17 Tips for Better Team Building Offsites

Get 17 concise and easy to understand tips  to help you design and conduct more effective team building offsites.   Use the handy
self-assessment questions to help you identify where you  need to improve and put in place the change needed to be a more  effective leader.

Summary:
“OK, let’s go around the room and everyone tell one interesting fact about yourself.”

“Bill, just fall backwards off this platform and let your team catch you!”

“So how do we become a better team?”

Any of you who have attended team offsites may recognize some variation of  the above phrases.  With the primary purpose of  building teamwork,  offsites became very popular in the 90’s and are a mainstay in many  organizational environments.  I’ve seen very mixed success in the offsites I have both attended as a team member and facilitated as a  leader.  Some of the offsites were great at inspiring the team and  driving positive change in the organization, while others had as much  impact as trying to bring down an alligator with a pea-shooter. 

In looking at my successes and failures in managing offsites, I’ve come to realize that team offsites held for
the sole purpose of building  teamwork in an organization just don’t work well.  Sure, there may be  some great feel-good things that happen at the offsite and a couple of  friendships may develop.  That is all fine and good.  What really makes a team offsite hum, though, is when team building is coupled with organizational direction setting or problem solving.   Not only are the team-building benefits realized, but the team is putting the  team-building to work in real-time by addressing real, meaty business  issues.  After the offsite is done and the team goes back to the office, the team-building can be reinforced through the implementation of the  ideas unearthed at the offsite.  When this is done well, team-building  shifts from being a separate and distinct
activity to something that is  woven into the fabric of what the team does on a day to day basis. 

In this Self-Study Seminar I will focus on five fundamental requirements  leaders should follow which will result in effective team offsites.    These requirements are based on years of conducting successful offsites as well as quite a few that were major duds.  I learned some major lessons through both the successes and failures which helped me run more effective team offsites. I hope these lessons learned will be helpful  to you as well.

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