor/Performance Coach/The Leader’s Institute.

Last week, I flew into Atlanta, Georgia to teach a Fearless Presentations® public speaking course for a fantastic group of professionals. In the program, we had a doctor who was just elected to the Board of Directors at his local hospital, a couple of electrical engineers, a woman who designs iPad aps for a huge Fortune 500 company, a woman who calculates royalties for musical artists, and a professional trainer who works with insurance agents. A group like this really points out something that a lot of us really forget about public speaking fear — presentation fear or stage fright is normal, and even professionals who speak everyday can sometimes fall prey to the butterflies in the stomach and sweaty palms.

These professionals, however, have begun a journey to eliminate that public speaking fear. We covered 10 specific techniques that anyone can do, right now, to reduce nervousness, and we showed these professionals how the way that we design and deliver a presentation can either add to or eliminate public speaking fear. (And we had a blast in the process!)

If you’d like to join these folks in the fearless journey, register for an upcoming public speaking class at http://www.fearlesspresentations.com and make sure and like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/fearlesspresentations.

I just finished a charity team building event in Alabama, for Lafarge North America.  For those of you who don’t know, Lafarge is the company that built the five soccer stadiums in South Africa for the World Cup that ended last week.   Lafarge donated 10 new hand-made  stuffed animals to the local Hoover fire department to be used for comforting children in need at any emergency situation.  Captain Neil Dipiano, from the Hoover fire department was there with three of his team to receive the gives.  As he received the donations, he talked about how valuable it is to have bears and toys for children at the scene of an accident or in case of a fire when the family is in crisis or experiencing a major loss.  Lafarge, through a simple act of kindness and generosity is making a difference in their community.

Oh yes, Miami, beaches, swimming, sun and learning. (We’ll get there!)  Chris Carouthers Law firm, from Atlanta, put the sandcastles,sunbathing and beach volleyball on hold to learn how to better communicate and strengthen their team. Creating a Team Culture through The Leader’s Institute is a fun, yet results driven seminar. Chris’s team learned that creating a stronger team takes committing to the team goal, a few wild stories to anchor concepts, and acknowledging each other’s strengths and natural gifts. By employing The Leader’s Institute’s Leadership Principles the group learned how to recognize possible miscommunication and those “oh so prickly internal personality rubs” and proactively solve problems before they even start. Now, to the sun and a stronger team!

If you have a group of individuals that needs to become a team we can help you Create A Team Culture. Doug Staneart, CEO of The Leader’s Institute, and senior instructor, Connie Timpson had a great time building this team.