August 6, 2015 at 8:29 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Teambuilding
August 7, 2015 at 3:39 am
Team-building is very important for the health of the teams. I realized this firsthand when we went out for a team outing with a few teams under our manager, Arun R.
It was wonderful and fascinating to see the other fascinating capabilities and interests of my colleagues, whom I have known only as testers or coders or leaders.
We spent the whole day engaging in group activities, fun games and individual skill games, that brought out a personal feeling and bond with my colleagues.
But, care and proper planning should be included when organizing such events, which in our case, was carefully done by Arun and few team members. Otherwise this team-building event can turn into a team-breaking disaster.
August 7, 2015 at 4:05 am
At Ford in the group I am currently in we don't do any team building since the team is of a global nature. So it makes it hard to do this. Consider yourselves so lucky if you are able to team build at all!
August 7, 2015 at 5:28 am
We occassionally do teambuilding activities at work. I think it can be a very good thing, especially meeting people who work in other locations, and getting to communicate informally. Personally, I prefer easy relaxed activities, like having lunch or dinner, and maybe watching some sports. I also remember a Segway driving activity, which was good since almost all of us were complete beginners but it was easy to learn.
I've seen problems with physical activities. For example, at one kickoff we went on a walking trip on a rather steep mountain. One person had to skip that part, due to their physical condition (overweight). I can't imagine that person feeling very included in the team at that time.
August 7, 2015 at 6:46 am
Almost my entire career has been spent as the solo IT person at whatever company I was with. On the one occasion I actually was part of a large IT group the members almost always worked on individual projects rather than as a team.
As far as I know team building was never done at that Fortune 50 company, certainly not while I was consulting there back in the late 90's.
August 7, 2015 at 8:03 am
I'm like you, Steve. Team building for me has been hit and miss. Mostly miss. Where I worked before we once went to the local zoo. That was nice. But once the layoffs started in 2008, team building just sort of died. Where I work now, there's no team building, such as you described.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
August 7, 2015 at 8:10 am
chill8 (8/7/2015)
At Ford in the group I am currently in we don't do any team building since the team is of a global nature. So it makes it hard to do this. Consider yourselves so lucky if you are able to team build at all!
Same here, my colleagues are all in different locations. There are a number of smaller groups like this in my physical location and other locales close by. So what our leadership does is throw a large picnic for all these groups and calls it Teambuilding. It seems that most people wind up spending time at the picnic with their own smaller groups anyhow. It might just be a way for all the IT folks to have a Friday in Summer off 😀
Ken
August 7, 2015 at 8:16 am
The company I'm at currently does team building. Each department gets a budget for one departmental outing per year, and it usually is a pretty good time. I typically still hang with the people I work with (IT is part of the Operations Department where I work which includes the BA group and the project management group) not so much other people, but that's on me.
We also have 2 all company events, an all day summer outing and a Christmas party. The company pays for everyone at the satellite offices to fly in for these events.
We also have a Sports & Social committee that puts on regular events throughout the year that take place during and outside working hours. The ones during working hours are a nice break in the day and you can see people from other departments and groups there.
My last company had a couple of parties, but you had to pay your own way to get there (they covered hotel) so I never went.
I'd say that they provide some value, because it is nice to have interactions with co-workers that aren't work related.
Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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August 7, 2015 at 8:18 am
Our IT team also does team lunches, but we stepped it up a notch. We asked people in our team to participate in the Spartan Sprint race. Even though the whole team did not join in, we had a great team building experience.
August 7, 2015 at 8:29 am
I work for Hitachi Solutions in Calgary, Canada. We engage in team building a few times a year. In June we go lawn bowling (yes you read that right). We have a golf tournament and a family picnic day.
We used to do more, almost one a month, but since the economy has gone down, and so have profits, we don't do it as much as before. But it keeps everyone happy and we all look forward to those days.
August 7, 2015 at 8:30 am
Most places I have been there has been no concentrated team building exercises. Most seems to have been checklist items for the manager to have done for their annual review.
Informally I try to do it myself.... Just going out to lunch with my team, making sure everyone is invited etc. Having been on the outside of a close knit group in one company, I try hard to include everyone. At my previous company we had standing Thursday lunch that everyone on the dev team was welcome to show up at, even had some of the ex-developers show up once in a while.
August 7, 2015 at 8:37 am
I like a bit of team-building, but it does depend on the activity. Recently I did go-karting, which was fun, although there's not a lot of team-building to be done on the go kart track. I really enjoy things like Go Ape- I don't know what they'd call that in the States; it mostly involves tree-top rope bridges, zip lines and things like that. Sadly not everybody enjoys that kind of active team-building session, which I always think is a shame, but I know it's important to cater for everybody.
Just as long as it's not a day of nothing but flip charts!
August 7, 2015 at 9:02 am
Nope. Too busy. The last one I attended was four years ago.
August 7, 2015 at 9:03 am
Where I am now, not a lot of team building. We do birthday lunches and what not.
When I contracted to work for ADP, the managers and project supervisors would have outings. They had paintball weekends where we'd all meet at this huge paintball facility, and paintball all day. It was fantastic fun. Never had so much fun with co-workers in my life.
Another place I worked, they would annually have a huge event for all the corporate employees at a public park facility. Thousands of employees, games to play, rides for kids, free food for everyone. It was awesome to go out and throw frisbee and stuff with co-workers for at least one day and just be people.
Otherwise, we've never had real team building other places. But when I've had it and it was just more than a "rah-rah we're so great!" session...it was actually cool.
August 7, 2015 at 9:37 am
I've always enjoyed small low-key team building exercises. Going out for lunch, frisbee golf, the occasional after-hours meal or drink or house-party (nothing too burdensome since family). The segway activity sounds fun.
I've always hated corporate "have fun" days. Throwing a ton of money on a big party...especially if raises/bonuses are low that year, is irksome. And the one-size fits all idea of what is fun is annoying too.
Leonard
Madison, WI
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