by Scott Kress | May 16, 2017 | Team Building, Team Building Activities
Here at Summit Team Building we always say that relationship is the foundation of any high-performance team. After all, we don’t do things for each other because we have to, but rather because we want to. So the key is to build a team of people that know, understand, trust, and support one another. This cannot happen virtually and takes time and many interactions. This is why the company dinner, the company picnic and other company events are so important. As a leader, you need to look at formal and informal team building strategies to build your team. The dinner, team picnic, bowling and other similar events are informal team building and help to reinforce relationships. The formal team building takes place in professionally run team building workshops or training sessions. It is in these facilitated sessions that team members truly begin to understand one another’s motivators, as well as their communication, problem-solving, and decision-making styles to name but a few things. Therefore, as a leader, you need to build in a mix of team building opportunities throughout the year. Some formal and some informal. Team building activities are a simple way for people to build positive relationships in the workplace. In carefully-structured team building activities, people share success, have fun, and begin (or continue) to build a common, positive history together. They connect with each other. Team building activities don’t need to be sophisticated … and certainly shouldn’t be hockey … but they must promote positive social interaction and be satisfying for the participants while keeping them in an emotionally “safe place”. Keeping it emotionally safe is what...
by Carrie Jones | Mar 28, 2017 | Team Building, Team Building Activities
I am excited to tell you that earlier this year, I wrote a blog post, where I interviewed my colleague, Dave Gibson. You can read all about it here. I am excited to tell you that throughout 2017, I will be giving you a behind-the-scenes look and interviewing each member of our fantastic team. This month I would like to introduce you my friend, talented colleague and the person at Summit who has been training me over the last seven months, Mary Barry. Hi Mary. Tell us about your journey. How did you find your way into Team Building and Team Development? At my previous place of employment, I had a lot of opportunities to try on different “hats” and one of them revolved around Training and Development. It turned out to be a great fit. I loved seeing people reach those “aha” moments and realized it was something I not only loved, but that I was good at. When I left that organization, I stayed home with my very young children for a while but soon discovered Summit Team Building through some friends. I did some contract work for a while but as my kids grew, Summit grew, and it seemed a natural fit that I would join the company on a full-time basis. That was over a decade ago and the experiences I have had since then could fill a book. In your spare time, what do you like to do for fun? For the most part I am a home-body. I love to spend time with my now teenage boys and husband. We live on the...
by Mary Barry | Mar 17, 2017 | Team Building Activities
The Best Team Building Activities – The Elusive Formula If you are looking for Team Building Activities that will result in the development of a high performing team and don’t know where to start what do you do? Well, you might ask Google and like so many of life’s other questions, Google actually has the answer and it surprised even them as explained in a recent HRM Canada article. http://www.hrmonline.ca/hr-news After two years of research and hundreds of interviews, Google discovered that of the multitude of Team Building Activities out there, no single one provided the magic bullet they were looking for to put together the best team possible. Many HR professionals spend a lot of time and energy developing Team Building Activities that would group individuals with complementary skills together in order to maximise that team’s effectiveness. Finding the right balance of introverts/extroverts, or developing the perfect matrix of academic credentials would seemingly provide the best foundation for building the ultimate dream team in your industry. It turns out that this kind of thinking is all wrong and many HR professionals and managers are starting to learn that the best kind of Team Building Activities focuses more on the human side of things. Relationship building, fostering trust and collaboration and establishing a culture where people care about each other and the work they do makes for a much better recipe for success than simply looking at the experience and background folks bring to the table. This revelation was great for us at Summit to hear…our team building activities focus on creating experiences where people can get to know...
